By Kathleen Berger, executive Producer for Sceince and Technology

The time has come to let loose and enjoy the outdoors and everything the summer season has to offer. But don’t forget about ticks! It may be the summer season, but it’s also tick season.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, tickborne diseases are on the rise. That means if you’re outdoors, you need to take precautions.

Meg Gilliland knows the drill. Meg lives it, because Meg’s job includes looking for ticks of every kind!

In the grasslands of Tyson Research Center, WashU’s environmental field station near Eureka, Meg uses a flap and drag method with a white flannel flag. It’s a technique known as tick flagging. The flagging collects questing ticks grabbing onto the cloth, as ticks are actively searching for a host. Lone star ticks are commonly found during the searches, which is the case during the HEC Media video shoot.

“We take them back to the lab and then we put them in our minus 80-degree Celsius freezer,” said Meg Gilliland, Research Lab Technician and Manager at Tyson Research Center.

And after the intense freeze, the lone star ticks are sent to the lab of collaborator Whitney Anthonysamy, Associate Professor of Biology at University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy in St. Louis (UHSP).

“My specific role with my students is we test these ticks for a specific bacterial pathogen that causes Ehrlichiosis, which is a disease ticks can transmit to humans causing fevers, body aches, flu-like symptoms,” said Anthonysamy.

Anthonysamy’s research with ticks evolved from her role as co-principal investigator of the St. Louis Wildlife Project, a collaboration with WashU researchers. She’s been working alongside co-principal investigator Solny Adalsteinsson, a senior scientist at Tyson Research Center. Ticks became part of their journey as Adalsteinsson happens to be the tick expert, with multiple tick projects in the works. Adalsteinsson leads the center’s tick and wildlife ecology team.

Through her work, a recent tick discovery is sounding the alarms. The longhorned tick was recently found in the forest of Tyson Research Center. The discovery became big news because it’s a tick the Missouri Department of Agriculture said poses a serious threat. The longhorned tick was collected and identified by a WashU undergraduate researcher, Sam Ko.

WashU researchers are now working closely with partners at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and St. Louis County to track the spread of longhorned ticks. A recent WashU grant will support longhorned tick investigations in the region.

Longhorned ticks are a serious threat to livestock, forming large infestations on one animal, causing great stress. A severe infestation can even kill the animal due to blood loss. The ticks may also transmit diseases to humans.

“We don’t know yet if any of these individuals that have shown up in the U.S. have brought those diseases along with them,” said Adalsteinsson. “One of the groups of folks that are most concerned are livestock producers because this tick can reach such high densities that it can kill animals, purely from blood loss alone.”

In Missouri, the first longhorned tick in the state was collected four years ago. According to Washington University in St. Louis, there were five confirmed reports in rural counties before the recent discovery in St. Louis County. And if there is one in the St. Louis area, there could be more.

The research team has partnered with St. Louis County on its effort to collect and identify ticks through its community science project Tick Watch STL.: https://stlouiscountymo.gov/st-louis-county-departments/public-health/vector-borne-disease-prevention/citizen-science/tick-watch-stl/