The Lowdown on Lyme Disease

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Right now, efforts to control the ticks that carry Lyme disease are directed toward killing them while they are attached to mice or deer, which makes more sense than drenching entire woods with pesticides. The deer-based approach is preferred, because every dead adult female tick represents up to 3,000 eggs that won't be laid, and about 90 percent of all adult deer ticks are found on the ears, head, neck and upper body of deer.

This brings us to the "4-poster" deer feeder, which is a deer feeder surrounded by four paint rollers and stocked with clean, whole-kernel com. The paint rollers are saturated in permethrin, a potent synthetic insecticide that is marketed as a tick "repellent" but that will actually kill ticks. As the deer go for the corn their heads and necks rub on the paint rollers.

Because so many ticks are found on the head or neck, this is a tightly targeted way of getting at them. In two years, this method resulted in nearly 100-percent control of ticks at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Other sites where 4-posters have been tested did not show such dramatic results, but even the lowest rate of control—59 percent on Gibson Island, Md.—is encouraging.

The ALDF obtained a permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in October 2003 to use permethrin on deer. Although in some states, including Colorado, Nebraska, New York and Wyoming, deer feeding is now regulated in hopes of stopping the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease, the ALDF man ufactures 4-poster feeders for use in communities throughout the Northeast.

Although 4-poster feeders eventually will be available for individual homeowners, a professional still will have to apply the permethrin to the rollers. For more on this research, visit www.ars.usda.gov/ and search for "Out of the Lyme-Light," or contact the ALDF at (800) 876-5963 or www.aldf.com .

It also is legal to use permethrin to control ticks on mice, which is the idea behind Damminix, a control system comprised of cotton wads laced with permethrin and tucked into special tubes placed where mice can find them. Theoretically, mice carry the treated cotton to their nests, where it kills the ticks. But sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. Or, if it does kill lots of ticks, the mice might bring in more stuff and pile it on the cotton, which then stops working. Some studies do show that Damminix works in some regions, but it's probably like dipping your dog, having him he tick-free for a week or so, and then being back where you started once he's run in the woods again. Damminix costs $210 for 96 tubes (a minimum of 24 tubes per acre are recommended). The tubes are biodegradable and may need to he replaced twice a year.

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