天美传媒

Ticks play an important role in the food chain as they are consumed by frogs, toads and various other species in the UK. However, few of us ever think of them as a welcome addition to our environment as they might transmit diseases, which makes it important to know where they occur.

This year, for the first time, we undertook a pilot study to explore whether ticks are present at selected green spaces on and near to campus.

The project idea came from PhD student Mer Feero (Public Health: Mathematical Epidemiology and Disease Ecology at Warwick Medical School), who recently joined the University鈥檚 Green Champion network鈥檚 new Biodiversity Action Group initiative. Her expertise in disease vectors (including ticks and mosquitoes) enabled us to embark on this exciting collaborative work.

Under Mer鈥檚 guidance, we surveyed three sites (two on campus and also nearby Gibbet Hill Wood, which is managed by the Woodland Trust) over three days, using the standard tick-dragging method. This involved pulling our light-coloured cloths over the vegetation of suitable tick habitats, hereby collecting questing ticks (that鈥檚 the 鈥渙fficial鈥� way of saying they鈥檝e positioned themselves on a plant, waiting for an animal, i.e. their next meal, to walk by 馃槉).

Whilst we came across all kinds of invertebrates one can imagine, from the tiniest beetles to large spiders that can give one nightmares, we found no ticks at any of the survey sites.

It must be mentioned that the heatwave and the associated drought created conditions that would鈥檝e reduced the opportunity to find ticks. However, we also talked to dog walkers, who had also never found any on themselves or their pets after using the sites. Moreover, we have been running small mammal surveys on campus since 2023, and we also never encountered small mammals with ticks on them.

All these findings are just snapshots of times in the annual lifecycle of wildlife, though. So while it is promising that we found no ticks, we must remember that the campus forms an integral part of the surrounding landscape, with many species of wild animals calling it home or travelling through the lush green grounds. Thus, ticks might appear in the future, and it remains important that we all keep an eye out for them.

If you find a tick on yourself that you are fairly certain you picked up on campus, please do report it by emailing sustainability@warwick.ac.uk, and send the animal to the UK Health Security Agency鈥檚 .

We are grateful to all volunteers whose help enabled us to complete this important pilot study! We would also like to thank the SU who awarded Mer a grant, from which the equipment was purchased.