Lab analyst Diana Wendelin gently adjusts a slide under a microscope. An enlarged image of a tick comes into focus on her computer screen.
“So, the first thing I'm looking at is called the scutum. This will tell me whether I'm looking at a male tick or female tick," Wendelin explained. "So, because this one only goes about a third of the way down, this is a female tick."
After Wendelin identifies a tick by its type and life stage, it goes into a tube and heads just down the hall to another room at Ohio State University's Goss Laboratory for DNA extraction and pathogen testing.
That process takes more than an hour — but at the end, OSU's Buckeye Tick Test has a host of information to return to the person who submitted the tick.
OSU professor Risa Pesapane, who runs the program, said the university launched the state's first mail-in tick testing program in 2025 to meet a demand from Ohioans.
Pesapane originally asked for public submissions for her research on tick-borne diseases, but found that people wanted to hear back about the ticks they sent. Now, for a fee of $50, the Buckeye Tick Test team lets people know if their submitted ticks carry bacteria, viruses or bloodborne parasites that can cause diseases in humans.
In its first year, Buckeye Tick Test processed nearly 6,000 of the little bloodsucking arachnids from 86 of Ohio’s 88 counties.
“That information can be really helpful to kind of understand people's general risk, especially if that risk is mostly in their backyard," Pesapane said.
Ticks living close to home
More than 44% of ticks submitted to Buckeye Tick Test in the last year came from people’s own yards, with another 12.5% found while walking in neighborhoods.
“This is places we're encountering ticks that are often when our guard is down, just doing normal routine activities at home like checking the tomatoes or taking out the trash," Pesapane said.
Buckeye Tick Test also sends its data to the Ohio Department of Health to help develop tick distribution maps. The state tracks which pathogens are present, where they are, and in what proportions.
It's an important task, as the state's tick population is growing. Pesapane said certain ticks are expanding into new areas. At the same time, existing tick communities are thriving.
Pesapane said some ticks, like the lone star tick and the black-legged tick, may have historically been in Ohio, and are now reclaiming their range.
In the early 1900s, tick populations in the state decreased with deforestation. Today, forests are coming back — which is a good thing — but they have different wildlife and predators.
“Essentially what we've created is a habitat that's good for ticks and good for the species that support them," Presapane said.
Other ticks, like the Gulf Coast tick, are new to the state.
"They were never here, and we don't entirely know why they're here now," Pesapane said.
Lyme disease
Ticks bite because they need a blood meal in each life stage – going from larva to nymph to adult.
Pesapane said they usually aren’t trying to bite humans.
While more than 14 species of ticks can be found in Ohio, most only bite wildlife. Even the ticks that do bite humans typically do so "accidentally," Pesapane said.
For example, Black-legged ticks, also known as the deer ticks, mate while on white-tailed deer.
"So really, if an adult female tick has bitten you, then that's unfortunate for you, but it's also unfortunate for that female tick because she will not be reproducing," Pesapane said.
The state has just five “medically important” ticks that bite people: the black-legged tick, the American dog tick, the Gulf Coast tick, the lone star tick and the Asian longhorn tick.
The black-legged tick is the only one that can transfer Lyme disease to humans. The disease may cause a rash, flu-like symptoms and lasting pain and swelling.
In its first year of operation, Ohio State University’s Buckeye Tick Test found that about one in five adult black-legged ticks in the state carry the bacteria that causes Lyme disease.
The Ohio Department of Health reports that Lyme disease has skyrocketed in the past decade and a half — from 40 cases in 2010 to more than 2,800 cases last year.
Ticks not on the mind
Still, the possibility of being bitten by a tick doesn’t stop central Ohioans like Jim Faas, of Dublin, and Chandra Tweedle, of Columbus, from getting outside.
“I don't worry about them as much as I probably should, but I hear about them all the time," Faas said. "I had a friend of mine that had Lyme disease several years ago, which wasn't fun for him.”
“I try not to think about them, but they are kind of yucky. I don't like having to pull them off, but we can do it if we have to," Tweedle said, adding that she does check for ticks if she's been in a grassy area or on a narrow outdoor path.
Faas and Tweedle were both hiking at Highbanks Metro Park in Delaware County.
Vicki Starkey was also walking the wooded park trails with friends. She said she doesn't worry about ticks at the Metro Park, but she's seen plenty of them at her home in Delaware County this year.
Starkey's grandkids, who range in age from 3 to 12, love to wander the woods on her sprawling property.
“Early in the season, they were always finding ticks at the end of the day. One night, it was four ticks on one of my kids," Starkey said.
Starkey said the family is in the habit of checking the kids and themselves for ticks whenever they come inside. So, they aren't too concerned about bites or diseases.
Fighting the bite
When someone is bitten, the best way to remove a tick is by pulling it straight out with fine-tip tweezers. Pesapane said old tricks like using nail polish, Vaseline or matches only delay tick removal and increase the risk of disease transmission.
“The idea behind these is that the tick will release its mouth parts. And that's not true. Ticks can't release their mouth parts," Pesapane said.
Another commonly held myth is that ticks fall from trees. Pesapane said they don’t — they always "quest," or hunt, from the ground up. Ticks are just sneaky climbers and sometimes make their way to a person’s neck or hair without being noticed.
And, while it’s true that ticks are most active in the warmer months, some are out year round. Wearing long pants and long sleeves or clothes treated with tick repellant can help keep the bugs from biting.
