AP Story on New Tick Killers as tools against Lyme

[Guest guest]

I noticed that the CDC is still saying their reported cases only

account for 10% of all new Lyme cases, meaning over 200,000 new

cases in 2003.

http://tinyurl.com/axubf

New Tick Killers Avoid Widespread Spraying

By LINDA A. JOHNSON, AP Business Writer

Sat Jul 30, 9:48 PM ET

TRENTON, N.J. - After her husband got Lyme disease, her young son

kept getting tick bites in their yard and a close friend nearly died

of the tick-borne infection, Laurie Gaulke felt she had to do

something. With heavy brush and a forest with deer behind her home

in Gillette, Gaulke tried a new strategy three years ago: installing

a tick-killing system in the brush fringing her yard.

Bait inside the plastic boxes lures rodents that harbor the bacteria

causing Lyme disease. A wick coats their fur with a chemical that

kills ticks for up to six weeks. New boxes must be installed by

trained pest control contractors each spring and summer.

Developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the

Maxforce Tick Management System is one of a few new alternatives to

widespread chemical spraying to kill ticks and prevent Lyme disease,

which can cause long-term health problems and cost thousands of

dollars to cure.

Another new device that targets tick hosts is called the 4-Poster

Deer Treatment Bait Station, a tick-killing chemical that must be

replenished weekly along with a type of corn deer like but eat only

in small amounts. It was invented by the U.S. Department of

Agriculture.

Experts on Lyme disease and tick control say consumers should seek

data on the effectiveness of both systems before making a purchase.

Gaulke, whose family is often outside, said Maxforce began sharply

reducing tick numbers after a year.

" It's not like I'm spraying something toxic ... that I have to worry

about my child or my dog playing in, " she said.

Maxforce and 4-Poster, two methods that directly target animals on

which ticks feed, can take a couple years to reach peak

effectiveness, so insecticide should be applied a few times in areas

harboring ticks, pesticide contractors say.

However, a government survey found 75 percent of the public won't

use a spray, said CDC senior research biologist Marc Dolan. Tick

populations are extremely high in the Northeast this year, and

moving west, he noted.

A quarter century after Lyme disease was named for the Connecticut

town where it was first observed, it has spread to all but nine

states with the exploding U.S. population of deer, the primary hosts

on which black-legged deer ticks feed.

Mice, chipmunks and occasionally other rodents — but not deer —

harbor the bacteria causing Lyme disease, and infect ticks that

later bite people and pets.

According to the CDC, 21,273 cases of Lyme disease were reported in

2003, mostly in New England and mid-Atlantic states. CDC estimates

only 10 percent of cases are reported because Lyme disease often

causes only mild, flu-like symptoms.

Symptoms can also include fever, fatigue, joint and muscle aches,

headache and, in some people, a bull's eye rash. Untreated, it can

cause neurological problems, personality changes, sleep

disturbances, disabling joint pain and swelling, meningitis or heart

problems.

Dolan, who helped develop Maxforce and tested it on tick-infested

Mason's Island off Connecticut, said it has cut the number of ticks

by 80 percent to 95 percent after two years.

Montvale-based Bayer Environmental Science launched Maxforce under a

CDC license last year and now sells it in 18 states and Washington,

D.C. Prices run from a few hundred dollars to $1,000 per year,

depending on property size and amount of brush.

The 4-Poster device was licensed to the American Lyme Disease

Foundation, which gets a small royalty on sales, and to manufacturer

C.R. s Inc. of Ellicott City, Md.

J. , a supervisory research engineer with USDA's

Agricultural Research Service, said a study in five Northeast states

found 4-Poster killed 70 percent to 90 percent of ticks in two years.

" It's not spread over the environment, " said, and spraying

uses about 1,500 times as much insecticide as the 4-Poster system.

The feeder costs $425, plus $175 for a year's worth of the tick-

killing chemical.

Durland Fish, science adviser to the foundation, said it endorses

the 4-poster system, though it needs improvements. One drawback is

that it cannot be used near homes because children could touch the

exposed chemical.

The foundation also backs Maxforce and two other products. Those are

the Buzz Off shirt sold by Orvis, which claims an embedded, natural

insect repellent drives off ticks, mosquitoes and other insects

through 25 washings, and the Snap 3Dx Test, which lets veterinarians

quickly test dogs for Lyme and other tick-borne diseases — a sign

family members may be infected.

Fish says other strategies are in development, including a fungi

spray safer than other pesticides, a Lyme disease vaccine for mice

and use of nematodes, tiny worms that eat ticks.

Immunologist Dr. Schutzer of University of Medicine and

Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark, who has done research on tick

habitats, said infected patients seem to be seeking help sooner,

when antibiotics are most effective. He said few patients follow

the " long sleeves, long pants tucked in " strategy to avoid tick

bites, so people should avoid areas with ankle-deep brush where

ticks and mice are likely to be.