December 6, 2023 • 30 mins
Ticks are often brushed off as a seasonal nuisance, but our latest episode of Science by the Slice, "Tick Talk," challenges our assumptions and sheds light on the vital importance of public education. Learn from Dr. Lauri Baker and Cheng-Xian Yang as they share research on public perceptions and behaviors related to ticks and linkages between outdoor activities and tick-borne illness risks, such as meat allergies and Lyme disease. This emphasizes the need for education and preparation, especially for those engaging in activities like hunting or visiting agricultural properties. Moreover, the conversation reveals how the analysis of online searches and social media trends can provide valuable insights into public perception and behavior toward ticks for enhancing risk communication and educating the public on tick prevention.
This episode highlights social science research conducted in partnership with the Southeastern Center of Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases, a CDC-funded Center that works to prevent and control vector-borne disease threats.
Resources:
PIE Center tick project webpage
Southeastern Center of Excellence in Vector-Borne Diseases website
Transcripts available here: https://piecenter.com/media/podcast/#transcript
Are you an educator? The Science by the Slice podcast aims to inform diverse audiences about important issues in agriculture, natural resources, and public health. Check out our learning guides that were created as an educational tool to facilitate discussions related to the topics presented in podcast episodes. Download the learning guides here: https://piecenter.com/media/podcast/learn/
Music "Sequoia" by SalmonLikeTheFish at https://freemusicarchive.org/music/SalmonLikeTheFish/Music_for_the_Sleepy_Traveler/04_-_Sequoia/ Under CC BY license Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 DEED), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
The views, information, or opinions expressed by guest speakers on Science by the Slice are solely those of the individuals and do not necessarily represent those of the UF/IFAS Center for Public Issues Education or the University of Florida.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Phillip Stokes (00:00):
Hello and welcome to Science by the Slice.
My name is Phillip Stokes,Education Coordinator with the
PIE Center. And today, I'mjoined by Karlibeth Leitheiser,
really happy to have her herebecause she's leading today's
episode and conversation withour researchers. So first off
currently, Karlibeth, thanks somuch for being here.
Karlibeth Leitheiser (00:18):
Hi, thank you, Phillip for having me. I'm
really excited to share thispodcast with everyone. So as you
said, my name is KarlibethLeitheiser, and I am a Master's
student over at the Departmentof Agricultural Education and
Communication at the Universityof Florida. I've also worked
with the PIE Center for the pasttwo years as support staff with
their education initiatives. AndI'm leading today's podcast on
(00:40):
ticks with some of ourresearchers here at the PIE
Center.
Phillip Stokes (00:43):
Okay, so you just mentioned it. You're
leading the conversation onticks, and some of the research
that has been done by the PIECenter. But before we get into
that, did you know much aboutticks before this conversation?
Or what did you know what wasyour experience with ticks?
Karlibeth Leitheiser (00:56):
Right. So before kind of conversing with
these researchers, my one corememory associated with ticks was
when I went to Girl Scout campwhen I was probably about eight
or nine years old. I went to aday camp all day long, where I
was out in the woods doingobstacle courses and climbing
and things like that. And I hadcome home, my parents picked me
up and I was there and I saw Ihad a tick on my stomach. And
(01:19):
that is horrifying to any eightor nine year old who is afraid
of bugs or has never seen atick. This bug is stuck to my
skin and will not come off. AndI learned that day that my
parents had also never reallyencountered tics before. Because
my mom immediately tried topluck it off of me like it was a
(01:40):
flea or any other bug. And ifyou know how ticks attached to
you, you know that that is not avery effective method of
removal. So the tick was stillstuck on me. So my dad, you
know, Googled different ways toget it off. And the best way
seemed like to take a burntblowout match to the tick to
have the heat kind of wean itoff. That did not work, the
(02:03):
blown out match did not. So hehad the bright idea to use a lit
match, which did get the tickoff but left me with one little
tiny burn mark that I was notvery happy about and overall not
a good experience for me as achild going through it. And I
still think back to it.
Phillip Stokes (02:24):
You know and Karlibeth, I think your story is
probably relatable to a lot ofpeople listening because there's
so much information about youknow what to do in situations
like this. And sometimes wedon't exactly know, which is
right where we heard theinformation, which is credible.
And so today, we're gonna get tosome of that specifically about
(02:46):
some of the search behavior andwhat people are really looking
at and looking for on the web.
Right?
Karlibeth Leitheiser (02:52):
Right. So today we will be talking with
Dr. Lauri Baker and Cheng-XianYang. Both are here over at the
PIE Center. And they will sharetheir research they've been
working on they've been workingon it grant with a couple
different studies, but they talkmore about that in detail in the
actual podcast.
Phillip Stokes (03:09):
Well thank you so much, Karlibeth. We'll start
the episode.
Ricky Telg (03:17):
This is Science by the Slice, a podcast from the
University of Florida'sInstitute of Food and
Agricultural Sciences Center forPublic Issues Education. In this
podcast, experts discuss thescience of issues affecting our
daily lives, reveal themotivations behind the decisions
people make, and ultimatelyprovide insight to solutions for
our lives.
Phillip Stokes (03:43):
Hey, everyone, it's Phillip again. We're gonna
jump right into the conversationwhere Karlibeth is asking Dr.
Lauri Baker about her previousexperience with ticks prior to
doing this research
Karlibeth Leitheiser (03:54):
Anyway, did you ever think that you
would be working with ticks orworking with tick information?
Lauri Baker (03:58):
No, I would say if I had to select a favorite
animal when I was a child, itprobably wasn't a tick. I did
pick a fair amount of ticks offof my boys when they were little
mostly in Kansas, though I don'tthink I've pulled a single tick
off of them since we've moved toFlorida. But I would take the
ticks off of them and save themin the freezer. Because if
(04:20):
anything ever happened, and theyhad something I wanted to be
able to take it to the doctorand identify the tick. And so
then when we moved to Florida,and I cleaned out my freezer, I
had a ridiculous amount of tickslabeled by the day and the child
that I pulled them off of.
Karlibeth Leitheiser (04:36):
Right and then some people might not even
think about that, like, oh, Ishould save the ticks.
Lauri Baker (04:41):
Right. I'm not even sure how I knew to do that.
