Types of Ticks!

 I realized my species IDs may be confusing:

Deer Ticks (Blacklegged Ticks): Ixodes Scapularis (I.s.): These are the most important to find for this time of year, as the targets change with the seasons. They are incredibly difficult to find amongst the Lone Stars.

Lone Star Ticks: Amblyomma americanum (A.a.): This time of year these are everywhere. We need these for surveillance as well but we do not struggle to collect these, which is why we count the Deer Ticks.

Asian Longhorn: Haemaphysalis longicornis (H. Long): These are new and invasive to LI, preferring dryer grasses (like by the beach). They look exactly like Lone Starts except for one minor difference. We have multiple surveillance sites for these ticks that we have to visit often to study their life cycles.

American Dog Ticks: Dermacentor variabilis (D.v.) These ticks are massive and tend to stick to 1-2 hosts throughout their lives, so we do not find them as often. The male is my favorite tick for its cool patterns on its back. Another common tick on LI.

There are many other, rarer ticks on long island we do not typically see and I will not talk about unless I run into them.

Finally, I made a mistake on my first post, I said Dog Tick Nymphs are the most important, but it is actually Deer Tick Nymhs.