If you're someone who loves the outdoors, you have almost certainly been hunted by this monster.

It terrorizes hikes, destroys camping trips, makes frallicking in the grass, an existential threat.

It's not a large monster. On average, it's only about the size of an apple seed,

sometimes as small as a poppy seed, but its small size only makes it more terrifying.

Can't jump or fly, but this monster is patient.

It simply climbs to the end of a blade of grass and extends its arms waiting.

It's positioned cult questing. The monster's quest, to climb onto you, up your body,

nestle into a crevice and suck your blood. In exchange, it will fill you with any number

of potentially terrible diseases.

It's tics. We're talking about tics, and I don't know if there is a living creature

that I can have less fondness for. I truly hate them.

But you also know what they say about keeping your enemies close.

My name is Dylan Thoris, and this is Outlet Subscriber. And today it's not a celebration,

because we're talking about tics. But we are going to go to statesboro, Georgia,

to the U.S. National tic collection. That's right, the U.S. has a national tic collection.

To learn just how much these little monstrosities can teach us.

I like everything that was small, and I was always crawling around looking at small stuff.

This is Lorenza Bayati. She's the curator of the U.S. National tic collection. She's also a biology

professor at Georgia Southern University. Lorenza grew up in Sweden, and as a kid was in love with

all of the smallest creatures, the little bugs, the rodents. As she grew older, though,

her focus shifted a little. I got distracted. I studied medicine. I became an MD.

But while I was studying medicine, I was also studying parasitology.

...