Peri-domestic Tick-borne Disease Prevention

The Problem

As Indiana’s climate changes, ticks are expanding their geographic range, bringing a host of diseases with them. This expansion has coincided with a rise in reports of tick-borne illness among Hoosiers. Understanding the factors that put people at risk of contracting a tick-borne disease is paramount to protecting public health. One unknown is how commonly ticks can be found in managed ecosystems, such as parks and residential neighborhoods. By investigating this line of inquiry, IU researchers hope to inform Hoosiers about the risk of tick exposure in commonly frequented green spaces.

The Project

To learn more about the presence of ticks in residential areas, researchers have sampled about 310 private residences in south and central Indiana. At each site, researchers collected data on the local environment, property owners’ knowledge about ticks, and the tick management strategies used by property owners.

Thus far, study findings show that the areas around people’s residences may be an underestimated source of tick exposure, particularly in rural areas. Additionally, the team identified factors that make a parent more likely to apply tick repellant on their child, such as tick and tick-borne disease knowledge, area of residence, and the parent having found a tick on themselves.

Using the iTree canopy tool, the researchers are measuring the proportion of vegetation at each sampling site to study correlations between vegetation and tick presence. Data collected from this work indicates that ticks are more likely to be found on properties with tree canopies than those with just grass. Other findings suggest that property owners who practice leaf litter removal are less likely to harbor ticks than those who do not.

The Path Forward

The research team continues to sample properties for ticks, with a focus on sites in the northern part of the state. The team also is visiting previously sampled areas to get a better understanding of how climate influences tick populations. 

To help with this sampling effort, researchers are developing an application to classify ticks in Indiana. The application will help residents identify ticks and give them information on tick facts, tick control practices, and protective measures to avoid tick exposure, while also allowing users to submit specimen photos to a database managed by the research team. The database will help researchers determine the location and frequency of tick presence and will allow the team to identify new areas of interest.

Findings from these studies could augment current public health practices and better inform Hoosiers about tick presence and associated risks.

Updated March 15, 2021

The project is conducting on-the-ground tick sampling and coupling it with vegetation software to better understand tick prevalence in residential areas and risk factors.

• Tick numbers in Indiana residential areas growing
• Social distancing could put Hoosiers at greater risk for tick-borne illnesses
• Explainer: Is climate change making Indiana more welcoming to ticks?
• Explainer: Who is at risk of contracting a tick-borne disease?

• Using i-Tree Canopy Vegetation Cover subtype Classification to Predict Peri-domestic Tick presence
• Preventing tick-bites among children in Indiana, USA: An analysis of factors associated with parental protective behavior
• Relationship Between Tick Activity, Tick-Borne Diseases, Cognitive and Affective Risk Assessment in Peri-domestic Areas
• Predictors of tick exposure risk-reduction behavior in Indiana
• Prevalence of Risk and Protective Factors for Tick Exposure and Tick-Borne Disease among Residents of Indiana
• Spatial clusters and non-spatial predictors of tick-borne disease diagnosis in Indiana