Researchers seek Beltrami County help with tick disease study

Dr. Jen Meece and Dr. Alexandra Linz are asking Beltrami County residents to help track ticks and tick-borne disease in the upper Midwest, part of a Marshfield Clinic Research Institute effort now inside the Sanford Health network. The researchers want people to send in ticks they find outdoors and, separately, to share stories about Lyme disease or other tick infections through the TICS-LENS project.

Blacklegged ticks, also called deer ticks, are found in wooded and brushy areas and can turn up in yards near wooded habitat, while American dog ticks are found throughout the state; blacklegged ticks cause the most tickborne disease in Minnesota.

In northern Minnesota, the main tick-borne diseases are Lyme disease, anaplasmosis and babesiosis. Lyme is the most common tickborne illness in the state, and early signs can include fever, chills, headache, muscle or joint pain, fatigue and, in many cases, a rash. Tickborne disease risk is highest from late spring into summer, the same stretch when Beltrami County residents spend more time on the lake, in the woods and on local trails.

Researchers still do not know enough about which tick species are established in the region, where they are concentrated and which pathogens they are carrying. In Wisconsin, the citizen-science project collected nearly 6,000 ticks a year in 2024 and 2025, mostly American dog ticks and deer ticks, and it turned up rarer species such as the lone star tick; it still needs to know whether some warmer-climate ticks are breeding in the Midwest or just appearing by chance. People can request a prepaid collection kit by calling 1-715-389-7796, extension 16462. A tick submission is not required for the story collection effort.