Comparative efficiency of flagging and carbon dioxide-baited sticky traps for collecting the lone star tick, Amblyomma americanum (Acarina: Ixodidae).

Collections of Amblyomma americanum (L.) from five habitat types showed that significantly more ticks of all life stages could be collected by CO2-baited sticky traps than by the standard flagging technique. The effect of habitat type and season significantly influenced the number of ticks collected by both techniques. Traps baited with carbon dioxide revealed adult tick activity in several habitats several weeks earlier than did flagging, because flagging failed to efficiently recover ticks unless they had ascended vegetation. The CO2-baited traps required less time and effort and showed less variation for tick population surveys when compared with flagging.