The Illinois Department of Public Health awarded a $450,000 grant to the Medical Entomology Lab at the Illinois Natural History Survey for a two-year project supporting statewide mosquito, tick, and biting midge surveillance. Besides collecting these biting arthropods, the lab will test specimens for pathogens and insecticide resistance.
Chris Stone, a medical entomologist and director of the lab, said researchers started collecting ticks throughout the autumn, when adult blacklegged ticks or deer ticks (Ixodes scapularis) are most active. Blacklegged ticks are major disease vectors associated with a variety of pathogens, including Lyme disease, and several other species transmit additional pathogens.
To collect ticks, researchers drag white cloth sheets through natural areas such as parks and nature preserves—places where people are likely to encounter ticks. Nymphs and adult females are the most active “questing” stages: ticks climb vegetation, extend their forelimbs, and attach to passing hosts. Dragging mimics that encounter. Researchers remove the ticks from the sheets and bring them back to the lab for identification and molecular testing.
Illinois residents and visitors can contribute to surveillance by submitting ticks they encounter.
The lab also uses a variety of trapping methods to collect mosquitoes and biting midges statewide. These efforts track the locations of different species, how their populations shift over time, and whether they carry emerging viruses that can spread to humans.
Illinois residents can help track the spread of the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus), a vector of many diseases like dengue fever, by requesting a kit through the Mosquito Ambassador Program.