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Winning the Tick Wars

© Barbara Hall

I've never been a fan of pesiticides. I've been exposed to FAR too many of them in my career as a horticulturist. I've seen SO many people lose all sense of the interconnectedness within the brilliant and fragile balance of nature as they BLAST away at whatever pest is BUGGING them. So I'm skeptical about the news that there may finally be an effective and SAFE control for deerticks.

What most people fail to catch up to, is that deer do not CAUSE Lyme disease. Mice do, and to some extent chipmunks too. They HAVE it. The ticks feed on them and GET it, hitch a ride on the deer and if the ticks then bite us, WE have it.

And believe me, I have HAD it.....EIGHT TIMES.

This new approach to tick control, calledMAXFORCE Tick Management System is a baited box that attracts said rodents. When our mouse enters the box, it has to go through two little 'flaps' that contain FIPRONIL, the same acaricide used by vets on your pets. The premise is, that if the ticks can be killed in their teeny larval and nymph stages, BEFORE they start hitchin' rides and traveling around, MANY cases of Lyme can be prevented. Ultimately, if they can be killed before they become fruitful and multiply, the entire tick population decreases.

This approach has been tested in Lyme, Connecticut (where Lyme disease was first officially identified) and has been extremely effective on private properties where the infected tick population has been seen to plummet after its use over a period of time.

I cannot begin to tell you how HAPPY this news made me. The notion that folks might finally be able to make at least their own property SAFE, let their kids go out and play in the grass, spend time in their gardens without jumping out of their skins, is a really NICE notion.

Now, of course, there are a few glitches. One is that the EPA seems to have approved this approach, marketed under the name of MAXFORCE TMS in Connecticut, New Jersey, and just recently in New York, but not everywhere. (local applicators are listed on the Maxforce site) Also, these boxes, while touted as Child-Safe, MUST be 'installed' by a licensed 'applicator'. And there is good reason for that as I found out by contacting a company called NixTicks in Ct who are also covering NY and NJ. First off, Fipronil is a professional pesticide, simply not approved for Over-the-Counter sales. Secondly, these boxes must be placed properly, timed properly and handled properly or it just will not work. And nothing causes Lyme faster than a false sense of immunity.