Summer isn’t just mosquito season – it’s the high point for another disease-carrying pest: ticks. The tiny arachnids can carry all sorts of diseases and bacteria.
Dr. Michael Allen, who runs the tick-borne disease lab at the University of North Texas Health Science Center, tests hundreds of ticks in his lab. Texas residents can send them for free to see if the tick that bit them carried anything nasty.
Allen says they’re testing hundreds of ticks in the UNTHSC lab as a public health service. “It allows us to maintain and keep an idea on the prevalence of certain diseases out there,” he says.
What you’ll hear in this segment:
– The rates of Lyme disease in Texas
–Ongoing research at UNT about why Texas has a relatively low rate of Lyme disease
– How to identify the Lone Star tick and where the name comes from
