Virginia Department of Health collecting ticks for research and education

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - The Virginia Department of Health is asking for ticks to help its research into the insects and the diseases they may carry and transmit.

In the Shenandoah Valley, people experiencing the outdoors might encounter ticks during the spring and summer months. During this time, ticks are at their peak in wooded areas. A tick can either fall off of someone’s body or latch on and slowly suck blood out of the host. When the tick is latched onto someone’s body, tick-borne illnesses can be passed.

Josh Bernick, an epidemiologist with the Virginia Department of Health, said not all ticks are carrying pathogens or illnesses. There are 16 known species of ticks in the commonwealth, but only three of them bite humans. If a tick does bite someone, Bernick said do not panic and believe it could have a deadly disease. The black legged tick — commonly known as a deer tick — is the most common type found in the Shenandoah Valley. Some of these can carry Lyme’s disease, but Bernick said it would need to be latched on to someone’s body for 36 or more hours.

“Not every tick out there is carrying something. A portion of the population may be carrying something,” Bernick said. “Even if you are bitten by an infected tick, there’s a list of things that have to happen to be infected by the disease.”

VDH is asking people to send the ticks that they find — whether it latched on to them or just fell off — to their office. The ticks found can be studied and their home habitats can be recorded for future use by the Virginia Department of Health. Bernick said people can also send their ticks to be tested for different diseases, but a positive or negative diagnosis in a tick does not mean someone contracted a tick-borne illness.

If someone is feeling symptoms relating to a tick-born illness, Bernick said a trip to the doctor’s office is a good first step.

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