Dougherty reports on tick eradication efforts
Supervisor Jim Dougherty gave a report on the battle against ticks at Tuesday’s Town Board work session in light of research that the number of ticks and tick borne illnesses has increased dramatically.
The current budget for 2013 for the town’s deer and tick program is $75,000. There are currently 19 4-poster units — stands that deer feed at and are brushed with a chemical, premetherin, that kills ticks — that cost about $5,000 a unit, with the Mashomack Preserve paying for three of them.
The Ram Island Association has agreed to pay for a new 4-poster and a resident of Ram Island has agreed to pick up the bill for another. Both units have received New York State Department of Conservation approval and Mr. Dougherty said they would be in use soon.
Last week the Deer and Tick Foundation presented the town with a check for $8,135 .
“If we go back to the old days, and there’s a grass roots feeling that we should, we had 60 units,” Mr. Dougherty said, “which seemed to do the job getting ticks down.”
Evidence gathered when the 60 units were operational, experts said, showed kill rates of ticks of more than 90 percent.
But to return to that number of 4-posters, the cost would be $300,000, plus it would require hiring at least a part item worker to maintain the units. Admitting he was “pulling numbers out of the air,” Mr. Dougherty estimated a total cost of $400,000, or $325,000 more than the town has budgeted for.
In the past the county had helped the town with servicing units at Mashomack and on other levels with the tick problem, but that was then, Mr. Dougherty said, adding the county seems to be more interested in mosquitoes than ticks these days.
“Some of our constituents are getting very excited, and I’ve been frankly telling them you have to get more than excited, you have to start calling these people,” Mr. Dougherty said.
Councilwoman Chris Lewis said that pressure should also be applied to state agencies. “Does the whole burden of protecting out citizens fall on us?” she asked.
