More Tick Control News. See also the 4-poster system, Ivomec, and Lyme disease

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Tick tests show reductions: ‘Significant change’ cited in certain categories July 28, 2015 New York, Shelter Island Reporter

... In samples taken at 10 locations on the Island in June, the numbers of a particular category of ticks — Lone star nymphs — have remained down significantly since 4-poster units were deployed on the Island seven years ago... As deer feed, their necks are coated with the tickicide permethrin...


Virginia Military Institute engineers develop Tick-killing robot May 26, 2015 North Carolina, Uncover California

... a tick killing robot that could eradicate the pesky arachnids from your property... dubbed Robo-Tic has the potential to lessen cases of Lyme disease in North Carolina and across the United States...


Shelter Island, Wein plan would concentrate on culling deer herd May 6, 2015 New York, Shelter Island Reporter

... Mr. Wein ran into opposition when he said that between the permethrin on 4-posters and people spraying their yards, there could be thousands of gallons of the tickicide “seeping into our aquifer.” The National Pesticide Information Center refutes that, maintaining that when permethrin enters an aquatic system, “some is degraded by sunlight, but the majority binds tightly to sediment and is broken down without infecting the water. “The average half-life range for permethrin in the water column is about 19 to 27 hours,” ...


Plumstead nursery using deer feeder to help battle Lyme disease, ticks April 30, 2015 Pennsylvania, theintell.com

... As a deer bends its heads down to reach the corn in the feeder, its neck and ears are brushed with rollers coated with the pesticide permethrin, explained Hirst.

“It turns the deer into a tick-killing machine,” ...


East Hampton, Red Nose! A Solution to the Hamptons Deer Problem, Four Poster System November 26, 2014 New York, danspapers.com ·

... The deer would come over to eat ... would cause one of their ears to get between two rollers sticky with pesticide. .... One test was conducted in a 96-acre fenced in wildlife management area near Kerrville, Texas. After three years, there were 92-97 percent fewer ticks on the deer. Another study was done for three years at a 600-acre fenced-in woods at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, which found a 96 percent to 98 percent reduction in ticks...


All in on tick control: Multi-faceted approach discussed August 12, 2014 New York, Shelter Island Reporter

... the expected $100,000 coming from New York State for expansion of the 4-poster program — feeding stands that brush deer with a chemical that kills ticks — is in many ways a game changer. The funds give the town the money to expand the 4-poster program ... Dr. Bill Zitek, a retired veterinarian and former member of the Deer & Tick Committee, said the 4-posters are “a very functional method of reducing ticks.” ...

Shelter Island Deer & Tick Committee seeks vision July 3, 2014 New York, Shelter Island Reporter

... when Shelter Island participated in the Cornell University-Cornell Cooperative Extension 4-poster program and deployed 60 units, it effectively reduced the tick infestation. But ticks have increased since the town had fewer than 20 units deployed during the last two years. Returning to 60 units is a major part of the solution ...


Shelter Island, Deer & Tick Chairman: Don't count out sharpshooters February 7, 2014 New York, Shelter Island Reporter

... during the three-year period in which 60 4-posters were deployed around the Island ... from 2008 through 2011, there was a decline in the numbers of ticks ... During the spring and summer of 2012, the town went it alone, deploying only a quarter of the number of 4-posters and the same was true in 2013, with just a few more units deployed. Tests showed a major increase in the tick count here, resulting in plans this year for the town to deploy 34 units ...


Turning Bambi into Rambo, four post system September 13, 2013 Massachusetts, Boston.com (blog)

... a four-poster station... As deer eat the corn, the animal’s neck and chin rub up against posts that resemble paint rollers. The rollers are treated with permethrin, an insecticide... Final results are expected by December. Recommendations will then be presented to the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife to determine if this technology should be approved for general usage...


Help Stop the Spread of Lyme Disease and Kill Deer Ticks With Damminix Tick Tubes August 22, 2013 Massachusetts, Comtex

... "Homeowners trying to kill ticks in their own yards need to target the rodents that carry the Lyme disease bacteria," says the CDC's Division of Vector-Borne Diseases Director Lyle Petersen in its recent report... "Historically, people focused on deer as the culprit, but it's mice that spread Lyme disease," says Damminix Company Director Ariana Ganak. "When deer ticks hatch, they are disease free. Immature ticks feed on mice twice a year, and when they bite the infected mouse they become carriers of Lyme and pass it on to the unsuspecting general public. At long last people are becoming aware that mice are the real cause of this public health epidemic ...


Using Deer Feeders to Control Ticks August 11, 2013 Pennsylvania, Times Leader

... A feeder with upright rollers saturated with tick treatment is filled with corn. When a deer attempts to consume the corn, it squeezes its head between the rollers and the tick treatment is applied as the animal feeds. Why deer? Because they’re one of the primary carriers of the deer tick, which can transmit the Lyme disease bacteria. Representatives from the Lyme Disease Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania and the Brandywine Conservancy both spoke in favor of the baited tick stations ...


