When University of Vermont entomologist Cheryl Frank Sullivan surveyed 585 northern New England crop farmers two years ago, 90 percent reported they'd spotted ticks crawling on their bodies or clothing. Her results confirmed a commonsense assumption: Farmers, whose livelihood requires time in fields and woods, are particularly susceptible to tick bites, and thus to Lyme disease and other debilitating illnesses that ticks spread. Sullivan is following up this year with a second survey that focuses on agricultural workers in Vermont. At the same time, a scientist in New York State is studying Vermont farmers as she looks for ways to reduce the risk of tick-borne illness on farms. In recent years, the bloodsucking arachnids have become such a hazard that farmers are changing their behaviors. Many are avoiding areas of dense brush, treating their clothing with tick repellent and trying other tactics. Five of Vermont's 14 tick species carry pathogens, although the tiny black-legged tick, also known as the deer tick, is responsible for more than 99 percent of all tick-borne disease reports, according to the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food and Markets. Those diseases include Lyme, anaplasmosis and babesiosis, which can cause severe and lasting illness. "The possibility of getting Lyme disease is one of the biggest fears I have in working in the woods," said Mike Farrell, cofounder and general manager of the Forest Farmers, a company that taps thousands of acres of maple and birch trees in Marshfield and the Adirondacks. Farrell, who has worked in the maple industry for 20 years, said the company issues work pants treated with the insecticide permethrin to its crew members, some of whom travel from Jamaica to help out at busy times. Forest Farmers counsels its workers to check for ticks at the end of the day. "It's just constant vigilance and checking," Farrell said. "Especially if you've been in an area that you know is brushy." In recent years, the Green Mountain State has become a host for potentially groundbreaking tick research that examines the impact of ticks on agricultural workers, and some potential solutions. In 2022, Amanda Roome, a researcher at the Northeast Center for Occupational Health and Safety in Cooperstown, N.Y., chose Vermont for her tick study because at that time the Green Mountain State had the nation's highest incidence of Lyme and anaplasmosis. (Rhode Island now has the highest incidence of Lyme.) Roome's group, which…