Project overview

We sampled 16 forested properties across Philadelphia, Delaware, and Chester counties in southeastern Pennsylvania from May to November 2019. We collected ticks at all 16 of these properties, and deployed trail cameras to photograph wildlife at 10 properties. We sampled 3 of your properties. We sampled ticks at the following properties: B, C, J.

In this report you’ll find the following information: (i) tick species identification, (ii) tick-borne diseases, (iii) wildlife photographed

Tick species overview

Over the course of our study, we found five tick species across the 16 properties that we surveyed. Here are photos of what the five species look like at different life stages:

Here is a summary of the different hosts the tick species feed on in their preferred habitat, geographic range, and the diseases they carry:

Tick species	Hosts	Habitat	Geographic range	Diseases transmitted
Black-legged ticks (Ixodes scapularis)	Any vertebrate, often associated with deer and mice	Deciduous forest	Most common tick in the eastern US	Lyme disease, Babesiosis, Anaplasmosis, Bartonellosis, Borrelia miyamotoi, and Powassan virus
American dog ticks (Dermacentor variabilis)	Vertebrate hosts from mice to large animals	Areas with low tree cover, near paths	East Coast to Rocky Mountains, and California	Tularemia, Ehrlichiosis, and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
Brown dog ticks (Rhipicephalus sanguineus)	Prefer to feed on dogs, but will feed on other mammals	In and around human settlements	Worldwide, but most common in warm southern US	Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever
Lone star ticks (Amblyomma americanum)	Vertebrate hosts from mice to large animals (aggressively seek hosts)	Woodlands and dense undergrowth	Common in Southern US, and are spreading North	Tularemia, Ehrlichiosis, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and Southern tick-associated rash illness (STARI). Bite may also cause an allergy to red meat.
Asian longhorned ticks (Haemaphysalis longicornis)	Livestock are preferred hosts, but also feeds on pets, wildlife, and humans	Unclear in the US	Native to Asian countries including China, Japan, and Korea; however, they have recently been discovered in the United States	Transmit several diseases to humans in Asia, but it is unknown if they do so in the United States.

Ticks found on your properties

Site	American Dog Tick	Black Legged Tick	Brown Dog Tick	Lone Star Tick	Longhorned Tick
B	No	Yes	No	No	No
C	No	Yes	No	No	No
J	No	Yes	No	No	No

These bar plots show the total abundance of ticks of each species found on your property. We have also included additional bars to show how your sites compare to the average number of ticks found on properties that we sampled in Philadelphia, Delaware, and Chester counties.

Tick-borne diseases

We tested black-legged ticks for three common tick-borne diseases: Lyme disease, Anaplasmosis, and Babesiosis. We only tested nymph ticks as this is the life stage which most commonly infects humans.

Disease	Description	Symptoms	Transmission time
Lyme disease	Most common tick-borne disease in the United States; bacterial infection	Many individuals experience no symptoms. May cause a bullseye rash around the tick bite, accompanied by flu-like symptoms. If untreated, infection can spread to the joints, heart, and nervous system.	18-24 hours
Anaplasmosis	Infection of the white blood cells, triggering an immune response	Flu-like symptoms	10 hours
Babesiosis	Infection of the red blood cells, causing them to rupture	Flu-like symptoms, blood clots, and low blood pressure	36-48 hours

Diseases found

At each of your properties, nymphs tested positive for agents of the following tick-borne diseases:

Site	Number of nymphs tested	Lyme disease	Anaplasma	Babesia
B	3	Yes	No	No
C	4	No	No	No
J	7	Yes	No	No

These pie charts show the proportions of ticks tested in each county which were uninfected, infected with a single disease, or coinfected with multiple diseases:

Please visit the Pennsylvania Tick Research Lab for more information on tick species and pathogens.

Wildlife biodiversity

We used trail cameras to survey wildlife at 10 sites in Philadelphia, Delaware, and Chester counties. This information will later be used to analyze relationships between tick-borne diseases and tick hosts, but these photos also provide a record of biodiversity at your property. Over the course of the study, we photographed 16 species across the 10 sites. While we targeted medium- to large-sized mammals, we also photographed some birds and small mammals.

We did not use trail cameras at your properties, so we do not know the wildlife community.

Further Information

Thank you for allowing us to survey your properties for this project! We hope you find this report informative on how your properties contribute to the biodiversity of southeastern Pennsylvania.

The Integrative Ecology Lab at Temple University (iEcoLab) will continue working on the biodiversity of Pennsylvania for years to come. For more information and news about our work please visit our lab webpage. You can also follow us on Instagram @integrative.ecology and Facebook @IntegrativeEcology.

This report was created by iEcoLab members Payton Phillips, Dan Turner (current address: Michigan State University), Victoria Ramirez, Dr. Matthew Helmus and Dr. Jocelyn Behm under a creative commons license. This means that we hope you share this with whomever and use this report however you like.

We really value your input and interest in this research. If we didn’t address any of your pressing questions or if you have general comments about the report, please email Payton at payton.phillips@temple.edu.