Tick-borne disease:

A serious and growing threat, right in your own yard.

       ick-borne disease is on the rise in the United States — Lyme Disease in

       particular. If you live in the northeastern part of the country, you probably

       know that. In fact, you probably know people who have had Lyme Disease.

You may have had it yourself. If so, you probably contracted it at home, because

in the northeastern United States, people are most likely to contract Lyme Disease

on their own property. Your odds of contracting the disease are directly related to

the number of ticks on your property that carry the disease-causing bacteria.

Lyme Disease is not an illness to be taken

lightly. It can be difficult to diagnose, and

if it goes undiagnosed and untreated, it

can result in serious, permanent damage to

the victim’s joints and heart. Animals can be

affected, too. Dogs, cats, and horses, are all

subject to Lyme Disease.

August 19th, 2013- CDC announces Lyme

disease infects 300,000 annually.

More than 300,000 cases of Lyme disease are reported to

the CDC every year, making it the most commonly reported

tick-borne illness in the United States, the CDC says. But some

reports have suggested it is far more common than that.

Areas of risk for

Lyme Disease transmission

High risk

Moderate risk

Low risk

Minimal or no risk

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Lyme Disease is

now the most

commonly reported

vector-borne

illness in the

United States.

Source: CDC

Health officials

believe that over

of reported cases of

Lyme Disease are

contracted from a tick

found on a person’s

property.

Source: CT Department

of Agriculture

75%

Ticks.

Most Notably The Deer Tick (Ixodes scapularis).

          s most people know, the deer tick is the culprit that infects people and

          animals with Lyme Disease. Naturally then, when most people think of

          the disease, they think of deer and deer ticks.

Deer do serve as hosts to the deer tick, but they are

passive hosts. The most important players in the

spread of Lyme Disease is the white-footed mouse

and chipmunk. These rodents primarily harbor the

bacteria that cause Lyme Disease. Ticks pick

up the bacteria when they feed on the blood of infected animals.

      While in the immature stages, deer ticks pass the Lyme

      Disease bacteria to and from the mice and chipmunks they                           they typically feed on. During the tick's nymph stage,

      they might also feed on humans and pets. At this point,

      the ticks are light in color and no bigger than pinheads, so they’re hard to see and can easily go undetected.

The risk of

Lyme Disease

is at its peak in

JULY

when deer ticks are in the nymph stage and people are often outdoors.

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Lyme Disease and the deer tick life cycle.

he chart below illustrates the deer tick’s life cycle and and how Lyme Disease is transmitted to humans. Note that in the chart, the deer ticks are shown actual size in each of their stages.

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Deer tick ADULTS mainly feed on deer and other mammals. Because

the adult ticks are more easily seen, and since it takes 36 hours for the

disease to be transmitted, these ticks are usually detected before they

can spread the disease.  Therefore, they do not pose as big a risk in

transmitting Lyme Disease as the nymphs do. After feeding, they drop

from the deer to lay their eggs.

Lyme Disease infected deer tick NYMPHS feed on humans and pets,

as well as rodents and deer. Because of their coloring and small size,

nymphs easily escape detection. This is the time when humans are

most likely to become infected with Lyme Disease.

Deer tick LARVAE primarily feed on rodents (mainly the white-footed

mouse and chipmunk), other small mammals, and birds.

Infected rodents pass Lyme Disease to the deer tick LARVAE. On

average, 25% of ticks are infected, most having contracted

the disease from the white-footed mouse or chipmunk.

Disease-free deer tick EGGS hatch and develop into LARVAE.

Deer Tick Activity and How Lyme Disease is Transmitted to Humans

Y

E

A

R

O

N

E

Egg

Larva

Nymph

Adult

Season

Spring

Summer

Fall

Winter

Spring

Summer

Fall

Winter

Y

E

A

R

T

W

O

From left to right, the larva, nymph, male adult, female adult and replete female deer ticks shown measured against a ruler. The photo has been enlarged 400% to show detail.

The Tick Box Tick Control System makes sense.

here are measures you can take to reduce the risk of Lyme Disease

on your property. Basically, these involve making your landscape

less attractive to mice and deer and less hospitable to ticks:

* Keep piles of firewood and bird feeders away from your home.

* Remove leaf litter as much as possible.

* Trim trees and bushes to allow more light to enter shady landscapes.

And, when locating children’s playsets, choose areas that are sunny where the

grass can be kept short. Keep in mind,though, that these measures are not going to rid your property of mice, and a single mouse might well be carrying more than 100 deer ticks. Attempting to control the outdoor population of mice is futile, but you can control the ticks. There is, in fact, an easy-to-use, low-maintenance, highly effective means of ridding your yard of ticks and reducing your chances of contracting Lyme Disease . The Tick Box Tick Control System interrupts the Lyme Disease cycle without harming wildlife, damaging the environment, or threatening the health of your family with high-dose pesticides.

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The Tick Box Tick Control System makes a difference.

eveloped by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Prevention

with commercial application development consultants from the

Connecticut Tick Control Company, the Tick Box Tick Control System has been proven effective in significantly reducing the number of ticks present in the landscape. In field trials, the Tick Box Tick Control System reduced tick populations by as much as 88%* after just one year, as the chart below illustrates. The rate of infection in ticks that remain in the landscape also decreases: While 25% of nymph ticks present commonly carry the disease, the System reduces the percentage of infected ticks to just 7% of the total population after the first year. Both the total number of ticks and the Lyme Disease infection rate in the ticks present continue to decrease during the second year of treatment. Most impressive, the total number of ticks present in the landscape was reduced by 97.3% by the end of the second year of treatment, based on field trials.

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Reduces tick

populations by

nearly after     88%*

just one year.

Source:

 CDC data

Monmouth County,

New Jersey 2015

NYMPH POPULATION

The Tick Box Tick Control System

Reduces Ticks and Lyme Disease.

they will receive additional protection. Keep in mind that

the system boxes are self-contained, and the

insecticide they use is not a threat to any animal other

than ticks on small rodents. The system is effective for

approximately 90 days as installed, with two 90-day installations that take care of ticks for a full season.

            he key to the Tick Box Tick Control System is a small, plastic box which

          holds an insecticide that’s effective against ticks, and a bait that’s attractive to

          mice. Your pest management professional or lawn care operator determines

how many boxes you need to protect your property and places them in the interface

between landscaped and wooded areas.

The bait will attract mice living on and

around your property to the system boxes.

As a mouse moves through a box, it will pass

under a small applicator wick containing a

low-dose insecticide. The wick will lightly brush

its head or shoulders, gently applying traces of

the insecticide. The insecticide won’t harm the mice or any other animal that might touch or even eat them, but it will kill the ticks that the mice are carrying. A single dose will protect mice for up to 40 days against any new ticks. As they return to the system,

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It’s Fipronil, one of the

world’s best insecticides,

and the choice of the CDC.

he insecticide used in the

Tick Box Tick Control

System is Fipronil, an extremely low-dose insecticide with an amazing track record for performance. Fipronil is the active ingredient in the popular flea and tick treatment veterinarians commonly prescribe for household pets. And, it is used around the world in a variety of products designed to protect crops from destructive insects. Just a trace amount of Fipronil applied on a mouse is sufficient to kill ticks for days, yet it will not harm the mouse or any other animal it contacts. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested several chemical compounds before deciding on Fipronil for the Tick Box Tick Control System. Fipronil’s winning characteristics included extremely high efficacy and long residual.

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