Your links provide little or no raw data on the effectiveness of reducing the deer population although simple logic says that would be so......something like reducing the number of guns in the country reducing the number of people killed by gun.. But fyi there were 230,000 deer killed by NY hunters last year so total population must be over a million. Locally Vassar College hired professional marksmen to "remove" 70 deer from their property with the town's permission. They are beautiful animals that most people like to watch, not kill....
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has developed a new experimental approach for the application of topical acaricides to white-tailed deer to kill ticks feeding on the deer. It consists of a feeding station with four paint rollers that hold the pesticide. Deer self treat as they brush against the rollers when they feed. These 4-posters were evaluated in the northeastern United States for the control of the blacklegged tick, having performed well in a trial against lone star ticks on deer in Texas. Computer models indicated that 95% cof I. scapularis on 90% of a local deer population could dramatically reduce the tick population treated area over a period of several years. While usage of the devices is generally high (> 90%), utilization of the devices by deer was extremelywhen alternative food sources were available (i.e., acorns). The treatment of deer with 2% amitraz reduced tick abundance in the treated communities by around 64-69% by the fifth and sixth year in comparison with untreated areas. The use of 10% permethrin resulted in a 91-100% reduction of larval, nymphal, and adult questing ticks in sampled plots. According to computer simulations, this approach, in principal, could provide control
The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station
greatest reduction in Lyme disease with the least direct community involvement (i.e. number of direct participating households).
The American Lyme Disease Foundation (Somers, NY) holds the license to the product's patent and works with Dandux Outdoors (Ellicott City, MD) for manufacturing the device. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has registered 10% permethrin as a restricted use, ready to use tickicide (Y-TEX? 4-Poster? Tickicide, Y-TEX Corporation, Cody, WY) for application to deer via the 4-poster device to control I. scapularis and A. americanum. The 4-posters are to be placed as far as possible, but in no case less than 100 yards from any home, apartment, playground, or other place children might be present without adult supervision. States may have more restrictive requirements than the federal label. At the time of this writing, state pesticide registrations have been obtained in 33 states including Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maryland, Delaware, Michigan, and Minnesota. Approvals or regulations for use by state wildlife officials are pending or under review. The use of the 4-poster will probably make the most sense as part of a neighborhood or community coordinated program to reduce ticks and the risk of Lyme disease, managed under state use regulations, combined with some form of a deer management program. |
