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ViewAttendees 5

Section Symposium

Medical, Urban, and Veterinary Entomology

Healthy People, Places, and Animals: One Health at the Arthropod Vector-Animal-Landscape Interface

Evaluating the use of small mammal nest boxes to improve surveillance systems for blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis) in a region of recent population expansion

Wednesday, November 8, 2023
9:39 AM - 9:53 AM ET
Location: Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center, Potomac D
In-Person

    Presenting Author(s)

  • William L. Miller (he/him/his)

    Assistant Professor of Biology
    Calvin University
    Grand Rapids, Michigan

    • Co-author(s)

  • AV

    Andrew Vander Tuig

    Student Research Fellow
    Midwest Center of Excellence for Vector-Borne Disease
    Grand Rapids, Michigan

  • XL

    Xia Lee

    Research Scientist
    Midwest Center of Excellence for Vector-Borne Disease
    Madison, Wisconsin

  • BD

    Braden DeWeerd

    Summer Research Fellow
    Calvin University
    Grand Rapids, Michigan

  • AK

    Andre Kapteyn

    Summer Research Fellow
    Calvin University
    Grand Rapids, Michigan

  • EC

    Emily Chizek

    Summer Research Fellow
    Calvin University
    Grand Rapids, Michigan

  • ES

    Emilia Shokoohi

    Summer Research Fellow
    Calvin University
    Grand Rapids, Michigan

  • SP

    Susan Paskewitz

    Professor of Entomology
    Midwest Center of Excellence for Vector-Borne Disease
    Madison, Wisconsin

  • Jean I. Tsao

    Associate Professor
    Michigan State University
    East Lansing, Michigan

Surveillance for disease-carrying ticks can inform risk assessment efforts and public health outreach, especially in regions where tick-related illnesses are increasing. Typical surveillance methods include collection by drag-cloth sampling and directly from hosts, but these methods require active sampling by trained professionals. Blacklegged ticks (Ixodes scapularis), the primary vector for the Lyme disease bacterium (Borrelia burgdorferi), can be recovered from deer mouse (Peromyscus sp.) nests. Small mammal nest box surveillance may be a feasible sampling method in emergent areas. Nest boxes were deployed at seven sites in west Michigan during summer 2022 to test their effectiveness as a surveillance tool. Sites were chosen to represent a variety of tick densities (0.00 to 114.71 ticks per 1000 m2 based on 2021 drag sampling) and ecological contexts (e.g., backdune, suburban, and forested parks). Ticks were recovered from nest boxes at four sites, which corresponded to a range of drag sample densities (2.67 to 32.00 ticks per 1000 m2) and live capture counts (1.80 to 3.47 ticks per host). Nest boxes were redeployed during summer 2023 at six sites across the urban-suburban interface in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Ticks were recovered from nest boxes at three sites (drag densities from 2.93 to 17.89 ticks per 1000 m2). These results indicated that nest boxes could be a useful surveillance tool for determining the presence of blacklegged ticks in emergent areas and across urban-rural gradients, although nest box sampling seemed less sensitive than active sampling techniques.