Tick surveillance of Tennessee schoolyards

We estimate about 50% of Tennessee school districts are using integrated pest management that reduces and balances risks from pests and pesticides to school occupants and the environment. When COVID-19 prevention measures limited our access to the interior of demonstration schools in 2020 and 2021, we decided to focus on outdoor public health pests – one that may cause severe, acute health effects through venomous stings (fire ants) and another that may cause chronic, debilitating health effects through the transmission of a pathogen (ticks). While we have addressed fire ants in the past, we expanded our efforts to include tick surveillance due to the increased presence of Ixodes scapularis, the black-legged tick (and primary vector of Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease) in eastern Tennessee. Public schoolyards of two eastern Tennessee counties were dragged for ticks once each season along fence lines, tree/shrub lines, and playground edges. Because the exotic, invasive Asian longhorned tick Haemaphysalis longicornis was recently established in Tennessee, we chose Roane County with an established population of H. longicornis and Claiborne County where H. longicornis had been detected to determine if this tick was also found in schoolyards. Adult Ixodes scapularis were detected in the late winter collections, and adult and nymphal lone star ticks, Amblyomma americanum; adult American dog ticks, Dermacentor variabilis; and adult I. scapularis were collected in late spring. School contacts will be informed of the survey results and advised how to prevent tick bites.