The Tick Project was a five-year study to determine whether neighborhood-based prevention can reduce human cases of Lyme and other tick-borne diseases. The methods we tested are simple and safe for people, pets, and the environment.
The study took place in Dutchess County, New York, which is home to some of the nation’s highest rates of Lyme disease incidence. We recruited residents of twenty-four neighborhoods to participate in the project. Each neighborhood consisted of 6-10 square blocks and roughly 100 properties.
The study was designed to determine whether two tick control methods, used separately or together, could reduce the number of cases of Lyme disease at the neighborhood level.
Method #1. The Tick Control System®
The “Tick Control System”, or TCS®, is a small box that attracts small mammals. When an animal enters the box, it receives a minute dose of fipronil, the active ingredient in many tick treatments used on dogs and cats. Fipronil kills ticks on animals like mice and chipmunks, which are largely responsible for infecting ticks with the Lyme bacterium.
Method #2. Met52® fungal spray
Metarhizium anisopliae is a fungus that occurs naturally in forest soils in eastern North America. It has been shown to kill ticks. A strain of this fungus, Met52, has been developed as a commercial product. It can be sprayed on vegetation where it kills ticks looking for hosts on which to feed.