Except maybe our doctor orpediatrician told us at one
point in time to save them. Butyeah, it's really delightful
along your frozen vegetables andchicken nuggets a side of ticks.
Karlibeth Leitheiser (04:55):
Right and so since we're talking about
your work with ticks or tickresearch, could you tell me a
little bit about your currentposition and your role in
research and what grant projectsyou're working on?
Lauri Baker (05:06):
Yeah, absolutely. I am currently an associate
professor in AgriculturalEducation and Communication. And
I have a 65% researchappointment and 35% Extension
appointment. And essentially,the work that I do both for
research and extension is withinthe PIE Center. So it fits in
nicely with the things that arehappening on this podcast. And
(05:30):
we often get an opportunity tostudy really unique topics and
dig in deeply on a variety ofagricultural issues and Natural
Resources issues. And so theproject that we're talking about
today specifically, is acollaboration with the
Southeastern Center forVector-Borne Disease, which is a
(05:51):
CDC funded Center. And the leadson this project are
epidemiologists andentomologists. And they work
heavily in this area inunderstanding ticks and public
health concerns around those.
And we are simply the socialscience side of that. So we're
understanding the aspectsrelated to human behavior,
involving ticks and knowledgeand understanding in multiple
(06:12):
spaces so that the public can bebetter prepared and understand
the health issues involvingticks.
Karlibeth Leitheiser (06:23):
Right, and so you kind of brushed on it.
But so what's the issue here?
Why should people or ourlisteners be concerned about
ticks?
Lauri Baker (06:33):
I think ticks are something that we all kind of
know are a problem. I thinkanyone that has a small animal
and takes them to the vet, theyregularly are receiving some
form of education about whyticks are a problem for your
animal. Maybe you're on amonthly treatment plan or things
like that. But sometimes wedon't think about protecting
(06:53):
ourselves. And right now,particularly in the southeastern
United States, a lot of new tickvarieties have come to the area
that that we hadn't seen inrecent years. And so those can
have a variety of challenges forpeople healthwise, that can get
tick diseases from these. Twothat we're kind of highlighting
(07:16):
right now and paying attentionto our the lone star tick. And
the lone star tick isparticularly of concern for many
of our ag families out there,because we tend to be red meat
eaters, not everybody. But thereare certainly a lot of us that
that enjoy eating red meat. Andmaybe also engage in activities
(07:38):
where ticks are present workingoutside hunting, those kinds of
activities or enjoying thenatural resources. And so the
lone star tick in particular hasbeen connected to Alpha-gal
syndrome, which is an allergy tored meat. And so I think for
many of us, that would ruin alot of traditions in our family
(07:59):
and things that we typicallythink of gathering around and
doing together having, you know,a barbecue, and those types of
activities. So that can reallyaffect people's lives and
certainly affects people'shealth in other ways. The other
one that we're really concernedfor agricultural producers is
the Asian Longhorned tick. Andthat tick is concerning for more
(08:23):
for animals than for humans. Andso it can bite humans, but there
aren't as many challengesassociated with it. But cats and
dogs, and really cattle inparticularly calves, we have a
lot of concern for them. Therehave been cases where entire
herds of cattle have been wipedout by this tick. And so it's
(08:43):
something we want to make surepeople are aware of and planning
for and treating their fieldsand their pastures, as well as
paying attention to the ticksthat might be spread by their
small animals are by themselves.
Karlibeth Leitheiser (08:56):
Right. So it sounds like ticks are
definitely a pressing issue,whether you're a homeowner or
producer or just outside a lot.
Some people have that beliefthat ticks are only a problem
for certain parts of the year,maybe in the summer months, or
even for certain parts of theUnited States. Maybe it's more
out west. Could you talk alittle bit more about how this
might be a year round issue?
Lauri Baker (09:18):
Absolutely. And I think it is important that you
bring up these ideas of mythsaround this area, because that's
part of what we like to look atat the PIE Center right are
these public perceptions andoften perception can become
reality. So we aren't reallysure where we heard it. But over
time, maybe we develop a beliefthat in the winter, I can hang
out all the time that I want andI'm not going to get a bite from
(09:41):
a tick or or from any otherinsect and unfortunately, that's
not really true. While tickbites and tick diseases are more
prevalent in the summer months,it's still possible to be bitten
by a tick during the coolermonths and in fact the CDC tells
us that anytime thetemperature's above freezing,
there's a possibility forgetting a tick bite. And some of
(10:04):
these ticks in particular canbite in all different stages. So
again, some of those publicperceptions may be like, well, a
tick larva is not really goingto bite me, well, that's not
necessarily true. Some of thesecan bite in all of their life
cycles.
Karlibeth Leitheiser (10:20):
And so now that we have a little bit of
background information on whatticks are, what the concern is,
could you talk more about thesestudies you have carried out
about ticks?
Lauri Baker (10:30):
Absolutely, I'd be happy to we are, again, really
focused on that publicperception and understanding
around ticks. And so one of theways we've approached this
research is through the healthbelief model. And within that
model, it really talks aboutpeople aren't going to make a
decision related to theirhealth, if they don't believe
(10:51):
it's a problem. And so the morewe can kind of understand what
risks people see both forthemselves and for their
animals, and for theirlivelihoods and their families,
the more that they believe thosethings are a problem, the more
they're going to be willing totake action to preventing
problems associated with it. Soone of the very first things
(11:14):
that we did on this project wasto look at what kind of online
messages were being shared aboutticks and tick diseases and
risks around those, as well aswhat types of behaviors people
had and what they were searchingfor, on an online environment.
And Cheng-Xian Yang has beenreally crucial to this effort
(11:35):
and it has been a part of hisgraduate work that he's focused
on identifying some of theseissues with us, both looking at
searches in Google Trends, aswell as tweets on Twitter, or
now as we call it, X. And so Iwould like for him to share a
little bit about that researchand what we found.
Cheng-Xian Yang (11:54):
Hi, I'm Cheng-Xian. And I am a research
assistant working with Dr.
