Ticks in the Maritimes's Journal

Congratulations; you can now help us test our new procedure on how to share observations of ticks brought back home after exploring outdoors.

One of the first steps is to find your camera and a small jar or vial and a good set of tweezers.

If the tick is attached/embedded, you have time to take a few photos. Do your best to not shake as you are taking the photo – it is important to have the critter in focus.

Next follow instructions to remove the tick; there is a lot of info online. Just remember to keep your cool and to gently detach the tick.

Once the tick has been detached/captured follow the eTick video tutorial instructions and put the tick briefly in the freezer so its movements are slowed down. This will make it easier to take good photos.

Once you have your series of photos (both dorsal and ventral) it is time to upload them to iNaturalist and test our new procedure which includes recommendations on how to populate various fields.

To be considered a research grade observation, iNat photos must be associated with a species name, a date/time, and a location.

Scientific Name: If you recognize the type of tick, then select the species from the list of suggested names. If not, simply start typing tick and then select ‘ticks (Ixodida)’.

Latitude/Longitude/Accuracy/PlaceName: you must provide location information. This is a bit more complicated and below we list a number of options:
•If you know exactly where you picked up the tick, then enter this location.
•If you don’t know where you picked up the tick, but you explored one general area, then enter this location but assign a large accuracy value; this will place a wide circle around the general location.
•Enter your home location if:
o you stopped and explored many areas before returning. Consider including your general route in the description/notes box. ‘Tick found at home after a day hiking several trails on the south shore’ or ‘Tick found at home after camping for several days at national park’.
o you didn’t find the tick for several hours/days.
o you suspect that a tick was brought to your home through some other pathway such as a visiting dog.

When assigning your home location, you do have the option to obscure the location. Click here to read more about what it means when an observation’s location is obscured.

Assigning your home location means that the location where the tick was originally picked up is unknown. You did, however, transport the tick to this location, so in one sense this location is valid.

To flag the fact that this is not the original location, please add the following iNaturalist observation field ‘pathway’. Possible entries for ‘pathway’ include ‘transported by human’, ‘transported by animal’, ‘unknown’.

Review the notes/description and add any missing information, and add/populate observation fields as described in previous post

Press ‘SUBMIT’!

Your observation is now available publicly and is accessible to researchers. If you wish to immediately contribute your observation to the eTick research project, then follow the steps below. This task is recommended but optional.

Go to eTick.ca and click [SUBMIT TICKS].

Decide if you wish to sign in as a guest or to set up an account.
Go through the 5 steps:

1. select your province;
2. upload image(s);
3. enter location information and if relevant flag the location as your home address;
4. enter the date when the tick was observed;
5. provide information on host type to indicate if you saw the tick in its environment or on a human or on an animal.

NOTE: if you select ‘on human’ or ‘on an animal’ there will be a series of additional questions which will remain private in the eTick database
•sex (on human)
•age category (on human)
•was the tick attached to the host when discovered? (on human/on animal)
•Has the host traveled more than 50 km from its host in the past 2 weeks? (on human/on animal)
•Are you willing to also have your record appear on Pet Tick Tracker? (on animal)

Once all questions have been answered an eTick identifier will be immediately assigned.

The next step is for the information and photo to be vetted by eTick. Once this is completed you will receive an email similar to the ones below:
•Your submission ET-13619 has been identified (votre soumission ET-13619 a été identifiée).
•The tick images you have recently submitted to eTick.ca are of low quality and cannot be used to identify the tick you have found.

If the observation passes the vetting process, then the next step is to return to the iNat observation. As the owner of your observation, you are able to edit the observation. Recommend the addition of a phrase similar to the following to the notes/description box: ‘tick photo and observation details shared with and vetted by eTick.ca (ETID-#####)’

Next in the Observation Fields section add the following field: AssociatedMedia. Enter the eTick URL. Example: https://www.etick.ca/etickapp/en/ticks/public/view/13619

Reread the previous journal post in this project re additional observation fields that should be added/populated.

