How to Kill A Tick: Teen's Tick Project Goes National

Jacqueline Flynn's research into how to kill ticks is being looked at by the federal government.

Jacqueline Flynn was working on an entirely different angle of tick research when she came across findings that would launch her project into first place at the Braintree High School Science Fair, second at regionals and garner the interest of state and federal officials. (See How to Kill a Tick.) Flynn, a sophomore at Braintree High School, was worried about making sure she removed ticks from herself and her clothing after collecting them for a different project. So she researched how to kill them in a laundry cycle. What little data she found indicated that ticks frequently survive a clothes washer cycle because they are difficult to drown, but that a full hour in the dryer can kill them. After 13 cycles of testing, Flynn discovered that…

•  1 Comment
• Photos (3)