{"id":85622,"date":"2023-04-25T16:01:29","date_gmt":"2023-04-25T16:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/?p=85622"},"modified":"2023-04-25T16:01:30","modified_gmt":"2023-04-25T16:01:30","slug":"uri-experts-team-up-with-regional-partners-to-determine-best-practices-to-control-ticks-with-your-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2023\/04\/uri-experts-team-up-with-regional-partners-to-determine-best-practices-to-control-ticks-with-your-help\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 experts team up with regional partners to determine best practices to control ticks \u2013 with your help"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 25, 2023 \u2013 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there are about 500,000 new cases of Lyme disease a year. That\u2019s just one of the serious health risks posed by ticks. But for many people, what works best in their own backyards to control ticks is probably guesswork. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The New England Center of Excellence in Vector-Borne Disease wants to clear up the confusion\u2014with your help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The federally designated Center of Excellence, a partnership of seven regional colleges and universities including the 溏心vlog免费B站, has launched Project ITCH (Is Tick Control Helping?) with the aim of determining best practices for residential tick control\u2014in each New England state\u2014so residents can protect themselves, their families and their pets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project includes an online survey<\/a> asking residents in each New England state about their practices in preventing tick exposure and tick bites. Participants can sign up to let researchers know they would be interested in having a property visit and a free evaluation of tick (and mosquito) conditions on their property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe goal of this project is to inform the public and officials at all levels about what are the most effective tick control measures and to increase people\u2019s tick literacy,\u201d said 溏心vlog免费B站 tick expert Tom Mather, who, with 溏心vlog免费B站 colleague and entomologist Jannelle Couret, is leading the project in Rhode Island. \u201cIf people are paying for residential tick control, who wouldn\u2019t want to know if it\u2019s working? We know from other studies that some measures are more effective than others but there\u2019s a lack of good information on what works. That\u2019s why a controlled study of what people are choosing to control ticks around their homes really needs to be done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project is one of the first for the New England Center of Excellence, which was launched in 2022 with a $10 million, five-year grant from the CDC. Headed by the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the partners are the universities of Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Maine, along with Northern Vermont University, Western Connecticut State University and Dartmouth College.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the main goals of the center is to optimize tick protection,\u201d said Mather, director of 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Center for Vector-Borne Disease and its TickEncounter<\/a> Resource Center. \u201cResidential control is one of those things that is always said to be helpful in protecting people around their own homes. But it\u2019s a Wild West show out there in terms of what people are doing. It would be fine if everything worked equally but they don\u2019t. So, we really want to corral this Wild West show and try to get people to focus on those things that work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stephen Rich, executive director of the center, says the seven regional schools are coordinating the project in their states, evaluating tick controls for specific regional needs \u2013 such as differing landscapes and residents\u2019 knowledge, attitudes and actions. In each state, teams will include undergraduate and graduate students at each institution to train the next generation of public health entomologists, Rich said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe center is well-positioned to conduct regionally coordinated and comprehensive operational research programs that would not otherwise be practical or even possible,\u201d said Rich, professor of microbiology at UMass Amherst. \u201cWe know ticks are expanding their range and with that comes the spread of tick-borne illnesses. But we also know the ecology of ticks and the approaches to controlling them will vary across New England.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The survey is being conducted this spring with visits continuing during the next four years, said Mather, who will conduct many of the visits in Southern Rhode Island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The survey, which takes about 10 minutes, asks residents about the area around their home, outside activities they take part in, their experience with tick and mosquito-borne diseases, tick and mosquito control measures they use, and if they would like to take part in a free on-site assessment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The home visits will be held in June, the peak season for tiny nymphal blacklegged ticks. Blacklegged ticks, or deer ticks, can carry the germs that cause Lyme disease and others, such as Babesiosis, Anaplasmosis, and Powassan. Researchers will make backyard visits to check for ticks \u2013 all species known for the area \u2013 and they will test those ticks for any pathogens. Also, investigators will try to recruit neighbors during the visits to compare treated and untreated yards in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTick populations vary a ton in New England but they can vary even in a community,\u201d Mather said. \u201cI can find places in South Kingstown where the risk isn\u2019t great, but I also can find places where the risk is exceptional. Some of these can even be in the same neighborhood. It really depends on very local conditions, animal movement patterns and the conditions in the backyard.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 April 25, 2023 \u2013 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there are about 500,000 new cases of Lyme disease a year. That\u2019s just one of the serious health risks posed by ticks. But for many people, what works best in their own backyards to control ticks is probably guesswork.  The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":85625,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85622","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85622","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85622"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85622\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85627,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85622\/revisions\/85627"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85622"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85622"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85622"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}