Fifty percent of Blacklegged (deer) ticks carry the Lyme bacteria, according to University of Rhode Island research. That’s an incredibly scary statistic which places the probability of being bitten by an infected tick at the flip of a coin. If you are a fisherman walking to your favorite stream, a camper taking a hike, or a hunter looking for mushrooms or fresh wild turkey scratching in the leaves, you are at risk. Children and pets are particularly vulnerable, since they play on the ground and love to romp and rumble in the outdoors.
2017- Worst Year Ever
This year is forecast to be a very bad year for ticks and the diseases they carry. In fact, some scientists predict it to be a tick apocalypse. Three hundred thousand Americans contract Lyme Disease annually is the most likely infecting areas is not where you think. Scientists studying this debilitating disease indicate the most likely place of contraction is around your house, as you garden, mow grass, and or just enjoy the yard. Thermacell has been a house-hold word for years in mosquito protection with their innovative device and now turn that experience toward a significant health problem- disease transmitted by a tick. Most disease is transmitted in the summer by tiny nymphal ticks that are the size of a poppy seed. Hunters need to protect their families by using this no-spray, easy way to solve the tick problem.
Helping Spring Turkey Hunters
Because turkey hunting requires moving about in fields and forest and often setting in one place when calling, hunters are at significant risk of tick infestation. As you will read, Tick Tubes can be placed strategically near your regular hunting areas to eliminate ticks. If you hunt from a stationary blind over a series of weeks, you can virtually assure yourself, and others, that tick numbers will be dramatically reduced from the perimeter.
Deer hunters can benefit as well. It’s not practical to “tube” an entire mountain, yet you can virtually eliminate ticks in 1/2 acre circle around your stands and blinds over time. I killed a deer on our family farm and contracted five deer ticks while gutting the buck, a process that took just 20 minutes. Here’s how this creative tick eradication works.
How Lyme’s Disease is Transmitted
We have long heard that deer carry ticks and help to spread these nasty creatures. As deer move around, their blood sucking parasites get a free ride and help disperse the creature and it’s threat to human health. What you may not know is that immature ticks, the nymphs and larva, use mice as a host. One adult mice may have 50 to 100 ticks on its body.
Modern Living Helps Infection
When our nation was founded, much of the nation was covered with large forests that included a host of mouse predators- foxes, owls, hawks, and others. Today, many suburban homes have trees, shrubbery, and perhaps tall grass, all completely devoid of predators. As a result, mouse populations have exploded and so have the number of ticks that depend on them as a host.
Permethrin has a Problem
As a hunter you probably know about permethrin, the chemical that you put on your clothes to avoid mosquitoes and ticks. It not only repels insects and arachnids (the tick family), but kills them. Problem is, spraying your yards or surroundings with this chemical kills other insects that are human friendly and helpful. Plus, spraying adds chemicals to the environment and is expensive.
Thermacell Tick Tubes
Thermacell Tick Tubes are an ingenious way of introducing permethrin into the tick’s life cycle in a manner that kills them (fleas too) in a way that does not disturb other plants, insects, and animals. It even makes the mouse’s life more tolerable. A thermacell Tick Tube contains a favored bedding material for mice that has been treated to eliminate ticks. You place them in “mousey” places around your hunting cabin, yard, or other areas where you will have high human activity.
Mice find the material and take it to their underground dens. As the mice interact with the material, young ticks are killed and the young of the litter are not infected. Once done, the life cycle of the tick has been broken and the transfer of tick-carried disease has been stopped dead!
Research at Harvard
If you attended Harvard University, you’d be at the epicenter of Lyme’s Disease so there is little wonder that this prestigious university has studied the problem. Whereas most studies usually end with “more research is needed,” this work done by scientists was crystal clear. Here’s a quick synopsis:
Location and Background
- A field test was done by Harvard University Researchers at The Crane Estate in Massachusetts.
- There was a high incidence of Lyme disease in the area; roughly 35% of residents within a 5-mile distance and 66% of the residents bordering the area had contracted the disease.
Results
- In the area treated with Tick Tubes, virtually all mice were tick free within 3 weeks of the first application whereas mice in the untreated areas continued to have many ticks on them
- After two year, tests were done to verify tick reduction in the environment; no nymphal ticks were found in the treated area, whereas many nymphal ticks were found in the untreated area.
- Complaints from visitors and employees about tick-bites or ticks found on skin or clothing were common before the study began, but were rare after treatment.
Conclusion
Tick Tubes virtually eliminated ticks on mice and vegetation in the treated area (over 95%) contributing to the protection of humans against Lyme disease
Act Now
Protecting your home and recreational areas is critical because people are at the highest risk of getting Lyme’s disease in May , June and July from nymphal ticks that are no larger than a poppy seed. According to the CDC’s Kiersten Kugeler most people catch Lyme around their homes, while gardening, playing in their backyard or mowing the lawn. www.thermacell.com
UPDATE: Thermacell has contacted us with a coupon code for our subscribers: use code: TheHuntingPage for free shipping on orders over $30.
