Spraying pesticides for ticks is not as easy as fogging for mosquitoes. Ticks are more likely to be in hard to access brush areas rather than open, accessible athletic fields or manicure greens, so it is harder to get the pesticides in the right place.
While you can do it (and it may be needed in special situations), you usually don’t see the population decimation and tick reductions typically last only a few weeks. The benefits have to be weighed against some of the unwanted side effects of pesticide use.
So we are more inclined to address problems with landscape manipulations and more of an integrated pest management approach. You can trim, prune and clear greenery. You can take actions (e.g., thinning the tree canopy and building fences) to disrupt animal activity. You can use edging and mulch to create a three foot boundary between people-occupied areas and tall grass or brush areas. The Center for Disease Control provides some landscaping guidance at https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/prev/in_the_yard.html.
A huge component of any program is to teach people about ticks, suggest appropriate clothing and the use of repellents, and urge people to inspect their bodies for ticks after they have been in potential tick areas.
The CDC page with information on the people part of the equation is https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/prev/on_people.html. The NYS Department of Health also has a good page, complete with videos, at https://www.health.ny.gov/diseases/communicable/lyme/.
The CDC page on Lyme disease is https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/.
The CDC page on tick borne diseases is https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/diseases/index.html.
Regards,
Barbara A. Boyle, CIH, CSP
Director, Environmental Health & Safety
Office for Capital Facilities
The State University of New York
State University Plaza
Albany, New York 12246
(518) 320-1879
Published: Tue, 08 Aug 2017 11:58:00 +0000 by c.potvingiordano