Great New Way to Kill Ticks that Carry Lyme Disease
Dave Maas 04.20.17
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 15 years, you’ve heard about Thermacell. When it comes to keeping mosquitoes and other biting insects from bothering you while hunting, camping or watching an outdoor sporting event, a Thermacell repellent device works like magic. Click here to check out a story I wrote for OHUB regarding my extensive experience with Thermacell on hunts from Florida to Alberta.
I recently learned that Thermacell has introduced a no-spray, easy way to kill ticks that carry Lyme disease. Thermacell’s new Tick Control Tubes are designed to kill ticks in a specific area around a home, cabin, hunting camp etc.
This is important: It is NOT a product that protects you while walking through the woods. Even so, I think these Tick Control Tubes will be a tremendous tool for limiting exposure to Lyme disease. Believe it or not, more than 300,000 people are diagnosed with Lyme disease each year. It’s time to start shrinking that number.
As explained in more detail here, Thermacell Tick Control Tubes rely on Mother Nature to kill ticks in your yard by working with an unlikely ally – field mice. The innovative system turns mice from tick hosts into tick killers. The three-step process is as follows:
- Young ticks feed primarily on field mice; adult ticks feed primarily on humans, pets, and deer.
- Thermacell Tick Control Tubes are made from biodegradable cardboard filled with a specially treated material that kills ticks. Mice seek out this ideal nest material and collect it to line their nests underground.
- Mice get the treated material on their fur while moving around in their nest. Ticks feeding on the mice die from the treated material before they can harm you or your family.
In a word – clever!
But does the system really work?
You bet. In a field test conducted by Harvard University researchers, Tick Control Tubes virtually eliminated ticks on mice and vegetation in the treated area contributing to the protection of humans against Lyme disease. A field test was done 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 range and 66% of the residents bordering the area had contracted the disease in the past. Read the test results yourself, but to summarize, Tick Tubes solved the problem. Period.
Thermacell has reputation for making top-notch products that work. And this latest introduction might be its most important one to date.