Information describing observation fields is contained on the same iNat page as annotations. The major difference between observation fields and annotations is that anyone can define project specific fields. Annotations, on the other hand, are maintained by iNaturalist administrators.

Whenever a need for an observation field is identified it is a useful exercise to browse through the lengthy list of existing iNat fields before creating a new field. Plus, it is highly recommended to use a DwC term if one exists.

This iNat tick project is a work in progress and over time we may identify a few extra fields that should be populated. Below are a few recommendations on how to populate existing iNat observation fields.

First review your photos – your observation can be much more than a simple picture if you add a few details.

Where was the tick observed?
•Tick was observed free in the environment: Perhaps it was observed on a blade of grass or on another plant. (consider recording an additional iNat observation of the plant)
•Tick was observed on a human or on a pet or wild animal. If observed on a wild animal record an additional iNat observation of the animal.
••Tick was attached to host (tick firmly embedded in the skin of its host and strongly resisted removal).
••Tick was not attached to host (tick observed on a host but crawling around and/or not firmly embedded).

Add the above information in the iNat observation description/notes box.

If photos were also shared with eTick then add a note. Example ‘photo of this tick was also submitted to eTick (ET-13619).’ After review by eTick, update the comment to include vetted tick name (perhaps it is only to genus level). If the photos were insufficient for eTick to assign a name then include a note to indicate that the provided photo was not suitable for identification and that the submission was invalidated and removed from their public dataset.

Next populate a number of observation fields.

Using the information noted above add and populate a number of ‘tick’ specific observation fields.
‘Tick found on’: The description of this field is ‘Where was the tick found/collected?’ and the allowed values include: person; animal; free in environment; and other.
‘Tick attached?’: The description of this field is ‘was the tick attached to the skin?’ and the allowed values are yes; no; maybe; unsure.
‘AssociatedTaxa: This is a DwC and defined as a list (concatenated and separated) of identifiers or names of taxa and their associations with the Occurrence.

The reference for the AssociatedTaxa entry on a tick observation should point to the host (human or animal). Examples include: ‘Host: dog’; ‘Host: human’; ‘Host: speciesName’; ‘Host: speciesName (insert iNat observation URL pointing to the host)’

If a second iNat observation of the host animal was created, then the AssociatedTaxa entry should point to the tick. Examples include: ‘Parasite: tick’; or ‘Parasite: tick species name (insert iNat observation URL pointing to the tick).

‘AssociatedMedia: This is a DwC and defined as a list (concatenated and separated) of identifiers (publication, global unique identifier, URI) of media associated with the Occurrence. If an observation has also been shared with another database/platform such as eTick then provide the associated URL/identifier. Example: https://www.etick.ca/etickapp/en/ticks/public/view/13616

Here are 3 examples of iNat observations of ticks where observation fields have been added:
1.Click here to view an iNat observation of a tick observed free in the environment
2.Click here to view an iNat observation of a tick found on a person but not attached
3.Click here to view an iNat observation where a snowshoe hare is covered by ticks – note the inclusion of the observation fields on the right panel.

NOTE: Any iNatter can add information to anyone’s observations. For example, when browsing through a series of tick observations I came across one where the description box included the following text ‘removed from a dog’. It took less than 2 minutes to add the observation field associatedTaxa with entry ‘Host: dog’. Perhaps a better procedure going forward is as follows: if/when we observe an observation of a tick that does not include relevant observations fields then iNat message the original poster of the observation and point them to this journal article (and recommend that they join this iNat project).

The online version of iNaturalist includes a panel called ‘annotations’ where one can assign a number of attributes such as life stage and sex. If you are a tick expert, then please help select the correct entries.

For information describing annotations, what are they and why they are useful click here. This page also provides directions on how to use the iNat Identify tool and rapidly annotate many observations.

