PhD candidate Mostafa Elfawal dragged a large piece of canvas through the brush to collect deer ticks on Orchard Hill near the UMass campus in Amherst on April 2. Researchers examine the ticks at the Laboratory of Medical Zoology, which also tests the specimens mailed to them daily for the bacterium that causes Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases.

A tick collected on field trip led by University of Rhode Island professor Thomas Mather, a tick-borne disease expert.

University of Rhode Island graduate Chris Schuttert collected ticks with a canvas flag.

Lab technician Vien Nguyen used a high-powered microscope to examine a deer tick sent in by a resident of Putney, Vt., at the Laboratory of Medical Zoology. The lab tests the specimens mailed to them daily for the bacterium that causes Lyme disease and other tick-borne diseases.

Dr. Allen C. Steere, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, stood by the freezers full of specimens from patients in his lab at Massachusetts General Hospital in Charlestown.

Professor Thomas Mather used a bagel to show the size and visibility of ticks.

Scott “Scoot” Caseau got intravenous antibiotics for his Lyme disease and related illnesses at Cape Cod Hospital, while nurse Rita Thornton checked his vitals.

Michele Miller held a photo of her mother, Jeanne Cloutier of Auburn, who died of Lyme disease in February. She sat with Jennifer Crystal (left), a writer and blogger who has Lyme disease, and Sarah Albanesi of state Senator Bruce Tarr's office as a rally was held at the State House for Lyme disease awareness.