Lyme disease-carrying ticks take beating from new deer bait station

Kerrville, Texas

-- A six-year study by the USDA's Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is good news for veterinarians who've seen Lyme disease outbreaks, that eventually wind up in dogs, in their local deer populations.

The ARS's new deer-feeding bait station lowered the incidence of Lyme disease cases in deer by 60 to 82 percent in the five Northeastern states where it was tested.

The Four-Poster Deer Treatment Bait Station contains corn for deer and is outfitted with four insecticide-laden paint rollers. When a deer carrying black-legged ticks inserts its muzzle into the container to feed on corn, it must rub its head, neck and ears against the rollers. When the deer later grooms itself, the insecticide is spread all over the body.

The efficacy of the bait station could be boosted to 90 percent with the inclusion of newer, more effective insecticides that weren't available at the start of the study, according to one of the study's investigators.