Baker, and we work on some tickrisk communication research, and
one of them is focusing onGoogle Trends. And it is like
use Google Trends to search forthe tick risk communication
research and analyzing onlinesearch behavior related to
(12:16):
tick-borne diseases. So GoogleTrends is a free online search
tool that allows users to seehow frequently a search term or
topic has been searched for onGoogle during a specific time
and area. So we observed thecorrelations to of specific
search terms between someoutdoor activities and ticks. By
(12:38):
doing so we can predictpotential tick borne disease
risks through online healthinformation seeking behavior. So
to be more specific, it is likewhen a positive correlation
exist between the two terms inmay reflect that people are more
likely to be exposed to tickborne diseases when they engage
(13:00):
in that kind of outdooractivities. So based on the
analysis of the differentregions, states with higher
searches for like the corn maze,are correlated with increased
searches for meat allergy. Also,states with more searches for
hunting can show a higherfrequency of searches for the
(13:24):
ticks. So if we look from theanother aspect, from the
time-based analysis, we candiscover that a significant
correlation between the termslike U-Pick, park, and hiking
with the high with tick-relatedrisks such as ticks, tick bites,
and Lyme disease. So thissuggests that engaging in these
(13:49):
outdoor activities in the USduring tick seasons may increase
the risk of tick bites,emphasizing the need for tick
repellents.
Karlibeth Leitheiser (14:00):
Thank you, Cheng-Xian, that was really
interesting to hear how you knowthat social media presence can
kind of tell us what the habitsof regular people are with
ticks. So thank you for that.
Dr. Baker, did you have anycomments about that research or
the findings?
Lauri Baker (14:15):
Yeah, I think it's been really interesting for us
to see that those trends of whenwe think about tick bites are
also what we're seeing in thedata on people's searches. So
one thing that we can say asCheng-Xian kind of highlighted
is that there is this connectionthat people are likely searching
for that red meat allergy duringthose seasons, where maybe they
(14:38):
have experienced a tick bite orstarting to have some symptoms
and are wondering what'shappening. And so those trending
upward during certain timescertainly aligns with what we're
seeing, as far as reports inthose areas. The other aspect
that that's interesting issometimes what we didn't
necessarily find as much of andso, people there were high
(14:59):
correlations with the U-Picksand the parks, but there weren't
as significant correlations withcorn mazes. And so those types
of things may offer anopportunity for agricultural
organizations, agritourismefforts to do a better job of
having signage, havingrepellents available, or
(15:21):
commuting, communicating withpeople online ahead of time to
be prepared. We don't want tomake people overly scared. But
we also want to make sure thatwe are doing our part to prepare
people that might be visitingour property or might be
experiencing these issues. Wealso kind of saw hunting wasn't
as prominent, which not allagricultural producers are
(15:44):
hunters, but a lot of them are.
So that's another opportunityfor education in that space,
particularly people that aredeer hunters. Ticks really enjoy
deer. And so people that arepreparing for those activities.
Again, the Google searches arenot, you know, standalone
information, they may be gettinginformation elsewhere, maybe
they aren't searching for thatinformation, because they
(16:05):
already know that information.
But it helps give us a pictureof what's happening as far as
public perceptions around thecorrelation of those activities
and those associated diseases.
Cheng-Xian Yang (16:17):
For another interesting finding is that we
discover on negativecorrelations between the word
One of the other pieces of thisproject that we've been doing
hunting and some tick riskterms. And it is not surprise
because it usually for thewhite-tailed deer, which is
primary hunting target in NorthAmerica, are most actively
(16:37):
hunted from September toJanuary, which is not the
tick-borne season. However,during the October and November,
these are the time that theadult blacklegged ticks are most
active. And these ticks areimportant carriers of Lyme
disease germs and can infectwhite-tailed deers. So we infer
(17:00):
that maybe the hunters may notbe fully aware of this seasonal
tick actively and may assumethat ticks are active only
during the summer. So thisemphasizes that the importance
of targeted risk communicationefforts for hunters to ensure
that they receive accurateinformation and take necessary
(17:22):
precautions against tick-relatedrisks.
during the first year, was alsounderstanding what kind of
social media conversations weregoing on not just searches for
this kind of information. And soCheng-Xian again, took a really
active role in this aspect ofunderstanding what kinds of
(17:43):
conversations were happening andwhat kinds of risk messages were
happening on Twitter. So I'mgonna pass it to him and let him
explain a little bit more aboutwhat we found in that research
and why it's important.
Okay, for the Twitter research,we focus on analyzing the
Twitter, the content about atick-borne diseases and the
(18:04):
prevention. So we also want toknow what kind of information on
the social media will have ahigher engagement rate. So in
our result, we discovered thaton Twitter, like the tweets talk
about a tick-related issues,there are more than half of them
is without a visual information,such as the pictures or some
(18:27):
graphs, graphics, however, wediscovered that if a tweets that
is with the visual informationwill significantly have higher
engagement rates than thosewithout the visual information.
So this result can support thattweets with visual aids tend to
have a higher public engagementrates, making scientific
(18:52):
information more accessible andencouraging interaction to risks
on social media. So people aremore willing to reply or retweet
these kinds of information. Onthe other hand, another
interesting thing is the tweetswith URL will usually have lower
engagement rate than thosewithout the URLs. So the URLs
(19:17):
can really provide additionalsources and extended knowledge.
But the communicators shouldstill consider to provide enough
information in the tweet itself,instead of only rely on the
external links, because not allthe people will really click
into that URLs.
Lauri Baker (19:36):
Yeah, thanks, Cheng-Xian. I think that's a
really important finding forscience communicators that may
be listening is that not only dowe need to have that visual
aspect, which I think issomething we've heard over and
over again. I feel like there'sa tendency, perhaps maybe more
from faculty than from full timecommunicators to say, well, I
already have this in a factsheet. So I'll just tweet out
(19:58):
this URL and it has all theinformation. Well, what we've
seen in this research is peoplethen aren't clicking on that
information, they're notengaging with that content the
same way they would if theinformation was included within
the tweet with a visual, moreengaging, I think an opportunity
exists for us to create bettervisuals and better tweets. And
(20:22):
perhaps in a reply, we caninclude the fact sheet as a URL
for those who really do want todig deeper and engage with that
content. But if we're reallytrying to reach more people, and
not just repeat a URL, thatwe've probably shared other
places and can be found otherplaces, we really have to do a
better job of creating messagesthat resonate with people and
(20:44):
images that resonate withpeople, even though it might
require a little bit more workthan sharing a URL.
Karlibeth Leitheiser (20:51):
Thank you.
