A tick-testing laboratory identifies the tick species and uses PCR testing to look for selected pathogens. You can send a saved tick to a state or local public health program, a university laboratory, or a private service, depending on availability, location, and the kind of report you want.
A tick result can help document possible exposure, but it cannot diagnose a tick-borne disease or replace medical care. Promptly remove the tick, record when and where you found it, and watch for symptoms after a tick bite.
The CDC tick guidance emphasizes prevention, safe removal, symptom awareness, and timely health care.
Where To Send A Tick For Identification Or Testing
Your best option depends on whether you need species identification, pathogen screening, or both. Ask what organisms the laboratory detects, whether it accepts specimens from your state, how much testing costs, and when results are reported.
State And Local Public Health Programs
State health departments, county health departments, and extension programs may identify a tick species for surveillance or public education. Some accept specimens only during specific projects, from selected locations, or through a health care provider.
These programs may not offer individual PCR testing for Lyme disease or other tick-borne diseases. Contact your state or county health department before mailing anything, because an unrequested specimen may not be processed.
University And Academic Tick Laboratories
University entomology departments and academic laboratories help when you mainly need tick species identification. Their reports can distinguish blacklegged ticks from other medically important species and clarify which diseases occur in your area.
Availability varies widely. A university may identify a tick without testing it for pathogens, or it may accept samples only for research and surveillance.
Private Tick-Testing Services
Private laboratories accept mailed specimens and commonly offer species identification plus PCR panels. Ticknology’s Universal Tick Test advertises testing for Lyme disease and other tick-borne disease organisms.
IGeneX tick testing lists Borrelia burgdorferi, tick-borne relapsing fever organisms, babesiosis, anaplasmosis, ehrlichiosis, and Bartonella among its targets.
Read the laboratory’s collection instructions carefully. A service such as TickCheck’s order process may provide a result within a stated business-day window after the specimen arrives.
Shipping time and specimen quality affect timing.
Choosing A Service By Pathogens, Cost, And Turnaround
Start with the report you actually need. A basic identification may cost less than a broad panel.
PCR testing for Borrelia, Borrelia miyamotoi, Borrelia mayonii, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, ehrlichiosis, rickettsiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, STARI, relapsing fever, Bartonella, or co-infections may carry separate fees.
Confirm whether the laboratory tests the exact tick species found in your area. Ask if it reports positive and negative controls, and whether it explains inconclusive results.
A broad panel does not guarantee that every tick-borne infection is detected.
What Tick Test Results Can And Cannot Tell You
A tick report can add context to your exposure, especially when it identifies the species and lists detected organisms. It cannot show whether transmission occurred, whether you became ill, or whether you need treatment.
How Species Identification Changes Risk Assessment
Species identification helps connect the bite with regional disease patterns. For example, blacklegged ticks can transmit the bacteria associated with Lyme disease, as well as organisms linked with anaplasmosis and babesiosis in parts of the United States.
Species alone does not establish risk. Attachment time, tick life stage, feeding status, geographic location, and whether you removed the tick intact all affect how you interpret the exposure.
Understanding Positive, Negative, And Inconclusive Results
A positive tick PCR result means the laboratory detected genetic material from a tested organism in the specimen. It does not prove that the organism was transmitted to you or that you will develop a tick-borne infection.
A negative result may mean the tested pathogen was not detected. It cannot exclude an untested organism, an inadequate specimen, or a testing limitation.
An inconclusive report may reflect insufficient material, damage, contamination, or a result that needs confirmation.
Why Tick Results Do Not Diagnose A Person
A tick can carry a pathogen without transmitting it, and a negative tick test cannot rule out exposure from another tick. A person’s diagnosis depends on symptoms, examination findings, exposure history, and appropriately selected medical tests.
Do not use a tick report as a substitute for CDC information about tick-borne diseases. Tick testing also does not diagnose chronic Lyme disease or confirm co-infections in you.
