ST. LOUIS — Nearly 300 ticks were collected last year by park goers in St. Louis County as part of a new tick monitoring program.

In response to concerns of tick activity, the St. Louis County Department of Public Health and Parks and Recreation launched the program to monitor and manage tick populations across the county.

“From trying to find high numbers in certain areas of the county to certain tick species and even some of those invasive species that we’re keeping an eye on that historically are not found in St. Louis County,” said Matt Fuhrmann, vector-borne disease specialist with the County.

Those who find a tick at parks across the county can submit it by using the collection kit and drop off box. The best way to collect a tick is by using a tweezer to grab as close to the head as possible, according to Fuhrmann.

He said the program’s first season was successful with people either mailing in ticks or putting them in the collection boxes.

“We’re very pleased and excited with the response from the public. It seems like there’s a lot of people that are excited about the program and want to know more, which is very promising for the future of the program,” he said.

Roughly 90% of the ticks collected last year are a species called the Lone Star tick. The information gathered by officials will be displayed on a tick watch dashboard for the public online.

“We really just want to make people aware of this certain tick species found within the County. Different species spread different diseases, and so the more data that we get from these tick boxes, the more that we can educate the public,” he said.

In the future, Fuhrmann said the program will hope to include testing ticks for certain diseases using PCR testing, followed by publishing the information.