Ticking Lyme Bomb

Lyme disease is a much bigger problem in our cities than many think. In 2021, it was the most commonly reported tick-borne illness in New York City. With over 476K new cases a year, Lyme is spread by the bite of an infected black-legged deer tick. As deer populations continue to expand from forests to suburbs to urban parks, they bring the threat of Lyme disease to millions of unsuspecting city dwellers.

The goal was to create a realistic- looking, larger-than-life, movie-monster version of the extremely tiny black-legged female tick whose bite causes Lyme disease. We blew it up to gargantuan size and strapped a ticking bomb to its back, and placedit in the center of New York City’s Central Park, so the threat would feel alarming, urgent, and disturbing enough to be unforgettable.