When To Contact A Health Care Professional
Contact a health care professional if you develop fever, chills, headache, unusual fatigue, muscle or joint aches, swollen glands, a spreading rash, or other concerning symptoms after a bite. Seek urgent care for severe headache, breathing difficulty, confusion, weakness, fainting, or rapidly worsening illness.
Do not wait for a tick report when symptoms are significant. Early Lyme disease may produce an erythema migrans rash, which can guide clinical diagnosis even when Lyme disease tests are not yet positive.
Save And Ship The Tick Safely
Remove the tick promptly, then preserve it in a way that keeps identification possible. Follow the receiving laboratory’s instructions, since some services prefer a dry specimen and others provide specific packaging requirements.
Removing A Tick With Fine-Tipped Tweezers
Use fine-tipped tweezers to grasp the tick as close to your skin as possible. Pull upward with steady, even pressure, and avoid twisting, crushing, burning, or covering the tick with petroleum jelly.
After removal, clean the bite area and your hands with soap and water or alcohol. If mouthparts remain in the skin and you cannot remove them easily, let the skin heal and ask a health care professional for advice.
Storing The Specimen For A Laboratory
Place the tick in a sealed plastic bag or a small leakproof container labeled with your name and the collection date. Keep it dry unless the laboratory specifically instructs you to use alcohol or another preservative.
Do not mail a loose tick. Put the sealed specimen inside the additional packaging required by the testing service, and keep a copy of your order or tracking information.
Details To Record Before Mailing
Write down the date and location of the bite, where on your body you found the tick, and whether it appeared flat or engorged. Note how long it may have been attached, how you removed it, and any symptoms you notice.
Take a clear photograph of the tick before packaging it if possible. Keep these details for your clinician, even if you decide not to pursue tick testing.
What To Do If The Tick Is Gone
You can still receive medical advice after losing the tick. Record what you remember about its size, color, shape, location, and attachment time.
Monitor the bite site and your health. Do not delay care while searching for the specimen.
A missing tick does not prevent a clinician from assessing your exposure, discussing prevention, or evaluating symptoms.
Getting Medical Testing After A Tick Bite
Medical testing focuses on you, not just the tick. Your clinician may consider Lyme disease tests or tests for anaplasmosis, babesiosis, ehrlichiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, other rickettsiosis, relapsing fever, or Borrelia miyamotoi based on your symptoms, timing, geography, and exposure.
When Lyme Disease Is Diagnosed Clinically
A clinician may diagnose early Lyme disease clinically when you have a characteristic erythema migrans rash and a compatible exposure. In that situation, treatment decisions should not necessarily wait for a blood test, because antibodies may not yet be detectable.
Your clinician will also consider other causes of a rash or illness, including infections that do not come from ticks. Share your tick species result, location, attachment estimate, and symptom timeline if you have them.
How Two-Step Antibody Testing Works
Standard Lyme disease testing generally begins with an enzyme immunoassay, or EIA, or another first-tier antibody test. If the result is positive or equivocal, a second-tier test checks for antibodies such as IgM or IgG, following an FDA-cleared testing approach.
A two-step result must be interpreted with your symptoms and exposure history. A positive antibody result can reflect a past infection, and testing methods differ in what they can detect.
Why Early Blood Tests May Be Negative
Your immune system may need time to produce detectable antibodies. During early Lyme disease, a negative test does not always exclude infection, particularly when symptoms began recently.
If concern remains, your clinician may recommend repeat testing at an appropriate interval or assess you for another tick-borne disease. Do not treat a negative early test as proof that a tick bite is harmless.
Testing For Other Tick-Borne Illnesses
Your clinician chooses testing based on the illness they suspect. They may use blood smears, molecular tests, antibody tests, complete blood counts, liver tests, or other evaluations for babesiosis, anaplasmosis, ehrlichiosis, rickettsiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, relapsing fever, or co-infections.
Tell your clinician about your fever pattern, rash, headache, fatigue, shortness of breath, dark urine, gastrointestinal symptoms, and neurologic changes.
Your clinician should match testing for Borrelia burgdorferi, Borrelia miyamotoi, or another organism to your clinical picture, rather than automatically including every possible pathogen.
