Only one East End community sees drop in ticks
Only one East End community is reporting a drop in deer and tick levels. North Haven Deputy Mayor Claas Abraham told members of the Suffolk Country Tick Advisory Committee (TCAC) at a recent meeting.
He attributes the success to ongoing use of four-poster units that rub the tickicide permethrin on necks of deer as they feed on corn at the units, according to former Shelter Island Town Board member Jim Colligan. He has been a TCAC member since 2023 when he opted not to seek another four-year term on the Town Board.
“Shelter Island is no different from most of our neighboring East End Towns,” Mr. Colligan said, noting, “Both the deer and tick populations continue to be major challenges.”
Mr. Colligan was chairman of the Island’s Deer & Tick Committee during his Town Board service.
He knows there is irony in the fact that back in 2008, Shelter Island and Fire Island were chosen to participate in a pilot program that began in 2009 to test the effectiveness of killing ticks before they could infect residents and visitors.
Until 2019, the units continued to be used by Shelter Island when the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) implemented a limit to their use that made it impossible for the Island to continue using them.
Communities wanting to use the units must obtain a license from the DEC that generally prohibits feeding of the deer. Properties where the units are to be placed need at least 40 acres of contiguous land and neighbors within a 745-foot radius of each device must sign consents for them to be placed. Areas such as playgrounds or areas where children are unsupervised.
Town officials sought to gain permission to keep their units functioning, but the DEC refused, Mr. Colligan said. Since the end of 4-poster use, the Town has two major prongs to try to combat the problem — culling the deer herd and education.
The Town has been unable to rally a sufficient number of hunters with some retiring from the sport, too few who are trained to be effective yet.
Education, led by Deer & Tick member Julia Weisenberg and often in conjunction with staff from the Mashomack Preserve, have programs for students and create materials to inform adults how to protect themselves from tick bites.
The educational efforts are effective. But still the Island is experiencing rises in deer and ticks.
North Haven is a small area enabling it to meet DEC standards because it is less populated than Shelter Island, Mr. Colligan said.
“It doesn’t appear that deer and tick management strategies are going to produce any quick results in the immediate future,” he said. “ But there are concrete efforts that are being made that can help address this health crisis and that the Suffolk County TCAC supports. There is no one fix all approach that the committee supports,” he said.
TCAC supports:
• Year round education and community outreach to full time and part time residents, visitors who need to be informed of precautions they should take to protect themselves, including proper dress when hiking around the Island. Some used tick sprays on clothing while others had clothing to have pants and socks treated for the season. The results revealed a 60% reduction in ticks on clothing of those who had clothing treated for the season, Mr. Colligan said. It’s not expensive and can be effective through dozens of washings, he said.
• Support research efforts to increase understanding and offer better control measure to treat tick-borne pathogens that can include using both natural and chemical applications on properties versus not choosing to spray at all.
• Improve trails in parks and town-owned properties and use of signage to help educate hikers about tick prevention and advice about seeking medical assistance if bitten by a tick.
Trails should be at least eight to 10 feet wide and be cut regularly. Those who find a tick on their bodies should remove it by pulling straight up and then showering. But if the tick was embedded in your skin, you should seek medical attention.
East End towns continue to share information and strategies to help reduce tick numbers and they need to tell legislators in Albany deer and tick management practices need to be specific areas in the state, Mr. Colligan said.
Needs on Long Island are very different than those upstate, he said.
The Suffolk County Tick Advisory Committee has 18 members led by Scott Campbell, Ph.D.,, who is a current member of the Shelter Island Deer & Tick Committee and heads the he Suffolk County Arthropod-Borne Disease Laboratory. TCAC is composed of 18 members who represent the NYSDEC, The Nature Conservancy, Suffolk County and New York State Parks, Suffolk County Vector Control, Health Committees and Hospitals, including Stony Brook Southampton Regional Tick-Borne Disease Resource Center, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Laboratory Directors, and a several Legislative Aides who represent various municipalities on the East End.
