(CAPITOL CITY NOW) – Nobody likes ticks. A University of Illinois pathobiology professor has plotted, county by county, which ticks are where in Illinois.

While Illinois is not known as a hotbed of Lyme disease, Becky Smith says there is an emerging threat which should concern us. It’s “the lone star tick, down in southern Illinois and up into central and we do find it occasionally up in the Chicagoland area. It can cause an allergy to meat. So you will lose the ability to eat any beef, pork, lamb. And it can be a lifelong allergy.”