EPA to complete research on Lyme disease prevention August 8, 2013 Massachusetts

... working to complete a multi-year study on the effectiveness of tick management techniques this summer ... The research evaluates “four-poster” deer feeding stations, which are used to treat deer with a pesticide that kills ticks present, as opposed to traditional pesticide spraying. Thus far, researchers have learned that the method is effective at reducing tick populations but have not yet determined how its effects compare to other approaches....


Tick tests show reductions: ‘Significant change’ cited in certain categories July 28, 2015 New York, Shelter Island Reporter

... In samples taken at 10 locations on the Island in June, the numbers of a particular category of ticks — Lone star nymphs — have remained down significantly since 4-poster units were deployed on the Island seven years ago... As deer feed, their necks are coated with the tickicide permethrin...


Virginia Military Institute engineers develop Tick-killing robot May 26, 2015 North Carolina, Uncover California

... a tick killing robot that could eradicate the pesky arachnids from your property... dubbed Robo-Tic has the potential to lessen cases of Lyme disease in North Carolina and across the United States...


Shelter Island, Wein plan would concentrate on culling deer herd May 6, 2015 New York, Shelter Island Reporter

... Mr. Wein ran into opposition when he said that between the permethrin on 4-posters and people spraying their yards, there could be thousands of gallons of the tickicide “seeping into our aquifer.” The National Pesticide Information Center refutes that, maintaining that when permethrin enters an aquatic system, “some is degraded by sunlight, but the majority binds tightly to sediment and is broken down without infecting the water. “The average half-life range for permethrin in the water column is about 19 to 27 hours,” ...


Plumstead nursery using deer feeder to help battle Lyme disease, ticks April 30, 2015 Pennsylvania, theintell.com

... As a deer bends its heads down to reach the corn in the feeder, its neck and ears are brushed with rollers coated with the pesticide permethrin, explained Hirst.

“It turns the deer into a tick-killing machine,” ...


East Hampton, Red Nose! A Solution to the Hamptons Deer Problem, Four Poster System November 26, 2014 New York, danspapers.com ·

... The deer would come over to eat ... would cause one of their ears to get between two rollers sticky with pesticide. .... One test was conducted in a 96-acre fenced in wildlife management area near Kerrville, Texas. After three years, there were 92-97 percent fewer ticks on the deer. Another study was done for three years at a 600-acre fenced-in woods at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, which found a 96 percent to 98 percent reduction in ticks...


All in on tick control: Multi-faceted approach discussed August 12, 2014 New York, Shelter Island Reporter

... the expected $100,000 coming from New York State for expansion of the 4-poster program — feeding stands that brush deer with a chemical that kills ticks — is in many ways a game changer. The funds give the town the money to expand the 4-poster program ... Dr. Bill Zitek, a retired veterinarian and former member of the Deer & Tick Committee, said the 4-posters are “a very functional method of reducing ticks.” ...

Shelter Island Deer & Tick Committee seeks vision July 3, 2014 New York, Shelter Island Reporter

... when Shelter Island participated in the Cornell University-Cornell Cooperative Extension 4-poster program and deployed 60 units, it effectively reduced the tick infestation. But ticks have increased since the town had fewer than 20 units deployed during the last two years. Returning to 60 units is a major part of the solution ...


Shelter Island, Deer & Tick Chairman: Don't count out sharpshooters February 7, 2014 New York, Shelter Island Reporter

... during the three-year period in which 60 4-posters were deployed around the Island ... from 2008 through 2011, there was a decline in the numbers of ticks ... During the spring and summer of 2012, the town went it alone, deploying only a quarter of the number of 4-posters and the same was true in 2013, with just a few more units deployed. Tests showed a major increase in the tick count here, resulting in plans this year for the town to deploy 34 units ...


Turning Bambi into Rambo, four post system September 13, 2013 Massachusetts, Boston.com (blog)

... a four-poster station... As deer eat the corn, the animal’s neck and chin rub up against posts that resemble paint rollers. The rollers are treated with permethrin, an insecticide... Final results are expected by December. Recommendations will then be presented to the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife to determine if this technology should be approved for general usage...


Help Stop the Spread of Lyme Disease and Kill Deer Ticks With Damminix Tick Tubes August 22, 2013 Massachusetts, Comtex

... "Homeowners trying to kill ticks in their own yards need to target the rodents that carry the Lyme disease bacteria," says the CDC's Division of Vector-Borne Diseases Director Lyle Petersen in its recent report... "Historically, people focused on deer as the culprit, but it's mice that spread Lyme disease," says Damminix Company Director Ariana Ganak. "When deer ticks hatch, they are disease free. Immature ticks feed on mice twice a year, and when they bite the infected mouse they become carriers of Lyme and pass it on to the unsuspecting general public. At long last people are becoming aware that mice are the real cause of this public health epidemic ...


