Management of lone star ticks (Acari: Ixodidae) in recreational areas with acaricide applications, vegetative management, and exclusion of white-tailed deer.
A project on management of lone star ticks, Amblyomma americanum (L.), at Land Between the Lakes, a Tennessee Valley Authority recreational area in Kentucky-Tennessee, during 1984-1988, demonstrated the effectiveness and economics of three control technologies. Acaricide applications (chlorpyrifos at 0.28 kg [AI]/ha), vegetative management (mowing and removal of 40% overstory and 90-100% of midstory, understory, and leaf litter), and host management (white-tailed deer exclusion from a 71-ha campground with a single-line fence) provided 75, 70, and 64% mean controls of all life stages of the lone star tick, respectively. Combinations of acaricide applications + vegetative management, acaricide applications + host management, and acaricide applications + vegetative management + host management produced 94, 89, and 96% mean control of all life stages, respectively. The costs of acaricide applications (two per year), vegetative management (two mowings per year), and white-tailed deer exclusion (single-line fence) were $45, $150, and $30/ha/yr, respectively. Results of this project are used to design management strategies that could be considered for use against lone star ticks in recreational areas.
Bloemer
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Recreation Resources Branch, Tennessee Valley Authority, Golden Pond, Kentucky 42211.
Mount
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Morris
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Zimmerman
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Barnard
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Snoddy
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EL
D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001096:Arachnid Vectors; D004390:Chlorpyrifos; D003670:Deer; D007629:Kentucky; D013714:Tennessee; D013983:Tick Control / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D013987:Ticks
D004390:Chlorpyrifos