Are you finding ticks in your yard? Well now you can test them for lyme disease -- for free.

SUNY Upstate Medical University is researching ticks and their diseases in Central New York. The project is called “Got Ticks? Test Them For Free.” The researchers’ goal is to understand the geographic expansion of ticks and tick-borne diseases.

They gathered ticks in Green Lakes State Park on Thursday. They took large pieces of white flannel to grab the ticks in a method called "dragging." They also used dry ice to slow the ticks down and trap them.

But they will need more. They want you to mail your ticks, dead or alive, to the lab.

Put your ticks in a Ziploc bag with a piece of moist tissue/paper towel or grass and write these three things on a piece of paper:

  1. The date and location you found them
  2. If it came from a human or a pet
  3. Your email address

Then you can mail your envelope with the ticks and information here:

Thangamani Lab

4.209 Institute for Human Performance (IHP)

505 Irving Ave

SUNY Center for Environmental Health and Medicine

SUNY Upstate Medical University

Syracuse, NY 13210

Within about a week the researchers will email you back and let you know if your ticks carry disease or not. However, the researchers say you should not use this as a diagnosis.

Saravanan Thangamani, a professor at SUNY Upstate Medical University, says this is the pilot study. 

"I thought this was a wonderful opportunity for us to come and do it because, particularly we don't know much about what is happening in Central New York area,” Thangamani said. 

If it’s successful, he wants to apply it all over the state, and eventually the entire northeast.

For more information on the project, you can visit the Lab’s web site.