Using Deer Feeders to Control Ticks August 11, 2013 Pennsylvania, Times Leader

... A feeder with upright rollers saturated with tick treatment is filled with corn. When a deer attempts to consume the corn, it squeezes its head between the rollers and the tick treatment is applied as the animal feeds. Why deer? Because they’re one of the primary carriers of the deer tick, which can transmit the Lyme disease bacteria. Representatives from the Lyme Disease Association of Southeastern Pennsylvania and the Brandywine Conservancy both spoke in favor of the baited tick stations ...


EPA to complete research on Lyme disease prevention August 8, 2013 Massachusetts

... working to complete a multi-year study on the effectiveness of tick management techniques this summer ... The research evaluates “four-poster” deer feeding stations, which are used to treat deer with a pesticide that kills ticks present, as opposed to traditional pesticide spraying. Thus far, researchers have learned that the method is effective at reducing tick populations but have not yet determined how its effects compare to other approaches....


4-poster study in Virginia April 24, 2012

Virginia does not currently permit legal commercial use of 4-poster deer treatment stations. The Fairfax County pilot study is being conducted under a scientific collections permit issued by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. The research is an extension of the Fairfax County Deer Management Program implemented each year by the Fairfax County Wildlife Biologist Office. Development of the pilot study has been underway since August 2009 ...

Shelter Island, Committee gathering data on deer and ticks June 7, 2016 New York, Shelter Island Reporter

... CCE Entomologist Daniel Gilrein, who was involved in the study that ran for three seasons between 2008 and 2010, concluded after a 2011 final report was published that “we and others before us have demonstrated the efficacy of 4-posters for control of lone star and blacklegged deer ticks. I feel there is no question they perform as stated when deployed and maintained appropriately.” ...


Chickens as a weapon against ticks? CNY village considers proposal May 9, 2016 New York, Syracuse.com

... "There is a large volume of scientific and anecdotal evidence demonstrating chickens' pest control ability as they love to eat tick ... chickens can help reduce the density of the tick population. As a deer committee member, Cassel said he's committed to trying management techniques such as this. "We don't want to keep killing deer ...


Shelter Island, Deer & Tick Committee takes a fresh look at tactics February 15, 2016 New York

Shelter Island Reporter

... use of 4-poster units — feeding stands that brush deer with a tickicide, permethrin ... Committee member Dr. Scott Campbell, who is lab director of the Suffolk County Department of Health Services ... said recently that the 4-posters are safe and effective... [Mr Wein said]: they did their survey and nobody knows what’s happening,” ... referring to the 2008 to 2010 Cornell University and Cornell Cooperative Extension program that first brought the 4-posters ...



System to apply tick control to deer January 11, 2011 Arkansas Southwest News-Herald

...ARS researchers have developed new cattle fever tick control measures including this one that automatically applies a pesticide-impregnated neckband to deer ... The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) tackled the tick problem by developing a device called the 4-Poster Deer Treatment Bait Station. This is essentially a corn-filled bin with paint rollers on its four corners. The ARS scientists have since refined their deer treatment station, creating a new system that automatically applies a pesticide-impregnated neckband to wild deer as they feed. The collars can be detached remotely once they've stopped working.


Gibson Island, Maryland, which is a private, resident-owned community, purchased 15 of the devices and deployed them around their community for five years, and achieved at least 77 percent control of the ticks that carry Lyme disease and human monocytic ehrlichiosis, both serious human health problems.


The ARS scientists have since refined their deer treatment station, creating a new system that automatically applies a pesticide-impregnated neckband to wild deer as they feed. The collars can be detached remotely once they've stopped working.


North Haven, 4-Poster Tick Management Unlikely Unless Done Privately November 14, 2012 New York, The Sag Harbor Express

... the Village of North Haven will not fund or erect any 4-Poster tick management devices on its own for now. But during another contentious village board of trustees meeting last Wednesday night, the board said it would consider allowing private residents to place the devices on their properties, if the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) allows it... A 4-Poster device is a duel feeding station which forces deer to rub up against applicator rollers treated with the tickicide permethrin as they feed.


Deer & Tick: Deployment of 4-posters soon 'unlikely' (study to test effectiveness of tick control for deer) February 24, 2011 New York Shelter Island Reporter By Ted Hills | February 23, 2011 in Government, News The Department of Environmental Conservation is unlikely to approve 4-poster deer feeding stations for use in reducing ticks in time for the town to deploy them by mid-March ... Testing showed tick numbers were “very, very low last year,” [Cornel scientist] Dr. Gilrein said, “so you can coast on that for at least a short time.”


