O’NEILL – Summer is in full swing now and the North Central District Health Department is busy collecting ticks for observation by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
People are encouraged to become citizen scientists as part of the Tick Tag Go program, a community-powered effort to establish baseline data on tick distributions in the state and promote tick safety.
With new tick species being identified in Nebraska, records of tick presence are critical to understanding which species are found in which locations.
This project relies on passive surveillance – the collection of ticks that people come across in their daily routines and activities on themselves and others they care for. Ticks can carry serious diseases.
The idea is for people to submit their photos to the Tick Tag Go website to acquire the data and an identification will be determined, if possible.
NCDHD, based in O’Neill, is pushing for as many as participants as possible and has created a Facebook event for people to like and share to encourage community members to become citizen scientists and help to identify the tick species in their area.
The health department serves the counties of Antelope, Boyd, Brown, Cherry, Holt, Keya Paha, Knox, Pierce and Rock.
For more information about Nebraska ticks and tick safety, people may visit Nebraska One Health’s Tick Tag Go website at TickTagGo. unl.edu, or www.inaturalist.org/projects/tick-tag-go.