I think that's a very valuablepiece of information to take
away from this, especially forour science communicators out
there. And so you talked a lotabout when people are tweeting
about ticks, what they'retweeting about ticks, what's a
key takeaway that you learnedfrom the online engagement
either for tick prevention ortick current public perception?
Lauri Baker (21:11):
Well, one of the things we really looked at were
the different types of messagesthat were being used and how
they were being framed. And sowhile we looked at that, we also
looked at who was doing thetweeting, and what we often find
in these situations is it's thesame people that are sharing
that information. And they oftenare government organizations,
(21:35):
organizations that are reallypassionate about this area, or
this aspect. But I think there'sa real opportunity to engage
some of those perhaps microinfluencers in this area,
perhaps people that have theirown agritourism operations, or
mom bloggers or dad bloggers,who are taking their children to
these types of events or who arehunting with their families. So
(21:58):
I think there's an opportunityto expand this messaging, once
again, it's it's over a one yearperiod, it's in a small
timeframe, but we can reallylearn how to change some of the
trajectory and the conversationsand make this something that
people think about before theyengage in these types of
activities.
Karlibeth Leitheiser (22:17):
Right. And so you did a really great job
explaining your previousstudies, and that kind of looked
at what information is alreadyout there. Do you have any
current or ongoing or futurestudies about this research that
you plan on doing in the future?
Lauri Baker (22:31):
Yes, absolutely.
Now that we have kind of gottenthe landscape, if you will, of
what's happening online relatedto tick search behavior, and
related to conversations aroundticks and tick diseases, we're
moving into the survey phasewhere we really want to
understand directly from ouragriculture and natural
resources audiences first, ifwhat they know about ticks,
(22:54):
particularly these two ticks,the lone star tick and the Asian
Longhorn tick. So we'regathering people's perceptions
about their knowledge related toticks, their knowledge related
to prevention behaviors, and wewould hope that some of our
listeners might be willing toparticipate in some of those
surveys that are happening thissemester, and maybe early next
(23:17):
into 2024, as well. And if theyhave more questions about this
project, they can go to our PIECenter website, and it simply
piecenter.com/ticktalk, and theycan find out how to take one of
those surveys, if they can justgive us 10 minutes of their
time, we'd love to hear fromthem. And then the next phase of
(23:38):
that is we're going to startlooking at other audiences. So
one of the things that we'velearned in our COVID research
and other research projects iswhen it comes to health and
diseases, people often trustmedical professionals as they
should. We are not medicalprofessionals. We're not
epidemiologist, we're notentomologists. So we want to
point them to those people. Butwe also want to find out what
(24:01):
those people know. And so, in2024, we're moving on to look at
health care professionals andtheir knowledge of ticks and
tick diseases, particularlythese ticks that are just
starting to come to thesoutheastern United States so we
can get a clearer perspective onthat. And then long term, we'll
be moving this into educationalassets around these topics so
(24:23):
that we can do a better job ofhelping people understand the
importance of tick preventionand education and have resources
to share in those conversations.
Karlibeth Leitheiser (24:36):
What is the takeaway from all of this
put together? What is your endgoal from all of this research?
Lauri Baker (24:42):
That's a fabulous question. I think one of the
reasons the CDC funded some ofthis work was because they also
see a need for public engagementon these topics. And the more
that the PIE Center can getinvolved in these kinds of
efforts and understand publicopinion and public understanding
around not just ticks and tickdiseases, but how people
(25:06):
understand and believe abouttheir health and the
consequences that they have thatthey can take control of and
empower people to make changesaround tick prevention, in this
case, or any of the other topicsthat we talk about, I think is
really the big so-what piece ofwhy we do this work.
Cheng-Xian Yang (25:25):
I think the big takeaway is find better
strategies for riskcommunication or risk
communicators. So for example,for the Google Trends, research,
we would like to, I mean, thisis a cool experience for me, at
least, because we use the bigdata to study health search
(25:46):
behavior, and the offerprevention suggestions. So for
example, by partnering withHealth organizations, it can be
our future step torecommendations, maybe we can
consider to collaborate withsome health organizations, such
as when people in tick-borneareas search for outdoor
(26:09):
activities, like corn maze, orhunting, we can use Google ads
to alert them about tick bornedisease risks, and educate them
on prevention, such as remindthem to prepare the tick repel
them with them, when they engagein these kind of outdoor
activities. Or also, we couldcollaborate with some U-Pick
(26:30):
farms or corn mazes, to spreadthe prevention messages on their
websites to reduce the riskassociated with these
activities.
Karlibeth Leitheiser (26:40):
Right, I never really thought about that
point of using advertisementsfor health education. I kind of
think back to COVID, when therewas wear your mask signs
everywhere, or, you know,vaccination advertisements. But
I think it's also veryapplicable to other health
issues, like ticks and tickborne diseases. So that's a
really great takeaway.
Lauri Baker (26:58):
And I think we are moving into a society where
public opinion is driving a lotof industries. So I think health
industry is similar in that wayis, sometimes we see crisis and
risk breakout in an onlineenvironment or pop up in
something really unique and aReddit thread, right, and then
(27:18):
it moves to more mainstream. SoI do think that that's one
aspect that we've been able tobring to the project that's a
little unique is looking notjust at how many infections have
been reported, how many doctorsare identifying these issues,
but how much is the publiccurious about these issues? And
(27:38):
that certainly speaks to howmuch concern they have around
those. And while we can't makedirect correlations between
infection rates and Googlesearches, we can certainly do
some thinking in that process.
And I think that's part of why Ithink we're really proud to be
involved in this work. And we'regrateful that the
(27:59):
epidemiologists in particularhave seen the value that the
social science work can bring tothis because they certainly
measure things in a differentway. Okay, well, we have this
many infections, we maybe areactually going out in the field.
And people in other parts ofthis project are going out into
fields and dragging for ticks tosee what the tick populations
(28:21):
look like during differentmonths. And we have that data.
But again, that doesn't reallyshow how much it's impacting
people. And so I love to seethat much of the work from the
CDC. And we've seen this in USDAprojects and other projects is
integrating that social sciencequestion of, well, what do
people think and what are theyconcerned about? Because
(28:43):
sometimes that can actually bemore important than the actual
infection rates, until they getto a point where it's really
drastic. So I feel like that'sthe place where we can combine
public education to step in andalleviate some of those concerns
before they even become majorconcerns.
