STATE COLLEGE, Centre County — A new Penn State Extension team that will focus on diseases transmitted by ticks and mosquitoes is launching a survey to determine what type of education is needed in Pennsylvania.

Erika Machtinger, assistant professor of entomology in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, said the goal of the survey is to get a baseline of what citizens know, what they want to know, and how they want to learn about tick- and mosquito-borne diseases.

That information will drive the vector-borne diseases team to produce effective educational materials for extension educators, Machtinger said in a news release.

Pennsylvania ranks among the top three states with the highest rates of tick-borne disease. In 2017, Pennsylvania had the highest incidence of Lyme disease cases in the United States, with 9,250 confirmed and 2,650 probable cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

“Our cases of tick-borne disease in the U.S. continue to increase, yet our methods of diagnostics and treatment have not kept up,” Machtinger said. “The best way that folks can protect themselves from both ticks and mosquitoes is with knowledge on personal protection, identification and biology of vectors, and options for controlling vectors in the environment.”

The survey can be completed online at www.extension.psu.edu/tickborne-survey.