2 IL State Parks Ranked Among 10 Worst Nationwide For Tick-Borne Illness

Two Illinois state parks were ranked among the 10 nationwide with the most tick-borne illnesses, according to a recent list from WorldAtlas.

"The Northeast, the mid-Atlantic, and the upper Midwest carry the heaviest tick-borne disease burden in the United States, and the wooded parks in those regions put people directly into the habitat where deer, mice, and infected ticks overlap," according to WorldAtlas.

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The ranked parks have documented tick activity, are the subject of published research, or have drawn firsthand accounts of infection, according to the website, which ranked the parks by severity of tick-borne disease in the surrounding region.

In Illinois, Starved Rock State Park was ranked No. 8 and Mississippi Palisades State Park was ranked No. 9.

Starved Rock is the state's most-visited park, WorldAtlas noted, and Illinois' main Lyme disease carrier, the blacklegged tick, thrives in its forested terrain, while Mississippi Palisades also sits in blacklegged tick country.

The state parks ranked highest for tick-borne illness nationally were Pine Grove Furnace in Pennsylvania at No. 1, Green Lakes in New York at No. 2, and Harriman, also in New York, at No. 3.

"The parks on this list are not places to avoid; they are places to enter prepared," WorldAtlas reported.

Visitors should use insect repellent with 20-30 percent DEET, wear long sleeves and pants, stay on cleared trails, check for ticks during and after a hike, take a shower within two hours of coming inside, and put worn clothing in a hot dryer for 10 minutes, according to WorldAtlas.

Read the full list from WorldAtlas.