Ecology and Management of Ticks and Lyme Disease at Fire Island National Seashore and Selected Eastern National Parks
Ginsberg HS. 1992. Ecology and Management of Ticks and Lyme Disease at Fire Island National Seashore and Selected Eastern National Parks. National Park Service Scientific Monograph Series. NPS/NRSUNJ/NRSM-92/20. National Park Service. Denver, Colorado
'This report covers four major aspects of the ecology of Lyme disease in eastern national parks.' The distributions of ticks and Lyme disease spirochetes were studied at 16 National Park System units in the eastern United States. Habitat distribution was studied at Fire Island National Seashore, New York, by collecting specimens from the clothes of investigators and from muslin drags and by running tick traps at several sites along Fire Island. The ticks were returned to the lab where they were dissected and examined for spirochetes. Adult deer ticks were most abundant in the spring and fall. They were more common in high shrub habitats than in grassy and low shrub habitats at both times of the year. In the fall, they were also common in the woods. Adults were more abundant on trails than in nearby areas off the trails. Nymphs and larvae were far more common in leaf litter in the woods than in open grass-shrub habitats. Trap captures of nymphs on trails were not significantly larger than trap captures off trails. Immature Ixodes dammini were commonly collected in clusters, while adults were mostly collected singly. /STUDY LOCATIONS:/ /ACADIA NATIONAL PARK/