URI experts teaming with regional group to help control ticks; public asked to take online survey

KINGSTON — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates there are about 500,000 new cases of Lyme disease a year. That’s 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 New England Center of Excellence in Vector-Borne Disease wants to clear up the confusion — with your help.

The federally designated Center of Excellence, a partnership of seven regional colleges and universities including the University of Rhode Island, has launched Project ITCH (Is Tick Control Helping?) with the aim of determining best practices for residential tick control — in each New England state — so residents can protect themselves, their families and their pets.

The project includes an online survey 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.

“The 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’s tick literacy,” said URI tick expert Tom Mather, who, with URI colleague and entomologist Jannelle Couret, is leading the project in Rhode Island. “If people are paying for residential tick control, who wouldn’t want to know if it’s working? We know from other studies that some measures are more effective than others but there’s a lack of good information on what works. That’s why a controlled study of what people are choosing to control ticks around their homes really needs to be done.”

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.

“One of the main goals of the center is to optimize tick protection,” said Mather, director of URI’s Center for Vector-Borne Disease and its TickEncounter Resource Center. “Residential control is one of those things that is always said to be helpful in protecting people around their own homes. But it’s a Wild West show out there in terms of what people are doing. It would be fine if everything worked equally but they don’t. So, we really want to corral this Wild West show and try to get people to focus on those things that work.”

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 – such as differing landscapes and residents’ 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.

“The center is well-positioned to conduct regionally coordinated and comprehensive operational research programs that would not otherwise be practical or even possible,” said Rich, professor of microbiology at UMass Amherst. “We 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.”

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.

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.

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 – all species known for the area – 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.

“Tick populations vary a ton in New England but they can vary even in a community,” Mather said. “I can find places in South Kingstown where the risk isn’t 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.”