One of the best ways to reduce the number of Lyme disease cases is using insecticides to kill ticks. Spraying loads and loads of insecticides around the countryside isn’t ideal though. What if there was a way to kill ticks without using a chemical spray? Quentin, one of the scientists and the Tufts Lyme Disease Initiative, tells us about a bright idea to use a virus that will selectively kill ticks.

Powassan virus is a deadly virus carried by Ixodes ticks.  It has been identified in ticks in the Northeast.  Currently, human Powassan virus infections in the United States are rare, but there is no treatment for the disease.

Watch as the team from Maine Medical Research Institute tracks the virus in the wild.