Cornell 4-poster Deer and Tick Study


Virginia Military Institute engineers develop Tick-killing robot May 26, 2015 North Carolina, Uncover California

... a tick killing robot that could eradicate the pesky arachnids from your property... dubbed Robo-Tic has the potential to lessen cases of Lyme disease in North Carolina and across the United States...


Plumstead nursery using deer feeder to help battle Lyme disease, ticks April 30, 2015 Pennsylvania, theintell.com

... As a deer bends its heads down to reach the corn in the feeder, its neck and ears are brushed with rollers coated with the pesticide permethrin, explained Hirst.

“It turns the deer into a tick-killing machine,” ...


East Hampton, Red Nose! A Solution to the Hamptons Deer Problem, Four Poster System November 26, 2014 New York, danspapers.com ·

... The deer would come over to eat ... would cause one of their ears to get between two rollers sticky with pesticide. .... One test was conducted in a 96-acre fenced in wildlife management area near Kerrville, Texas. After three years, there were 92-97 percent fewer ticks on the deer. Another study was done for three years at a 600-acre fenced-in woods at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, which found a 96 percent to 98 percent reduction in ticks...


Turning Bambi into Rambo, four post system September 13, 2013 Massachusetts, Boston.com (blog)

... a four-poster station... As deer eat the corn, the animal’s neck and chin rub up against posts that resemble paint rollers. The rollers are treated with permethrin, an insecticide... Final results are expected by December. Recommendations will then be presented to the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries & Wildlife to determine if this technology should be approved for general usage...


EPA to complete research on Lyme disease prevention August 8, 2013 Massachusetts

... working to complete a multi-year study on the effectiveness of tick management techniques this summer ... The research evaluates “four-poster” deer feeding stations, which are used to treat deer with a pesticide that kills ticks present, as opposed to traditional pesticide spraying. Thus far, researchers have learned that the method is effective at reducing tick populations but have not yet determined how its effects compare to other approaches....


As Tick Population Increases, the Debate of the 4-Poster Program Continues June 26, 2013 New York, The Sag Harbor Express

... The 4-Poster devices target the host directly, using corn bait to attract white-tailed deer to a feeding station. As deer feed, rollers treated with a pesticide called permethrin brush against the animal’s neck, head and ears. “The 4-Poster technology was very effective for controlling our two main species of ticks, but it takes a couple of years to see results,” said Gilrein... maintaining a unit for a season is about $5,000 ... The pesticide is also “highly toxic to honeybees, fish, and aquatic invertebrates,” ...


DEC official defends 4-poster, for reduction of Lyme July 4, 2012 New York, Shelter Island Reporter

“Physician-diagnosed erythema migrans (EM) rash cases were used as a surrogate for incident Lyme disease cases” in the study, ... which was titled, “Evaluation of deer-Targeted Interventions on Lyme Disease Incidence in Connecticut” and published in 2011 by scientists from the Yale School of Public Health’s Connecticut Emerging Infections Program.... “Our findings suggest that the 4-poster device was effective in decreasing the incidence of EM rash in an endemic area,” the authors wrote in a report summary. “Despite a decrease in EM rash incidence, however, we did not find a statistically significant effect of the deer hunt on EM rash incidence


4-poster funding not enough, says Shillingburg October 22, 2011 New York, Shelter Island Reporter

... Supervisor Jim Dougherty, who is running for re-election, said, “We’re all learning this thing … It looks like the 4-posters work.” But “we’re broke, so we have to compromise.” ...“Shelter Island needs to be deer tick free,” Mrs. Shillingburg [chair of the Deer and Tick Committee] said. The current $68,000 budget line for 2012 is far too low ... Councilman Glenn Waddington, who is running for town supervisor, said he thought hunters would prefer having 60 4-posters in the field in 2012 and none in 2013, a plan that would allow them to hunt without any 4-posters anywhere in the down year.


Study: 4-poster tick management devices worked here June 28, 2011 New York Shelter Island Reporter

A newly published final report on the five-year 4-Poster tick management study conducted on Shelter Island finds that tick populations significantly declined, for the most part, in areas where the deer-feeding devices were set up compared with the North Haven control site, where no 4-Posters were used.The state Department of Environmental Conservation announced Monday that the exhaustive, complex and highly detailed scientific report on the study, which began in 2007, has been completed and is now available online.


Deer & Tick: Deployment of 4-posters soon 'unlikely' (study to test effectiveness of tick control for deer) February 24, 2011 New York Shelter Island Reporter By Ted Hills | February 23, 2011 in Government, News The Department of Environmental Conservation is unlikely to approve 4-poster deer feeding stations for use in reducing ticks in time for the town to deploy them by mid-March ... Testing showed tick numbers were “very, very low last year,” [Cornel scientist] Dr. Gilrein said, “so you can coast on that for at least a short time.”