Anyone who enjoys taking walks through the woods or grassy fields when the weather is warm knows that checking for ticks afterward is a must. Ticks can spread numerous diseases to humans as well as to our pets, and some of these diseases can be life-threatening. However, getting a tick-borne disease tested and confirmed by physicians can often be tricky.  

By drawing from decades of studies, scientists created a timeline marking the arrival of black-legged ticks, also known as deer ticks, in hundreds of counties across 10 Midwestern states. They used these data - along with an analysis of county-level landscape features associated with the spread of ticks - to build a model that can predict where ticks are likely to appear in future years.