The Twin Cities Naturalist Blog is not just a place to read about birds. I swear! Birds have taken up a lot of this blog as of late since migration is in full swing. For those gentle readers who wish to read about the non-avifauna of the world I give you this post about ticks.
As a professional naturalist, I worry about deer ticks. It seems like if you are a naturalist you can pretty much guarantee you will get lyme disease at some point. I've had deer ticks on me but I haven't come down with it yet. Many of my co-workers have had to take antibiotics to battle lyme disease. The St. Croix Valley is a hot zone for lyme disease so my days are numbered. The problem is that the deer ticks are small and hard to see. Some can even be as small as the period at the end of this sentence. If you spend a lot of time outside, you'll get one eventually. Lyme disease aside, there are other tick borne diseases, some even spread by the simple woodtick.
The scientists J. Mathews Pound and J. Allen Miller at the Agricultural Research Service at the Knipling-Bushland U.S. Livestock Insects Research Laboratory in Kerrville, Texas think they have come up with a solution. Since deer ticks mainly feed on deer why not treat the deer for ticks? The fewer deer walking around with ticks, the fewer humans can get and the harder it will be to catch lyme disease. The ARS came up with The 4-poster.
The device is made of plastic and it has a hopper that contains food for deer. There are also four posts that are basically paint rollers covered in pesticides. I believe the pesticide of choice is 10% permethrin. Basically the same stuff you put on your dog to keep ticks off. When the deer comes to feed, the pesticide gets on the antlers, head and ears and helps kill ticks. It is a simple but brilliant idea.
According to the American Lyme Disease Foundation, when the 4-poster was used at a the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland (which is about the same size as the nature center where I work) they saw a, "96 to 98% reduction in free-living nymphal deer ticks" within 3 years of using the 4-poster. I wonder if someone could get a grant to have these installed at nature centers and parks where people are likely waking the same trails as deer? The system costs $800 and is only available though Dandux Outdoors.
Read more at Science Daily and the American Lyme Disease Foundation.
Photos: USDA ARS/Wayne Ryan
Read More
As a professional naturalist, I worry about deer ticks. It seems like if you are a naturalist you can pretty much guarantee you will get lyme disease at some point. I've had deer ticks on me but I haven't come down with it yet. Many of my co-workers have had to take antibiotics to battle lyme disease. The St. Croix Valley is a hot zone for lyme disease so my days are numbered. The problem is that the deer ticks are small and hard to see. Some can even be as small as the period at the end of this sentence. If you spend a lot of time outside, you'll get one eventually. Lyme disease aside, there are other tick borne diseases, some even spread by the simple woodtick.
The scientists J. Mathews Pound and J. Allen Miller at the Agricultural Research Service at the Knipling-Bushland U.S. Livestock Insects Research Laboratory in Kerrville, Texas think they have come up with a solution. Since deer ticks mainly feed on deer why not treat the deer for ticks? The fewer deer walking around with ticks, the fewer humans can get and the harder it will be to catch lyme disease. The ARS came up with The 4-poster.
The device is made of plastic and it has a hopper that contains food for deer. There are also four posts that are basically paint rollers covered in pesticides. I believe the pesticide of choice is 10% permethrin. Basically the same stuff you put on your dog to keep ticks off. When the deer comes to feed, the pesticide gets on the antlers, head and ears and helps kill ticks. It is a simple but brilliant idea.According to the American Lyme Disease Foundation, when the 4-poster was used at a the Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland (which is about the same size as the nature center where I work) they saw a, "96 to 98% reduction in free-living nymphal deer ticks" within 3 years of using the 4-poster. I wonder if someone could get a grant to have these installed at nature centers and parks where people are likely waking the same trails as deer? The system costs $800 and is only available though Dandux Outdoors.
Read more at Science Daily and the American Lyme Disease Foundation.
Photos: USDA ARS/Wayne Ryan