Karlibeth Leitheiser (29:05):
Well, thank you so much, Dr. Baker,
and Cheng-Xian for joining ustoday and sharing your research
and knowledge on this topic witheveryone listening out there.
Lauri Baker (29:13):
Thank you, I appreciate being here. It's been
fun.
Cheng-Xian Yang (29:15):
Thank you.
Ricky Telg (29:18):
Science by the Slice is produced by the UF/IFAS
Center for Public IssuesEducation in Agriculture and
Natural Resources. Thanks forlistening to today's episode.
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(29:41):
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Hello and welcome to Science by the Slice.
My name is Phillip Stokes,Education Coordinator with the
PIE Center. And today, I'mjoined by Karlibeth Leitheiser,
really happy to have her herebecause she's leading today's
episode and conversation withour researchers. So first off
currently, Karlibeth, thanks somuch for being here.
Karlibeth Leitheiser (00:18):
Hi, thank you, Phillip for having me. I'm
really excited to share thispodcast with everyone. So as you
said, my name is KarlibethLeitheiser, and I am a Master's
student over at the Departmentof Agricultural Education and
Communication at the Universityof Florida. I've also worked
with the PIE Center for the pasttwo years as support staff with
their education initiatives. AndI'm leading today's podcast on
(00:40):
ticks with some of ourresearchers here at the PIE
Center.
Phillip Stokes (00:43):
Okay, so you just mentioned it. You're
leading the conversation onticks, and some of the research
that has been done by the PIECenter. But before we get into
that, did you know much aboutticks before this conversation?
Or what did you know what wasyour experience with ticks?
Karlibeth Leitheiser (00:56):
Right. So before kind of conversing with
these researchers, my one corememory associated with ticks was
when I went to Girl Scout campwhen I was probably about eight
or nine years old. I went to aday camp all day long, where I
was out in the woods doingobstacle courses and climbing
and things like that. And I hadcome home, my parents picked me
up and I was there and I saw Ihad a tick on my stomach. And
(01:19):
that is horrifying to any eightor nine year old who is afraid
of bugs or has never seen atick. This bug is stuck to my
skin and will not come off. AndI learned that day that my
parents had also never reallyencountered tics before. Because
my mom immediately tried topluck it off of me like it was a
(01:40):
flea or any other bug. And ifyou know how ticks attached to
you, you know that that is not avery effective method of
removal. So the tick was stillstuck on me. So my dad, you
know, Googled different ways toget it off. And the best way
seemed like to take a burntblowout match to the tick to
have the heat kind of wean itoff. That did not work, the
(02:03):
blown out match did not. So hehad the bright idea to use a lit
match, which did get the tickoff but left me with one little
tiny burn mark that I was notvery happy about and overall not
a good experience for me as achild going through it. And I
still think back to it.
Phillip Stokes (02:24):
You know and Karlibeth, I think your story is
probably relatable to a lot ofpeople listening because there's
so much information about youknow what to do in situations
like this. And sometimes wedon't exactly know, which is
right where we heard theinformation, which is credible.
And so today, we're gonna get tosome of that specifically about
(02:46):
some of the search behavior andwhat people are really looking
at and looking for on the web.
Right?
Karlibeth Leitheiser (02:52):
Right. So today we will be talking with
Dr. Lauri Baker and Cheng-XianYang. Both are here over at the
PIE Center. And they will sharetheir research they've been
working on they've been workingon it grant with a couple
different studies, but they talkmore about that in detail in the
actual podcast.
Phillip Stokes (03:09):
Well thank you so much, Karlibeth. We'll start
the episode.
Ricky Telg (03:17):
This is Science by the Slice, a podcast from the
University of Florida'sInstitute of Food and
Agricultural Sciences Center forPublic Issues Education. In this
podcast, experts discuss thescience of issues affecting our
daily lives, reveal themotivations behind the decisions
people make, and ultimatelyprovide insight to solutions for
our lives.
Phillip Stokes (03:43):
Hey, everyone, it's Phillip again. We're gonna
jump right into the conversationwhere Karlibeth is asking Dr.
Lauri Baker about her previousexperience with ticks prior to
doing this research
Karlibeth Leitheiser (03:54):
Anyway, did you ever think that you
would be working with ticks orworking with tick information?
Lauri Baker (03:58):
No, I would say if I had to select a favorite
animal when I was a child, itprobably wasn't a tick. I did
pick a fair amount of ticks offof my boys when they were little
mostly in Kansas, though I don'tthink I've pulled a single tick
off of them since we've moved toFlorida. But I would take the
ticks off of them and save themin the freezer. Because if
(04:20):
anything ever happened, and theyhad something I wanted to be
able to take it to the doctorand identify the tick. And so
then when we moved to Florida,and I cleaned out my freezer, I
had a ridiculous amount of tickslabeled by the day and the child
that I pulled them off of.
Karlibeth Leitheiser (04:36):
Right and then some people might not even
think about that, like, oh, Ishould save the ticks.
Lauri Baker (04:41):
Right. I'm not even sure how I knew to do that.
Except maybe our doctor orpediatrician told us at one
point in time to save them. Butyeah, it's really delightful
along your frozen vegetables andchicken nuggets a side of ticks.
Karlibeth Leitheiser (04:55):
Right and so since we're talking about
your work with ticks or tickresearch, could you tell me a
little bit about your currentposition and your role in
research and what grant projectsyou're working on?
Lauri Baker (05:06):
Yeah, absolutely. I am currently an associate
professor in AgriculturalEducation and Communication. And
I have a 65% researchappointment and 35% Extension
appointment. And essentially,the work that I do both for
research and extension is withinthe PIE Center. So it fits in
nicely with the things that arehappening on this podcast. And
(05:30):
we often get an opportunity tostudy really unique topics and
dig in deeply on a variety ofagricultural issues and Natural
Resources issues. And so theproject that we're talking about
today specifically, is acollaboration with the
Southeastern Center forVector-Borne Disease, which is a
(05:51):
CDC funded Center. And the leadson this project are
epidemiologists andentomologists. And they work
heavily in this area inunderstanding ticks and public
health concerns around those.
