News Center Maine reports on research by grad students tracking tick migration
News Center Maine reported graduate students from the University of Maine are tracking the migration of ticks and studying what diseases they carry. Their previous research discovered that ticks can live under snow banks near Millinocket and even farther north in Maine, and now grad students including Michelle Volk and Brianna Guy are combing those sites to see if ticks are emerging, the report states. Volk is collecting data from five different sites across the state to help create a tick tracking map to let the public know where deer ticks are located in Maine. “We are trying to find out where ticks end in Maine — the line, as you will,” Volk said. In July, researchers will be collecting ticks from field mice to see what tick-borne illnesses they carry. Volk also hopes to use the data and post information about tick activity and diseases they carry on signs at all state parks throughout Maine by late next year, News Center Maine reported. The station also published a second report on Volk’s tick migration research. “We really have no definite idea where they are surviving in northern and western Maine. This data is key to give us new insight as to how they are able to migrate and where they are heading,” Volk said.