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

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 the deer ticks she used could not survive more than five minutes on a low heat cycle. Soon her research spread to staffers at the state parks and forestry services and she had taken first place in the science fair.

"It just spread very fast," Flynn told the School Committee earlier this week.

News media from around Massachusetts have since featured Flynn and her project, and she was recently interviewed by officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who said they are willing to help Flynn expand on her research.

"This is important work," Mayor Joseph Sullivan said. "You're only a sophomore so we're expecting great things from you."

Flynn will bring her project to the state science fair at MIT in May.

How do you kill a tick? Let us know in the comments section.

Stay Patched in! Follow Martha's Vineyard Patch on Twitter | Like Martha's Vineyard Patch on Facebook | Sign up for the daily email with links to the latest news | Got something to say? Start a blog and share your views.