And we are simply the socialscience side of that. So we're
understanding the aspectsrelated to human behavior,
involving ticks and knowledgeand understanding in multiple
(06:12):
spaces so that the public can bebetter prepared and understand
the health issues involvingticks.
Karlibeth Leitheiser (06:23):
Right, and so you kind of brushed on it.
But so what's the issue here?
Why should people or ourlisteners be concerned about
ticks?
Lauri Baker (06:33):
I think ticks are something that we all kind of
know are a problem. I thinkanyone that has a small animal
and takes them to the vet, theyregularly are receiving some
form of education about whyticks are a problem for your
animal. Maybe you're on amonthly treatment plan or things
like that. But sometimes wedon't think about protecting
(06:53):
ourselves. And right now,particularly in the southeastern
United States, a lot of new tickvarieties have come to the area
that that we hadn't seen inrecent years. And so those can
have a variety of challenges forpeople healthwise, that can get
tick diseases from these. Twothat we're kind of highlighting
(07:16):
right now and paying attentionto our the lone star tick. And
the lone star tick isparticularly of concern for many
of our ag families out there,because we tend to be red meat
eaters, not everybody. But thereare certainly a lot of us that
that enjoy eating red meat. Andmaybe also engage in activities
(07:38):
where ticks are present workingoutside hunting, those kinds of
activities or enjoying thenatural resources. And so the
lone star tick in particular hasbeen connected to Alpha-gal
syndrome, which is an allergy tored meat. And so I think for
many of us, that would ruin alot of traditions in our family
(07:59):
and things that we typicallythink of gathering around and
doing together having, you know,a barbecue, and those types of
activities. So that can reallyaffect people's lives and
certainly affects people'shealth in other ways. The other
one that we're really concernedfor agricultural producers is
the Asian Longhorned tick. Andthat tick is concerning for more
(08:23):
for animals than for humans. Andso it can bite humans, but there
aren't as many challengesassociated with it. But cats and
dogs, and really cattle inparticularly calves, we have a
lot of concern for them. Therehave been cases where entire
herds of cattle have been wipedout by this tick. And so it's
(08:43):
something we want to make surepeople are aware of and planning
for and treating their fieldsand their pastures, as well as
paying attention to the ticksthat might be spread by their
small animals are by themselves.
Karlibeth Leitheiser (08:56):
Right. So it sounds like ticks are
definitely a pressing issue,whether you're a homeowner or
producer or just outside a lot.
Some people have that beliefthat ticks are only a problem
for certain parts of the year,maybe in the summer months, or
even for certain parts of theUnited States. Maybe it's more
out west. Could you talk alittle bit more about how this
might be a year round issue?
Lauri Baker (09:18):
Absolutely. And I think it is important that you
bring up these ideas of mythsaround this area, because that's
part of what we like to look atat the PIE Center right are
these public perceptions andoften perception can become
reality. So we aren't reallysure where we heard it. But over
time, maybe we develop a beliefthat in the winter, I can hang
out all the time that I want andI'm not going to get a bite from
(09:41):
a tick or or from any otherinsect and unfortunately, that's
not really true. While tickbites and tick diseases are more
prevalent in the summer months,it's still possible to be bitten
by a tick during the coolermonths and in fact the CDC tells
us that anytime thetemperature's above freezing,
there's a possibility forgetting a tick bite. And some of
(10:04):
these ticks in particular canbite in all different stages. So
again, some of those publicperceptions may be like, well, a
tick larva is not really goingto bite me, well, that's not
necessarily true. Some of thesecan bite in all of their life
cycles.
Karlibeth Leitheiser (10:20):
And so now that we have a little bit of
background information on whatticks are, what the concern is,
could you talk more about thesestudies you have carried out
about ticks?
Lauri Baker (10:30):
Absolutely, I'd be happy to we are, again, really
focused on that publicperception and understanding
around ticks. And so one of theways we've approached this
research is through the healthbelief model. And within that
model, it really talks aboutpeople aren't going to make a
decision related to theirhealth, if they don't believe
(10:51):
it's a problem. And so the morewe can kind of understand what
risks people see both forthemselves and for their
animals, and for theirlivelihoods and their families,
the more that they believe thosethings are a problem, the more
they're going to be willing totake action to preventing
problems associated with it. Soone of the very first things
(11:14):
that we did on this project wasto look at what kind of online
messages were being shared aboutticks and tick diseases and
risks around those, as well aswhat types of behaviors people
had and what they were searchingfor, on an online environment.
And Cheng-Xian Yang has beenreally crucial to this effort
(11:35):
and it has been a part of hisgraduate work that he's focused
on identifying some of theseissues with us, both looking at
searches in Google Trends, aswell as tweets on Twitter, or
now as we call it, X. And so Iwould like for him to share a
little bit about that researchand what we found.
Cheng-Xian Yang (11:54):
Hi, I'm Cheng-Xian. And I am a research
assistant working with Dr.
Baker, and we work on some tickrisk communication research, and
one of them is focusing onGoogle Trends. And it is like
use Google Trends to search forthe tick risk communication
research and analyzing onlinesearch behavior related to
(12:16):
tick-borne diseases. So GoogleTrends is a free online search
tool that allows users to seehow frequently a search term or
topic has been searched for onGoogle during a specific time
and area. So we observed thecorrelations to of specific
search terms between someoutdoor activities and ticks. By
(12:38):
doing so we can predictpotential tick borne disease
risks through online healthinformation seeking behavior. So
to be more specific, it is likewhen a positive correlation
exist between the two terms inmay reflect that people are more
likely to be exposed to tickborne diseases when they engage
(13:00):
in that kind of outdooractivities. So based on the
analysis of the differentregions, states with higher
searches for like the corn maze,are correlated with increased
searches for meat allergy. Also,states with more searches for
hunting can show a higherfrequency of searches for the
(13:24):
ticks. So if we look from theanother aspect, from the
time-based analysis, we candiscover that a significant
correlation between the termslike U-Pick, park, and hiking
with the high with tick-relatedrisks such as ticks, tick bites,
and Lyme disease. So thissuggests that engaging in these
(13:49):
outdoor activities in the USduring tick seasons may increase
the risk of tick bites,emphasizing the need for tick
repellents.
