Hello! My name is Natalie Bailey, I’ll be a junior this fall majoring in Environment and Sustainability. I was drawn to the Tick Blitz internship because I wanted to try out lab work and become more familiar with data analysis, and this seemed like a perfect opportunity to learn about both of those things while getting to work with experts in vector-borne disease. The Tick Blitz this year will start June 20th and end July 1st, during which time our 95 volunteers throughout New York will collect ticks in their respective counties and mail them back to Cornell to be identified and documented. The project’s aim is to determine the prevalence and distribution of the lone star tick and the Asian longhorned tick, although other tick species will also be documented in the process.
During my first few days, Dr. Harrington showed me how to use a dissecting microscope and several tick identification keys that I will be using to identify the various species of ticks that come in. We focused on the most likely species I would come across while documenting the ticks from the Tick Blitz: Ixodes scapularis (blacklegged tick), Dermacentor variabilis (dog tick), Haemaphysalis longicornis (Asian longhorned tick), and Amblyomma americanum (lone star tick). I practiced taking known nymphal and adult ticks through the identification keys, and then Dr. Harrington gave me some unlabeled ticks for me to practice identifying. I was using hard copies of the keys, but here is a similar online version of a key to hard ticks.
During my first full week, I also got to work with the lab manager Sylvie while the rest of the team was in Queens sampling for mosquitos and ticks in Rockaway Community Park. Sylvie showed me around the mosquito room and walked me through the mosquito experiments she was running. I helped her assemble trays of paper cups with mesh lids and stoppers that would be used to house the next experiment’s mosquitos. I learned so much during my first week and I’m really looking forward to the rest of the summer!