Lyme and Other Tickborne Diseases Prevention Studies (LTDPS)

Yard Spraying Study

The Emerging Infections Programs of the Connecticut, Maryland, and New York Departments of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are conducting a study in 2011 and 2012 to determine if tickborne diseases can be prevented with a single, targeted pesticide application to yards.

Half of the study participants will receive a single application of bifenthrin (an EPA-registered, commercially available pesticide) to their property edges. The other half will receive a single application of water (the study placebo). Participants will be surveyed throughout the summer and fall to determine if they have been bitten by ticks or diagnosed with tickborne disease.

Bait Box Study

The Connecticut Emerging Infections Program, the Connecticut Department of Public Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are conducting a 2-year pilot study, that begins in 2012 and concludes in 2014, to investigate whether tickborne diseases can be prevented with the use of bait boxes, a rodent-targeted method of tick control.

The bait boxes hold bait attractive to mice and an insecticide effective against ticks.  The bait attracts the mice that live on and around a residential property. As the mouse moves through a box to get to the bait, it passes under a small applicator wick that contains a low-dose insecticide, fipronil. Fipronil is the active ingredient in many of the popular topical flea and tick control products (e.g. Frontline^®). The concentration of fipronil on the wicks in the bait boxes is 10 times less than that found in topical flea and tick control products used on household pets.

Periodically, study personnel will collect data about whether household members have had any ticks crawling on or attached to them and whether any household member has had a tickborne disease.