Karlibeth Leitheiser (14:00):
Thank you, Cheng-Xian, that was really
interesting to hear how you knowthat social media presence can
kind of tell us what the habitsof regular people are with
ticks. So thank you for that.
Dr. Baker, did you have anycomments about that research or
the findings?
Lauri Baker (14:15):
Yeah, I think it's been really interesting for us
to see that those trends of whenwe think about tick bites are
also what we're seeing in thedata on people's searches. So
one thing that we can say asCheng-Xian kind of highlighted
is that there is this connectionthat people are likely searching
for that red meat allergy duringthose seasons, where maybe they
(14:38):
have experienced a tick bite orstarting to have some symptoms
and are wondering what'shappening. And so those trending
upward during certain timescertainly aligns with what we're
seeing, as far as reports inthose areas. The other aspect
that that's interesting issometimes what we didn't
necessarily find as much of andso, people there were high
(14:59):
correlations with the U-Picksand the parks, but there weren't
as significant correlations withcorn mazes. And so those types
of things may offer anopportunity for agricultural
organizations, agritourismefforts to do a better job of
having signage, havingrepellents available, or
(15:21):
commuting, communicating withpeople online ahead of time to
be prepared. We don't want tomake people overly scared. But
we also want to make sure thatwe are doing our part to prepare
people that might be visitingour property or might be
experiencing these issues. Wealso kind of saw hunting wasn't
as prominent, which not allagricultural producers are
(15:44):
hunters, but a lot of them are.
So that's another opportunityfor education in that space,
particularly people that aredeer hunters. Ticks really enjoy
deer. And so people that arepreparing for those activities.
Again, the Google searches arenot, you know, standalone
information, they may be gettinginformation elsewhere, maybe
they aren't searching for thatinformation, because they
(16:05):
already know that information.
But it helps give us a pictureof what's happening as far as
public perceptions around thecorrelation of those activities
and those associated diseases.
Cheng-Xian Yang (16:17):
For another interesting finding is that we
discover on negativecorrelations between the word
One of the other pieces of thisproject that we've been doing
hunting and some tick riskterms. And it is not surprise
because it usually for thewhite-tailed deer, which is
primary hunting target in NorthAmerica, are most actively
(16:37):
hunted from September toJanuary, which is not the
tick-borne season. However,during the October and November,
these are the time that theadult blacklegged ticks are most
active. And these ticks areimportant carriers of Lyme
disease germs and can infectwhite-tailed deers. So we infer
(17:00):
that maybe the hunters may notbe fully aware of this seasonal
tick actively and may assumethat ticks are active only
during the summer. So thisemphasizes that the importance
of targeted risk communicationefforts for hunters to ensure
that they receive accurateinformation and take necessary
(17:22):
precautions against tick-relatedrisks.
during the first year, was alsounderstanding what kind of
social media conversations weregoing on not just searches for
this kind of information. And soCheng-Xian again, took a really
active role in this aspect ofunderstanding what kinds of
(17:43):
conversations were happening andwhat kinds of risk messages were
happening on Twitter. So I'mgonna pass it to him and let him
explain a little bit more aboutwhat we found in that research
and why it's important.
Okay, for the Twitter research,we focus on analyzing the
Twitter, the content about atick-borne diseases and the
(18:04):
prevention. So we also want toknow what kind of information on
the social media will have ahigher engagement rate. So in
our result, we discovered thaton Twitter, like the tweets talk
about a tick-related issues,there are more than half of them
is without a visual information,such as the pictures or some
(18:27):
graphs, graphics, however, wediscovered that if a tweets that
is with the visual informationwill significantly have higher
engagement rates than thosewithout the visual information.
So this result can support thattweets with visual aids tend to
have a higher public engagementrates, making scientific
(18:52):
information more accessible andencouraging interaction to risks
on social media. So people aremore willing to reply or retweet
these kinds of information. Onthe other hand, another
interesting thing is the tweetswith URL will usually have lower
engagement rate than thosewithout the URLs. So the URLs
(19:17):
can really provide additionalsources and extended knowledge.
But the communicators shouldstill consider to provide enough
information in the tweet itself,instead of only rely on the
external links, because not allthe people will really click
into that URLs.
Lauri Baker (19:36):
Yeah, thanks, Cheng-Xian. I think that's a
really important finding forscience communicators that may
be listening is that not only dowe need to have that visual
aspect, which I think issomething we've heard over and
over again. I feel like there'sa tendency, perhaps maybe more
from faculty than from full timecommunicators to say, well, I
already have this in a factsheet. So I'll just tweet out
(19:58):
this URL and it has all theinformation. Well, what we've
seen in this research is peoplethen aren't clicking on that
information, they're notengaging with that content the
same way they would if theinformation was included within
the tweet with a visual, moreengaging, I think an opportunity
exists for us to create bettervisuals and better tweets. And
(20:22):
perhaps in a reply, we caninclude the fact sheet as a URL
for those who really do want todig deeper and engage with that
content. But if we're reallytrying to reach more people, and
not just repeat a URL, thatwe've probably shared other
places and can be found otherplaces, we really have to do a
better job of creating messagesthat resonate with people and
(20:44):
images that resonate withpeople, even though it might
require a little bit more workthan sharing a URL.
Karlibeth Leitheiser (20:51):
Thank you.
I think that's a very valuablepiece of information to take
away from this, especially forour science communicators out
there. And so you talked a lotabout when people are tweeting
about ticks, what they'retweeting about ticks, what's a
key takeaway that you learnedfrom the online engagement
either for tick prevention ortick current public perception?
Lauri Baker (21:11):
Well, one of the things we really looked at were
the different types of messagesthat were being used and how
they were being framed. And sowhile we looked at that, we also
looked at who was doing thetweeting, and what we often find
in these situations is it's thesame people that are sharing
that information. And they oftenare government organizations,
(21:35):
organizations that are reallypassionate about this area, or
this aspect. But I think there'sa real opportunity to engage
some of those perhaps microinfluencers in this area,
perhaps people that have theirown agritourism operations, or
mom bloggers or dad bloggers,who are taking their children to
these types of events or who arehunting with their families. So
(21:58):
I think there's an opportunityto expand this messaging, once
again, it's it's over a one yearperiod, it's in a small
timeframe, but we can reallylearn how to change some of the
trajectory and the conversationsand make this something that
people think about before theyengage in these types of
activities.
