{"id":12089,"date":"2019-03-19T18:21:08","date_gmt":"2019-03-19T18:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/?p=12089"},"modified":"2025-04-05T14:39:24","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T18:39:24","slug":"statewide-tick-hunt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/statewide-tick-hunt\/","title":{"rendered":"Statewide Tick Hunt"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Tick<\/a>

Scientists from Purdue’s Tick INsiders program, Lauren Hagen (left) and Maria Muriga (right), drag and check tick cloths at Tippecanoe River State Park in 2018. The program is looking for high school students and citizen scientists interested in helping with tick collections this year. (Tick INsiders photo)<\/p><\/div>\n

Purdue University\u2019s\u00a0Tick INsiders<\/a>\u00a0program is looking for Indiana high school students and other Indiana residents willing to roll down their sleeves to get involved in a citizen science project.<\/p>\n

Cate Hill, a Purdue professor of\u00a0entomology<\/a>, leads this effort to analyze the bacteria and viruses in Indiana\u2019s ticks to build an understanding of what they are carrying and how that might impact human health. To do that, she needs volunteers to collect ticks from all over the state.<\/p>\n

This year the Tick INsiders program will provide training for up to 50 students. Citizen scientists are also now welcome to collect and send ticks to Hill\u2019s lab.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really important work. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that human cases of tick-borne diseases\u00a0doubled from 2004 to 2016<\/a>. If we\u2019re going to get a handle on that and develop strategies for reducing tick bites and treating patients, we need to know where our ticks are and what our ticks are carrying around inside them,\u201d Hill said. \u201cThat means we need a lot of ticks, and we need help collecting them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Three species<\/a>\u00a0of ticks \u2013 the blacklegged or deer tick, the lone star tick and the American dog tick \u2013 are found in Indiana. These ticks can transmit multiple pathogens,\u00a0nine of which<\/a>\u00a0are known to cause human illnesses, though not all have been identified in Indiana. The Indiana State Department of Health reports more than\u00a0100 cases of Lyme disease<\/a>\u00a0each year and\u00a0dozens of cases of Ehrlichiosis, anaplasmosis<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Rocky Mountain spotted fever<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Research suggests that ticks can carry a cocktail of microbes \u2013 bacteria and viruses \u2013 that can sicken bite victims and may work in concert to affect the severity of an illness and human immune response.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot all tick bites are the same. We don\u2019t know what is passed from a tick to a human each time someone is bitten, which means that health care professionals may need to consider multiple tick-borne pathogens in a person who has been bitten by a tick,\u201d Hill said. \u201cThis program improves our knowledge so that we can improve our outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indiana residents interested in participating can collect ticks and send them to Hill\u2019s lab for analysis. Videos on safe and proper collection techniques, as well as how to send ticks will be at Tick INsiders<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For full article, see Purdue Agriculture News<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Resources<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ticks 101: A Quick Start Guide to Indiana Tick Vectors<\/a>, The Education Store – Extension Resource
\nThe Biology and Medical Importance of Ticks in Indiana<\/a>, The Education Store
\nMosquitoes<\/a>, Purdue Extension Entomology
\nOne Small Bite: One Large Problem<\/a>, Got Nature?, Purdue Extension-Forestry and Natural Resources
\nMosquitoes and ticks – little pests carry big risks<\/a>, Got Nature?<\/p>\n

Catherine A Hill<\/a>, Professor of Entomology\/Vector Biology
\nPurdue University Department of Entomology<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Purdue University\u2019s\u00a0Tick INsiders\u00a0program is looking for Indiana high school students and other Indiana residents willing to roll down their sleeves to get involved in a citizen science project. Cate Hill, a Purdue professor of\u00a0entomology, leads this effort to analyze the bacteria and viruses in Indiana\u2019s ticks to build an understanding of what they are carrying […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38,870,42,47,53,54,622],"tags":[56,261,65,367,70,72],"class_list":["post-12089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alert","category-disease","category-forestry","category-invasiveinsects","category-urbanforestry","category-wildlife","category-woodlands","tag-alert","tag-indiana","tag-invasive-insects","tag-invasive-species","tag-safety","tag-wildlife","audience-for-enthusiasts","audience-for-landowners","audience-for-professionals"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/39"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12089"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32825,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12089\/revisions\/32825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/fnr\/extension\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}