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Ticks play an important role in the food chain as they are consumed by frogs, toads and various other species in the UK. However, few of us ever think of them as a welcome addition to our environment as they can transmit diseases, which makes it important to know where they occur. If we know where they are, we can take precautions to keep anyone working in those areas safe.

This year, for the first time, we undertook a pilot study to explore whether ticks are present at selected green spaces on and near to campus.

The project idea came from PhD student Mer Feero (Public Health: Mathematical Epidemiology and Disease Ecology at ¹û¶³´«Ã½ Medical School), who recently joined the Green Champion network’s new Biodiversity Action Group initiative. Her expertise in disease vectors (including ticks and mosquitoes) enabled us to embark upon this exciting collaborative work.

Under Mer’s guidance, we surveyed three sites (two on campus and one at nearby Gibbet Hill Wood, which is managed by the Woodland Trust) over three days, using the standard 'tick-dragging' method. This involved pulling light-coloured cloths over the vegetation of suitable tick habitats, thereby collecting 'questing' ticks (that’s the technical way of saying they have positioned themselves on a plant, waiting for an animal, i.e. their next meal, to walk by).

Whilst we came across all kinds of invertebrates one can imagine, from the tiniest beetles to large spiders, we found no ticks at any of the survey sites.

It must be noted that the heatwave and associated drought created conditions that would have reduced the opportunity to find ticks. However, we also talked to dog walkers, who had also never found any on themselves or their pets after using the sites. Moreover, we have been running small mammal surveys on campus since 2023, and have never encountered small mammals with ticks on them.

All these findings are, however, just snapshots of times in the annual lifecycle of wildlife. While it is promising that we found no ticks, we must remember that our campus forms an integral part of the surrounding landscape, with many species of wild animals calling it home or travelling through the lush green grounds. Thus, ticks might appear in the future, and it remains important that we all keep an eye out for them so that the correct safety measures can be put in place.

If you find a tick on yourself that you are fairly certain you picked up on campus, please do report it by emailing sustainability@warwick.ac.uk. You can also send the animal to the UK Health Security Agency’s .

We are grateful to all volunteers whose help enabled us to complete this important pilot study! We would also like to thank the SU who awarded Mer a grant, from which the equipment was purchased. Students' Union for providing a grant to fund the purchase of essential equipment.