��ɫ��Ƶ

Ticks had a good run. For millions of years, they’ve hitched rides on people and animals, spreading diseases and ruining hikes. But, ��ɫ��Ƶ tick expert Holly Gaff, Ph.D., is changing the game. Her newest collaborative creation, the TickBot, has no skin, no blood and no deadline, making it the perfect robotic nemesis for a prehistoric pest.

For more than a decade, Dr. Gaff, professor and chair of the biological sciences department, has been developing the TickBot — a tick prevention tool in the form of a robot on four wheels pulling along a permethrin-treated cloth that won’t harm the environment or beneficial insects. The TickBot is closer to commercialization than ever, thanks to a pilot project with a neighborhood in Chesapeake fighting a tick battle of its own.

A Neighborhood Overrun

Ticks are tiny, hard to spot and can be incredibly dangerous. Common species found in Virginia are notorious for spreading debilitating sicknesses, including Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and alpha-gal syndrome (red meat allergy).

Different species like different types of environments, ranging from tall grass to hardy forests. They all like humidity. These attributes make the wooded suburbs of Hampton Roads a prime environment for them to thrive. They lurk on the ground, unsuspecting, ready to latch onto their next source of food.

Since 2009, Dr. Gaff has been tracking these nuisances, collecting about 350,000 ticks across Virginia. Over the years, she has heard from many residents who thought they had a tick infestation, only to discover they didn’t.

But when she visited The Preserve on the Elizabeth, a neighborhood in Chesapeake, there was no doubt.

“They’ve always been a problem. It’s impossible to walk a dog in the woods,” said Stephen Arrendale, a resident of The Preserve, who reached out to Dr. Gaff about his neighborhood’s ticks. “It’s a quality-of-life issue. You live in this beautiful place, but you can’t fully enjoy it, because of the ticks.”

The community boasts well-maintained walking trails that wind through the woods to the Elizabeth River. Unfortunately, the trails are so heavily infested with ticks that residents either avoid them or are cautious. Desperate for relief, Arrendale sought out Dr. Gaff in search of an eco-friendly solution.

By recruiting neighborhood volunteers, such as Arrendale, Dr. Gaff is gathering invaluable data, not just about the ticks in the community, but about how consumers can easily learn to use the TickBot.

Enter the TickBot 

Arrendale wanted to find a way to curb the issue without turning to chemical sprays that harm the surrounding ecosystem. That’s where the TickBot comes in.

The TickBot is a small, semi-autonomous four-wheeled device. The concept is simple: it drags a cloth that has been treated with an insecticide that kills ticks. The treatment provides relief from ticks for about 24 hours, but then ticks will emerge from the ground and nearby vegetation. Because the treatment is highly localized, it is a far less harmful method for preventing ticks, while being mindful of native species.

As a board member of his neighborhood’s homeowners association, Arrendale invited Dr. Gaff and her team to share their research – and potential solution – with the community.

For Dr. Gaff, the neighborhood’s crisis presented the perfect opportunity.

After more than a decade of developing the TickBot in her lab, alongside engineering researchers first at Virginia Military Institute and then at ��ɫ��Ƶ, Dr. Gaff is handing over the controls to the public, specifically the residents of The Preserve. This summer marks the first time potential consumers are operating the device without direct supervision – a crucial milestone toward commercialization, which is Dr. Gaff’s goal.

Dr. Gaff and her research team, including research technician Darian Dean (M.P.H. ’25, B.A. ’22) and biological sciences master’s student Willow Baker, have set up parallel studies at The Preserve.

One study monitors five segments of the wooded walking trail, while the other focuses on residential backyards. The TickBot runs on some of the paths, while the others remain untreated as a control for the data collected.

In the 18 backyards of homeowners electing to participate in the second study, the team is collecting ticks from a variety of environments: commercially treated by pest control companies or self-treated by homeowners. This backyard study helps inform the researchers about what factors may contribute to ticks being in a yard. It also shows how people can coexist with the natural environment, while protecting themselves against its dangers. Homeowners like these would be the target demographic for the TickBot once it’s on the market.

To collect ticks, the team uses flagging, a standard method that sweeps a light-colored cloth attached to a pole (like a flag) across vegetation and leaf litter. Ticks exhibit a behavior called questing, where they essentially sit and wait for a host to pass by that they’ll latch on for food. The flagging method works, because it mimics host movement. The team collects ticks, places them in vials and brings them back to the lab to study.

Darian’s involvement in the project stems from her background in epidemiology of infectious diseases through a public health lens. Vector-borne illnesses, such as those caused by pathogens carried by ticks, are a major public health concern.

“One of the greatest aspects of this study is seeing the public be eager to learn about and engage with local research initiatives. As a scientist, there’s nothing I enjoy more than talking about my work, especially with the people it directly affects. Community-based projects like this are crucial in bridging the gap between laboratory science and the general public,” Darian said.

She would not have guessed fieldwork with a robotic tick prevention tool would be part of her journey, but it's given her a lot of pride to bring an innovative solution to a persistent problem to her Chesapeake neighbors.

“The goals of the project are not just building trust with the public and the local science community, but growing awareness of how to live alongside nature and all its inhabitants while also avoiding danger when possible,” Willow said.

Next Gen: The Path to Autonomy

Unleashing the TickBot to the real world has highlighted potential for all kinds of possibilities. For example, the iteration of the TickBot being used at The Preserve functions like a remote-controlled car and requires hands-on attention, but another version in development is autonomous.

For volunteers like Arrendale, regularly treating the walking trails is not feasible long-term on a day-to-day basis.

“I think making it autonomous is the way to go,” he said.

Upgrading the technology is exactly what Dr. Gaff and her team are working on. An earlier iteration of the TickBot had an underground wire, but frequently got lost. As the technology has improved and become wireless, the experience has improved as well.

Dr. Gaff, Willow and Darian are already looking ahead to the future of the TickBot, with the help of Orlando Ayala, Ph.D., a professor of engineering technology. He and a team of engineering students and alumni are working on an autonomous version that functions more like a robot vacuum that remembers its path.

As the engineers refine the technology for the commercial market, they are balancing critical design debates. For instance, a smaller bot can navigate tight spaces, but a larger bot can roll over obstacles, such as fallen branches with ease.

Though the user interface is still in development, the real-world feedback from The Preserve is exactly what Dr. Gaff needs. If the TickBot proves successful in residential environments, it could change the game for outdoor safety.

Dr. Gaff says she is always looking for new places and ways to use the TickBot. She encourages anyone interested in testing it in their backyard, or anyone interested in the business side of commercializing the TickBot, to reach out to her directly.

Ticks may have spent a lot of time adapting to survive alongside people and animals, but innovations like the TickBot could make it a little harder for them to thrive and a little easier to enjoy the outdoors safely without bringing home an unwanted hitchhiker.