HOW TO SEND A TICK TO OUR LAB FOR TESTING?

1. Place the tick (dead or alive, preferably collected within the last 48 hours) in a completely sealed plastic bag (e.g. Ziploc bag) with a piece of moist tissue paper or paper towel.  The paper can be moistened with water and should not be saturated or dripping wet.  (Note: If the tick appears dried/desiccated, we will not be able to test it for tick-borne disease agents; therefore, it is important that moist tissue paper or paper towel is included in the plastic bag). 

2. Tape a piece of paper to the outside of the plastic bag with the unique tick ID number written in pencil.  This tick ID number will be generated by the website when you complete the tick submission form.  (Note: It is very important that you include the tick ID number on your sample bag so we can link the tick we receive in the mail to your information)!

3. Place the plastic bag in a padded envelope.  These types of envelopes can be purchased at any home store or drugstore.  You can also retrieve them from U.S. Post Office branches. (Note: If you do not use a padded envelope, write “non-machinable” on the outside of a standard envelope).

4. Mail the envelope to the address below:

Thangamani Lab, 

4209 Institute for Human Performance (IHP),

505 Irving Avenue,

SUNY Center for Vector-Borne Diseases,

SUNY Upstate Medical University, 

Syracuse NY 13210. 

How to send multiple ticks to our lab? Put each tick in its own resealable plastic bag, as described in Step 1.  Label each bag with the tick ID number corresponding to that tick, as described in Step 2.  Each bag should contain a single tick and be labeled with a unique tick ID number generated by the website.  Place all of the labeled plastic bags in a padded envelope and mail to the above address.