Nationwide, Wisconsin is a hot spot for Lyme disease. And cases are rising, as climate change and development alter how humans interact with the ticks that transmit this disease. In Wisconsin, cases reported annually have more than doubled in the last two decades.
With tick season underway, tick checks are one of the most important ways you can prevent infection. I recently visited the Midwest Center of Excellence for Vector-borne Disease, which is housed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where researchers are using a new tool to teach people how to do tick checks — mannequins.
Their names are Vanessa and Valerie. Both are tall brunettes. Both dressed in sportswear. And both are covered in dead blacklegged ticks, also known as deer ticks, the species that carries Lyme.
Tela Zembsch is a research specialist at the lab, where scientists are studying ways to control ticks and prevent infection. The lab found the mannequins on Facebook Marketplace, she says. At first, Vanessa was supposed to stand in for a human, in a study on how ticks attach themselves to people. But soon they realized she could be a useful educational tool.
Now, they have a whole family of mannequins.
“We’ve got child mannequins, we’ve got teenagers, we’ve even got pre-teen mannequins,” Zembsch says. “That way, the event that we take it to, it’s set up for who’s going to be looking at the mannequins.”
Ticks are notoriously tough to spot. In 2018, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tweeted a photo of a poppy seed muffin, explaining five ticks were camouflaged among the seeds and challenging viewers to identify them all. The internet was grossed out; the tweet went viral. Later, the CDC tweeted an apology, saying they didn’t mean to “tick” people off.
Ticks can be the size of a poppy seed. Can you spot all 5 ticks in this photo? Learn how to prevent tick bites. https://t.co/ATtrY7YFoS pic.twitter.com/gBm4tw2qmf
— CDC (@CDCgov) May 4, 2018
But here’s the thing. You’re not very likely to run into ticks on a muffin. So when you’re teaching the public how to spot the tiny arachnids, wouldn’t it be better to show them what ticks look like on a person?
Enter the mannequins. That “was the idea — how to get it in a context people are going to see,” Zembsch says. “They’re not gonna see it in an image, they’re not gonna see it under a microscope lens. They’re probably going to run into a tick on themselves.”
I got an opportunity to test out my own tick-spotting skills.
“Pretend this is your friend,” Zembsch instructs. “She’s just gone hiking and she’s asked you to check her for ticks.”
The two mannequins are nearly identical. Except Vanessa is wearing all-black, from her t-shirt and joggers to her tennis shoes. She also has classic bangs. Valerie keeps her hair in a side part, and she’s dressed in white. Wearing light-colored clothing is an important part of tick prevention; ticks are much harder to detect on dark clothes.
Adult ticks are the biggest and easiest to see. It’s the baby nymphs that you really need to hunt for. Sometimes, it was hard to distinguish a tiny tick from a stray piece of fluff.
Ticks don’t carry the bacteria that causes Lyme on their own. They have to draw blood from wildlife hosts, like deer or mice, first. The bacteria spreads when an infected tick bites another animal — like a human.
When a tick bites you, they can hang on for days. As they feed, they’ll swell, coming close to tripling in size. That’s why it’s important to do a tick check soon after you spend time outdoors. If you find and remove ticks right away, there’s less time for bacteria to spread.
After spending a few minutes with Vanessa, Zembsch walks me over to Valerie, who’s wearing the same outfit as her twin, but in white.
“This was another experiment we did,” Zembsch says. “We wanted to see how black clothing and white clothing would affect [tick checks]. So she’s got the exact same ticks applied to her in the same spots.”
Zembsch says my performance on the test pretty much mirrors what they’ve learned from the demos at public events. People are better at finding ticks on white clothes than black. They’re also better at spotting them on the upper body than the lower body. And, people are much better at catching adult ticks than the young, tiny nymphs.
Zembsch points to one that’s the size of a sesame seed, which I missed on the black pair of tennis shoes. But they’re easy to see on the white shoes.
The researchers are using these results to come up with recommendations for more successful tick checks.
Before she goes on a hike or spends time outdoors, Zembsch tucks her pants into her socks and her shirt into her pants, minimizing skin exposure. She also uses insect repellents like DEET or picaridin.
The best tick checks are thorough and methodical. The CDC recommends paying extra attention under the arms, in and around the ears, inside the belly button, around the hairline, behind the knees, between the legs and around the waist.
“When I’m done with my hike, I start at my feet and I work my way up,” Zembsch says. “I will check every crevice.”
Zembsch recommends asking a friend or family member to check your back. When she’s finished her body check, she also tosses her clothes in the dryer and takes a shower.
If you do find a tick on you, you can take a photo and share it with The Tick App for experts to identify. (The Tick App also shares instructions on removing a tick here.)
As climate change makes our winters warmer, Wisconsin is seeing longer tick seasons. The spread of Lyme disease is also influenced by wildlife populations and land-use changes that are pushing people and development farther into tick territory.
All of this means it’s becoming more and more important to make tick checks a routine part of being outside.
“It’s not just something to check off the list,” Zembsch says. “It’s something really important. I want to make sure that I can stay healthy and keep enjoying the outdoors.”
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