The short answer: good science is expensive and adequate funding has not been made available. Now, however, there is a chance to make headway. Richard Ostfeld from the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies and Felicia Keesing from Bard College have designed a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. The study
will look at the effect of two interventions: a sprayed fungus that kills ticks, and bait boxes that drop a tiny amount of tick poison on small mammals. Because ticks don't respect property boundaries, the study examines whole neighborhoods instead of just treating single yards.
Ostfeld and Keesing have secured $5.5 of the $8.8 million they need for the study. State funding is a no-go as is federal funding for large, well-designed, and expensive studies.
The takeaway:
To sum it all up: "With over 300,000 new cases each year, the scope of the problem definitely hasn't been addressed by the scale of the funding," says Dr. Tom Mather of the University of Rhode Island. "I’m not sure when and if we can change that -- maybe when there are 500,000 new cases of Lyme every year. Or maybe when ticks fly."
