A mark-release-recapture approach to characterize tick questing preferences and dispersal distance

1. Studying tick behavior is crucial for understanding how climate, disturbances, and landuse changes shape tick populations and tick-borne disease risk. Mark-release-recapture studies can provide valuable answers to questions regarding tick movement and behavior, population sizes, and survivorship. 2. Standard tick mark-release-recapture provides limited resolution to understanding individual behaviors, limiting our ability to answer questions that require repeated observations of the same individuals. We developed a new, operationally simple method to track large populations of individual ticks over space and time. 3. We found non-random movement patterns, including directed movement towards grass, vegetation-dependent dispersal distances and rate, and sex-based differences in movement. 4. Practical implication: This method can be applied to other tick species to assess tick longevity, determine dispersal ranges and rate, and analyze questing behavior and success.