With a little bit of training, 59 citizen scientists in New York collected more than 3,700 ticks across 15 counties in a two-week period in the summer of 2021, greatly expanding the reach of professional tick researchers at the Northeast Regional Center for Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases (NEVBD). The “New York State Tick Blitz” is now an annual project and a model that tick-surveillance programs elsewhere can follow. Here, NEVBD entomologist Emily Mader, Ph.D., collects ticks with a drag cloth. (Photo courtesy of Northeast Regional Center for Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases)