Research Description

Midwest Center of Excellence for Vector Borne Disease

I co-direct the Midwest Center of Excellence for Vector Borne Disease and many of our projects are related to the goals of the Center.  Check out the link below for more information about other Center activities.

http://mcevbd.wisc.edu/

  1.  Human/tick interactions.  We worked with collaborators to develop The Tick App as a research and education tool and are analyzing the resulting data sets.  https://tickapp.us/
  2. Human/tick interactions.  We are investigating the impacts of Public Health educational strategies on reducing the risk of Lyme disease.
  3. Management of deer ticks.  We are testing strategies to reduce the abundance of deer ticks around households, including methods to target mice, and pesticide products that control ticks in the lawn and at the lawn/forest edge. We are assessing how well natural products work to reduce ticks under real-world conditions.
  4. Management of mosquitoes that transmit West Nile virus. We are measuring the problem of insecticide resistance in mosquito larvae and adults in the Chicago area, a hotspot for human infections with WNV. We are also collaborating on projects to determine the best strategies for mitigating resistance.
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