Karlibeth Leitheiser (22:17):
Right. And so you did a really great job
explaining your previousstudies, and that kind of looked
at what information is alreadyout there. Do you have any
current or ongoing or futurestudies about this research that
you plan on doing in the future?
Lauri Baker (22:31):
Yes, absolutely.
Now that we have kind of gottenthe landscape, if you will, of
what's happening online relatedto tick search behavior, and
related to conversations aroundticks and tick diseases, we're
moving into the survey phasewhere we really want to
understand directly from ouragriculture and natural
resources audiences first, ifwhat they know about ticks,
(22:54):
particularly these two ticks,the lone star tick and the Asian
Longhorn tick. So we'regathering people's perceptions
about their knowledge related toticks, their knowledge related
to prevention behaviors, and wewould hope that some of our
listeners might be willing toparticipate in some of those
surveys that are happening thissemester, and maybe early next
(23:17):
into 2024, as well. And if theyhave more questions about this
project, they can go to our PIECenter website, and it simply
piecenter.com/ticktalk, and theycan find out how to take one of
those surveys, if they can justgive us 10 minutes of their
time, we'd love to hear fromthem. And then the next phase of
(23:38):
that is we're going to startlooking at other audiences. So
one of the things that we'velearned in our COVID research
and other research projects iswhen it comes to health and
diseases, people often trustmedical professionals as they
should. We are not medicalprofessionals. We're not
epidemiologist, we're notentomologists. So we want to
point them to those people. Butwe also want to find out what
(24:01):
those people know. And so, in2024, we're moving on to look at
health care professionals andtheir knowledge of ticks and
tick diseases, particularlythese ticks that are just
starting to come to thesoutheastern United States so we
can get a clearer perspective onthat. And then long term, we'll
be moving this into educationalassets around these topics so
(24:23):
that we can do a better job ofhelping people understand the
importance of tick preventionand education and have resources
to share in those conversations.
Karlibeth Leitheiser (24:36):
What is the takeaway from all of this
put together? What is your endgoal from all of this research?
Lauri Baker (24:42):
That's a fabulous question. I think one of the
reasons the CDC funded some ofthis work was because they also
see a need for public engagementon these topics. And the more
that the PIE Center can getinvolved in these kinds of
efforts and understand publicopinion and public understanding
around not just ticks and tickdiseases, but how people
(25:06):
understand and believe abouttheir health and the
consequences that they have thatthey can take control of and
empower people to make changesaround tick prevention, in this
case, or any of the other topicsthat we talk about, I think is
really the big so-what piece ofwhy we do this work.
Cheng-Xian Yang (25:25):
I think the big takeaway is find better
strategies for riskcommunication or risk
communicators. So for example,for the Google Trends, research,
we would like to, I mean, thisis a cool experience for me, at
least, because we use the bigdata to study health search
(25:46):
behavior, and the offerprevention suggestions. So for
example, by partnering withHealth organizations, it can be
our future step torecommendations, maybe we can
consider to collaborate withsome health organizations, such
as when people in tick-borneareas search for outdoor
(26:09):
activities, like corn maze, orhunting, we can use Google ads
to alert them about tick bornedisease risks, and educate them
on prevention, such as remindthem to prepare the tick repel
them with them, when they engagein these kind of outdoor
activities. Or also, we couldcollaborate with some U-Pick
(26:30):
farms or corn mazes, to spreadthe prevention messages on their
websites to reduce the riskassociated with these
activities.
Karlibeth Leitheiser (26:40):
Right, I never really thought about that
point of using advertisementsfor health education. I kind of
think back to COVID, when therewas wear your mask signs
everywhere, or, you know,vaccination advertisements. But
I think it's also veryapplicable to other health
issues, like ticks and tickborne diseases. So that's a
really great takeaway.
Lauri Baker (26:58):
And I think we are moving into a society where
public opinion is driving a lotof industries. So I think health
industry is similar in that wayis, sometimes we see crisis and
risk breakout in an onlineenvironment or pop up in
something really unique and aReddit thread, right, and then
(27:18):
it moves to more mainstream. SoI do think that that's one
aspect that we've been able tobring to the project that's a
little unique is looking notjust at how many infections have
been reported, how many doctorsare identifying these issues,
but how much is the publiccurious about these issues? And
(27:38):
that certainly speaks to howmuch concern they have around
those. And while we can't makedirect correlations between
infection rates and Googlesearches, we can certainly do
some thinking in that process.
And I think that's part of why Ithink we're really proud to be
involved in this work. And we'regrateful that the
(27:59):
epidemiologists in particularhave seen the value that the
social science work can bring tothis because they certainly
measure things in a differentway. Okay, well, we have this
many infections, we maybe areactually going out in the field.
And people in other parts ofthis project are going out into
fields and dragging for ticks tosee what the tick populations
(28:21):
look like during differentmonths. And we have that data.
But again, that doesn't reallyshow how much it's impacting
people. And so I love to seethat much of the work from the
CDC. And we've seen this in USDAprojects and other projects is
integrating that social sciencequestion of, well, what do
people think and what are theyconcerned about? Because
(28:43):
sometimes that can actually bemore important than the actual
infection rates, until they getto a point where it's really
drastic. So I feel like that'sthe place where we can combine
public education to step in andalleviate some of those concerns
before they even become majorconcerns.
Karlibeth Leitheiser (29:05):
Well, thank you so much, Dr. Baker,
and Cheng-Xian for joining ustoday and sharing your research
and knowledge on this topic witheveryone listening out there.
Lauri Baker (29:13):
Thank you, I appreciate being here. It's been
fun.
Cheng-Xian Yang (29:15):
Thank you.
Ricky Telg (29:18):
Science by the Slice is produced by the UF/IFAS
Center for Public IssuesEducation in Agriculture and
Natural Resources. Thanks forlistening to today's episode.
Subscribe to Science by theSlice on your favorite podcast
app and give us a rating orreview as well. Have a question
or comment? Send us an email topiecenter@ifas.ufl.edu. That's
(29:41):
piecenter, all one word, atifas, I-F-A-S, dot ufl dot edu.
We'd love to hear from you. Ifyou enjoyed today's episode,
consider sharing with a friendor colleague. Until next time,
thanks for listening to Scienceby the Slice.
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