BDN interviews Griffin Dill about tick precautions

Griffin Dill, coordinator of the tick ID program at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, spoke with the Bangor Daily News for the article, “Are ticks keeping kids indoors? Maine schools help educate families about Lyme, other tick-borne diseases.” Last year, 1,200 probable and confirmed cases of Lyme disease were reported to the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention by residents from all 16 counties in Maine, with the highest rate of cases among school-aged children, according to the article. Dill said the UMaine Tick ID Lab receives a lot of ticks from parents and has gotten calls from school officials who are concerned about ticks near their playgrounds. Currently, the UMaine Tick ID Lab only identifies the species of a tick, the article states. However, the university is in the process of building a new facility where researchers will also be able to test whether or not a tick is carrying a certain disease. This new lab is scheduled to open sometime next year, according to Dill. “We don’t want people to be afraid,” Dill said. “The big thing that people need to do is just getting in the habit of performing tick checks after being outside.”