A third attribute is ‘alive or dead’. If you kill the tick shortly after sighting it that is fine – but record the attribute as ‘living’ as this was the case when the tick was initially observed!

If you observe a tick when you are outdoors, and it is either on a plant or you are relatively confident that you or your companion (person or pet) picked it up in the immediate vicinity, then you should add this observation to iNaturalist as you would any other sighting of wildlife. If you recognize the species of tick, then choose that name from the list of suggested names. Enter the location and date of the sighting.

In the description or notes box enter extra info such as tick observed on a plant or on a pet or observed on a wild animal (rabbit). [eTick host type: free environment, on an animal, on a human]

If the tick is observed on an animal or human then you could also note if the tick was crawling or attached or engorged.

You should try to include something for scale in the photo.

Another option is to record all the info as described above but capture the tick and take it home where you can take better photos. The eTick group have created a great set of INSTRUCTIONS and a VIDEO TUTORIAL on how to photograph ticks. These instructions can easily be adapted to help you take good photos suitable for iNaturalist.

Stay safe - don't actively try to get bitten!

Believe it or not iNaturalist is not the only citizen science program that encourages people to share photos of wildlife online. eTick is a Canadian citizen science platform for image-based identification and population monitoring. NOTE: eTick’s focus is solely on ticks found in Canada whereas iNat’s focus is any wildlife found anywhere around the world.

The eTick web page states ‘The emergence of Lyme disease and the rapid geographical range expansion of certain tick species in Canada are important issues for public health authorities and the public in general. Following tick populations on such a large territory is also expensive and logistically challenging.’ It is a simple fact that no one research group or government organization can properly monitor the presence of tick species everywhere across our vast country. To properly monitor the distribution of ticks will require collaboration between organizations and participation from locals.

The mobilization of iNatters to help collect observations of ticks while they are out and about exploring and connecting with nature could help fill gaps. Both iNat and eTick require date/time and location of the observation. In order for iNat observations to be ‘useful’ to the eTick research project the iNat observation should include notes about the host type (free environment, on an animal, on a human).

In a future journal post we will provide examples on how iNatters can share their tick photos with eTick. Stand by!

If you are reading this post then we will assume that you have basic knowledge about iNaturalist. If not here is a great link.

If this is your first-time sharing photos with iNaturalist there are many useful tutorials accessible online. To access the tutorial describing how to add observations using your mobile device click here.

If you wish to add observations using the online option click here.

Now all you need is a tick to photograph…

If you are looking for an activity this winter remember that you can always upload photos taken in the past – you just need to know the location and date/time associated with the observation. Any old photos of ticks buried on your phone or on your computer?

During the spring of 2018 we were really starting to enjoy exploring Nova Scotia and we spent many hours out and about recording observations and uploading our photos to iNaturalist. As the weather started getting warmer the frequency that we brought a tick home with us increased. By June I simply wanted to stay indoors and never leave my urban home. I was terrified of ticks. I knew nothing about ticks. I had no idea what an engorged tick might look like nor what to do should I find one.

Historically ticks were only an issue in Nova Scotia should one decide to go camping at Keji during the months of May or June. During those years we simply switched our exploring to coastal areas.

It seems as if it is now semi-impossible to avoid ticks so what if we try a different tact? What if we actually try and find ticks and take photos of them? Maybe then they will become elusive and hard to find – just like snow buntings or the black-headed vulture…

The creation of our iNat ‘tick’ project won’t initially highlight species distribution in our province as few people are currently reporting encounters. We need to spread the word and encourage people to share photos.

Let’s assume that anyone who goes out exploring in our province will at some point come across a tick. Through journal posts on this project we plan to provide information on not just how to share photos with iNat but also how to annotate/describe observations.

We encourage iNatters (new or old) to provide feedback in the form of comments to the series of journal posts or drop us a note at cnc2019hrm@gmail.com

Stay safe and remember when you get home to check all nooks and crannies for potential iNat observations!