ArticleParasites & vectors2013
Ticks in the wrong boxes: assessing error in blanket-drag studies due to occasional sampling.
Article in Parasites & vectors, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed.
- High-resolution prediction and risk mapping ofiScience · 2026Article
- Scent detection dogs detect a species of hard tick, Dermacentor albipictus, with comparable accuracy and efficiency to traditional tick drag surveys.Parasites & vectors · 2025Article
- Estimating the density of questing Ixodes scapularis nymphs in the eastern United States using climate and land cover data.Ticks and tick-borne diseases · 2025Article
- Tick abundance and infection with three zoonotic bacteria are heterogeneous in a Belgian peri-urban forest.Experimental & applied acarology · 2024Article
- Density of host-seeking Ixodes scapularis nymphs by region, state, and county in the contiguous United States generated through national tick surveillance.Ticks and tick-borne diseases · 2024Article
- Comparison of acarological risk metrics derived from active and passive surveillance and their concordance with tick-borne disease incidence.Ticks and tick-borne diseases · 2023Article
- Ensemble Models for Tick Vectors: Standard Surveys Compared with Convenience Samples.Diseases (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Control of ixodid ticks and prevention of tick-borne diseases in the United States: The prospect of a new Lyme disease vaccine and the continuing problem with tick exposure on residential properties.Ticks and tick-borne diseases · 2021Review
- One out of ten: low sampling efficiency of cloth dragging challenges abundance estimates of questing ticks.Experimental & applied acarology · 2020Article
- Long-term monitoring of the seasonal density of questing ixodid ticks in Vienna (Austria): setup and first results.Experimental & applied acarology · 2020Article
- Leveraging the Expertise of the New Jersey Mosquito Control Community to Jump Start Standardized Tick Surveillance.Insects · 2019Article
- The Density of the Lyme Disease Vector,Northeastern naturalist · 2019Article
- A field-based indicator for determining the likelihood of Ixodes scapularis establishment at sites in Ontario, Canada.PloS one · 2018Article
- Seasonal cycles of the TBE and Lyme borreliosis vector Ixodes ricinus modelled with time-lagged and interval-averaged predictors.Experimental & applied acarology · 2017Article
- Lyme disease ecology in a changing world: consensus, uncertainty and critical gaps for improving control.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2017Review
- Temporal dynamics of the tick Ixodes ricinus in northern Europe: epidemiological implications.Parasites & vectors · 2017Article
- Northward range expansion of Ixodes scapularis evident over a short timescale in Ontario, Canada.PloS one · 2017Article
- Critical Evaluation of the Linkage Between Tick-Based Risk Measures and the Occurrence of Lyme Disease Cases.Journal of medical entomology · 2016Article
- Abiotic predictors and annual seasonal dynamics of Ixodes ricinus, the major disease vector of Central Europe.Parasites & vectors · 2015Article
- Estimating Ixodes ricinus densities on the landscape scale.International journal of health geographics · 2015Article
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundThe risk posed by ticks as vectors of disease is typically assessed by blanket-drag sampling of host-seeking individuals. Comparisons of peak abundance between plots - either in order to establish their relative risk or to identify environmental correlates - are often carried out by sampling on one or two occasions during the period of assumed peak tick activity.
methodsThis paper simulates this practice by 're-sampling' from model datasets derived from an empirical field study. Re-sample dates for each plot are guided by either the previous year's peak at the plot, or the previous year's peak at a similar, nearby plot. Results from single, double and three-weekly sampling regimes are compared.
resultsSampling on single dates within a two-month window of assumed peak activity has the potential to introduce profound errors; sampling on two dates (double sampling) offers greater precision, but three-weekly sampling is the least biased.
conclusionsThe common practice of sampling for the abundance of host-seeking ticks on single dates in each plot-year should be strenuously avoided; it is recommended that field acarologists employ regular sampling throughout the year at intervals no greater than three weeks, for a variety of epidemiological studies.
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