The Sidney Sun-Telegraph - Serving proudly since 1873 as the beautiful Nebraska Panhandle's first newspaper

After eons of landing on the legs and arms of humans and animals, ticks have landed smack-dab in the middle of the research interests of University of Nebraska–Lincoln master’s student Dominic Cristiano.

Cristiano, a member of the NSF National Research Traineeship Program at Nebraska, studies issues at the intersection of human health, wildlife disease and the environment, and these eight-legged critters (yes, ticks are arachnids, not insects) suck the blood of their hosts and spread diseases such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Lyme disease, Alpha-gal and Heartland virus.

Cristiano...