Tick Dragging: Using a Drone to Reduce Surveyor Exposure

Pulling a cloth over the ground remains the primary method for conducting a tick surveillance survey. A person physically walking in the collection zone pulling a flannel cloth creates an opportunity for a human–tick encounter. Walking ahead of the drag cloth also disrupts the area to be sampled and increases the opportunity for a human–tick encounter. In order to reduce this potential interaction, a remotely piloted vehicle (drone) was used to pull the flannel cloth, which allows the drag cloth to be the first contact in the swath to be sampled. A small camera-equipped drone used to replace the human in dragging the cloth was found to be powerful enough to pull a drag-cloth over grassy or slightly brushy terrain. The cloth-to-surface contact was found to be similar enough to the standard dragging practice to result in similar numbers, types, and ages of ticks collected. Statistical analysis using chi-square and paired t-tests determined there was no difference in drag methods (χ² = 1.9756, p = .37; t = 1.31, p = .22). Further tests are needed to confirm this study and identify other potential differences in human and drone tick dragging surveillance.