A study led by researchers at the University of Maine spearheaded a new approach to finding where ticks love to lurk. The Maine Forest Tick Survey trained hundreds of woodland owners in Maine to systematically comb their properties for disease-toting ticks to discern how forest management may influence the pest’s prevalence.
Ticks pose a growing public health burden. Lyme disease, which can be transmitted by deer ticks, is the second most common infectious disease reported in Maine. Each year, an estimated 476,000 Americans are diagnosed with or treated for Lyme disease. The blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) that have spread across Maine since the 1980s also transmit pathogens that cause diseases like anaplasmosis and babesiosis.
These concerns compelled hundreds of volunteers to scout for ticks on their properties. Over two years, more than 300 volunteers collected 7,246 ticks from nine counties in southern and coastal Maine. More than 20% of participants reported that they had been diagnosed with Lyme disease previously, and 96% reported that they knew someone who had. Interest in participating in data collection was so robust that the researchers had to create a waiting list.
