Bug us with your ticks!

For our national tick monitoring programme, we invite you to provide us with ticks. Your samples will help us analyse which tick species appear when and where in Austria. Moreover, ticks will also be investigated for the presence of pathogens.

What are the aims of the project?

The goal of our national tick monitoring programme is to obtain data regarding tick species in Austria, their occurrence, and the pathogens they may carry. The objective is to sample ticks from a wide variety of regions, regardless of whether they are sourced from vegetation or hosts. The collection of ticks is mainly conducted by citizen scientists, whose participation is essential for the success of such an initiative. The collected data can assist in identifying hot spots for specific pathogens, discover new or lesser-known microorganisms, and learn about the occurrence of native tick species but also the spread of invasive ones such as Hyalomma. A continuous monitoring is of importance particularly in light of climate change which can strongly impact the tick fauna. The insights gained from this programme can enhance overall health by facilitating earlier detection of tick-borne diseases and thereby allowing for timely and appropriate treatment.

How can you participate in research?

As soon as you encounter a tick you can join the project if following pre-requisites are fulfilled:

1. Tick still intact (i.e. not squeezed out or badly damaged)
2. Data available for:
   • Date of tick discovery or removal from host
   • Postal code and location
   • Host information (if tick was removed from a host – which one?)

Ticks have to be securely packaged (e.g. by adhesive tape on a piece of paper inside a properly closed envelope) before being either dropped off at an AGES location or being sent to Vienna:

AGES GmbH
Department for Vector-borne diseases - Ticks
Währinger Straße 25a
1090 Vienna

Further details can be found on our homepage in the section “Found a tick?”. If you suspect to have found a Hyalomma tick (“giant tick”) without the possibility to submit the tick to us please send a photo to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Thank you!

Background informationen

So far 19 native tick species have been described in Austria. The most common ones belong to the genera Ixodes (e.g. I. ricinus), Dermacentor (e.g. D. reticulatus) and Haemaphysalis (e.g. Ha. concinna). These hard ticks have a lifecycle which comprises of three life stages (larva, nymph, adult). Between each life stage, and before a female adult tick can lay eggs, a blood meal must take place. 

Most pathogens are taken up from reservoir animals during those blood meals (e.g. small rodents, birds, etc.) and can be transmitted from the tick at the next blood meal. The most common pathogen found in ticks in Europe are bacteria of the genus Borrelia which are the causative agent of Lyme borreliosis. However, there are many other tick-borne pathogens which can cause diseases in humans and animals (e.g. Rickettsia, Anaplasma, Neoehrlichia, etc.).

Aside from native ticks the so-called ‘giant ticks’ are increasingly appearing in the media. 

They are identifiable by their typical yellow stripes along their legs when compared to native ticks. These ticks are usually imported to Austria from warmer regions. Due to climate change an expansion into more northern regions can be expected. Hyalomma ticks can transmit more harmful pathogens (such as Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus or Rickettsia aeschlimannii) hence, monitoring the spread of this vector is of medical importance. However, this is only possible by reports from well informed citizens. Thanks to citizen scientists we were able to uncover a previously unrecognized way of migration for these ticks: rather than migratory birds, it was tourists who were responsible for a significant number of introductions of Hyalomma ticks to Austria.

To be able to monitor the tick fauna of Austria for health relevant changes (i.e. expansion of dangerous vectors, emergence and spread of (new) pathogens) a national tick surveillance programme was started beginning of 2024 as part of an EU-project (OH SURVector, EU-Project Nr. 101132974). The acquisition of another project allows for continuation of the implemented surveillance activities until end of 2028.

The mission of AGES is to supply citizens with information. For that reason, a homepage is available which features interesting content about ticks and tick-borne diseases. Moreover, detail information about the ongoing surveillance study and its results are provided. 

Role descriptions

Within this project four main tasks are executed:

• Tick collecting
• • This step is planned to be carried out by citizen scientists. Participation is open to anyone who finds a tick and sends it to AGES where further processing will take place. It is crucial that submitted ticks are intact and the necessary information regarding date, location and hosts is provided. 
• Morphological tick identification
• • Tick experts will analyse morphological features of the tick under a microscope to determine the tick species. During that, samples are entered into an internal database, and it is decided whether a tick sample is eligible for further analysis. Strongly damaged ticks will not be processed further than this step.
• Molecular screening for pathogens
• • In the next step trained laboratory personnel will extract the nucleic acids (RNA and DNA) of the tick sample and perform molecular methods (e.g. PCR) for detection of tick-borne pathogens. The results are then entered into the internal database.
• Results and communication
• • The results of the molecular screening and morphological analysis are summarized. A team of tick experts, data experts and communication experts work together in this step to create maps, submit data to international databases, update the homepage or prepare newsletters. Occasionally information may be disclosed to the media.