D3033: Using tick gardens to cultivate our understanding of blacklegged tick behavior at the forest-lawn interface

In the northeastern United States, the majority of blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) in the residential landscape are found in forested areas and in lawn areas that are located along forested edges. Understanding I. scapularis behavior at the forest-lawn interface is therefore important for improving vegetation management strategies for reducing backyard Lyme disease risk. For this project, we created and infested two field enclosures (“tick gardens”) using crop cages at the forest-lawn interface to evaluate the microclimate and horizontal movement of nymphal blacklegged ticks. During spring/summer 2023, two replicates of 30 marked nymphs were placed in each of three zones (forest, ecotone, lawn) within each enclosure (N=360 nymphs). Ticks were collected from the enclosures using a pressboard sampling method three times per week from mid-May to early July. We assessed the effectiveness of enamel paint vs. non-toxic nail polish marking methods, horizontal tick movement within the gardens, fine-scale temperature and relative humidity, and tick recovery rates. We describe methods for use of infested tick gardens in further nymphal blacklegged tick behavior studies and the results will inform future efforts to evaluate vegetation management strategies at the forest-lawn interface.