Whether conducting field work or simply enjoying your yard, being outside provides a variety of shared experiences. Unfortunately, one of these experiences is the very likely encounter with ticks. If you’re like me, you can’t help but feel your pulse quicken when you see these critters – and not in the lovestruck way.

I have vivid memories of leaving field sites and looking down at my pants to start the initial tick check only to feel my heart skip a beat at the horror of the army marching up my pants. Thousands of early life stage ticks all marching for the chance to access to my blood. Not quite the heady feeling lauded in song, prose and internet memes.

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