Posted on 08/02/2004 6:10:17 AM PDT by laotzu
Yankee Protestors Halt The Cure:
There seems to be something amiss in the New England Lyme disease prevention debate--common sense.
Two state wildlife departments are using junk science and smoke screens to prevent deployment of a device with no moving parts, the “4-Poster,” that has been scientifically proven to control the ticks that spread Lyme disease. The instrument was developed here, in Texas.
The 4-Poster technique, which is extremely successful at controlling the ticks that deliver the disease to humans, has been effectively rejected by the Connecticut Division of Wildlife for use in that state, according to Dr. Mat Pound of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) office in Kerrville.
Connecticut’s bureaucracy has approved the use of the 4-Poster, but stipulated so many conditions and restrictions that the situation is ultimately prohibitive.
Rumors leaked indicate that New York may be about to rule against use of the 4-Poster in that state. New York is the epicenter of Lyme disease, and spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year on prevention research.
The New York State Bureau of Wildlife would not respond to questions regarding the 4-Poster or their deer management policies.
The 4-Poster is basically a box of food for deer that requires they rub across a pesticide applicator as they lean in for corn. The pesticide used with the 4-Poster, permethrin, is an environmentally and human-safe substance that kills the ticks that spread the disease.
Permethrin is widely used in New England homes and yards. Thousands of infants crawl on permethrin laced carpets every day, with no ill affects. It is also applied to U.S. military clothing.
But while the lives of nearly all New Englanders are affected by the malady, a few naysayers are snowballing a stink about the substance being used in the wild, claiming that the technique poses hazards to water resources and human health.
USDA scientists insist that such claims are totally unfounded, that there is no possibility of runoff into reservoirs when the unit is properly used and the low toxicity to humans is a matter of record.
Lyme disease is the hazard.
A single tick can lay up to three thousand eggs at one time. Within weeks, the eggs have hatched and new ticks are laying eggs. A single deer can host thousands of ticks in one year.
American cases of Lyme disease are increasing dramatically. The purview of human suffering, and the humans yet to suffer, is beyond comprehension.
There is a solution. The solution is the 4-Poster.
Dr. Pound demonstrated scientific evidence that the 4-Poster controls ticks, in an experiment at Goddard Space Flight Center at Greenbelt, Maryland.
Within that fenced, 600+acre facility a four-year study, utilizing four 4-Posters on a population of approximately 75 deer, proved 98 percent effective in eliminating ticks.
The original three-year study at Kerr Wildlife Management Area, using a less-conventional pesticide, proved 92 percent effective within a 96acre test pasture, as compared to a 96acre control pasture.
4-Posters are currently being used successfully in several states, including Texas.
One of the reasons that the Connecticut Division of Wildlife questions the “efficacy” of the 4-Poster method is that it performed at only 70 percent effective in tests that the agency conducted.
Sources inside the USDA insist that Connecticut’s wildlife department was warned more than once, prior to conclusion of the study, that they were not using the equipment correctly.
But 70 percent is still about 69.9 percent better than anything else out there.
Another reason that Connecticut spurns the use of 4-Posters is the state is extremely overpopulated with deer, and they claim that “supplemental feeding” will enhance the reproductive rate of the wild deer population.
New York is also vastly overpopulated with deer.
Credible biologists within the wildlife management community suggest that there is no valid scientific evidence that adding corn, a grain that has a lower percentage of protein than the animals’ natural requirement drives them to, enhance reproductive rates, in a typical year.
Another argument has been presented that “chronic wasting disease,” the ungulate equivalent to “mad cow” disease, might be spread due to the close proximity of deer to one another as a result of visiting the feeder.
There are scientific problems with this excuse.
There has never been a case of chronic wasting disease in Connecticut or New York.
There is a more ominous logic that contradicts the disease argument, though.
When a government claims its habitat to be overpopulated with deer, but will not manage the resource, who, then, should manage the animals?
Disease is the natural cure for overpopulation.
Excepting the 4-Poster, there is no known habitat treatment to prevent the spread of Lyme disease except aerial spraying of pesticides.
Billions of dollars is spent on unsuccessful “prevention research” while elected officials and bureaucrats turn their backs on the solution.
What’s the problem?
No problem. Not with the equipment, anyway.
Davis Weld, Executive Director of the American Lyme Disease Foundation (ALDF), points out that many residents of New England have modified their lifestyles to accommodate the risks associated with living there.
Parents strip-search their children after playing outside, and many avoid any venture into high grass--even right outside their homes. Weld describes one family’s resorting to building a deck around their entire house, so as to avoid touching their lawn.
Some have moved to other parts of the country.
Extreme? Perhaps. But the consequences of contracting the disease can be severe, and can last a lifetime.
As concrete and steel continue to dominate human landscape evolution, the “citified” population is desensitized to wildlife management, landowner rights to manage their resources and habitat stewardship responsibilities.
True conservationists understand the necessity to manage wildlife and habitat factoring humans’ urban and agricultural influences.
Conservationists strive to understand the life cycle, accepting that the encroachment of humanity upon wildlife and habitat is essentially inevitable, and effort to maintain a reasonable imbalance.
Preservationists, on the other hand, are also perpetrators of encroachment, but advocate non-intervention at the expense of de-prioritizing the human condition.
Many of the preservationist types put animals on a spiritual plane with humans, but claim that there is no God.
Some claim that plants have consciousness, but eat plants exclusively.
Some insist that killing animals for food is wrong, but approve of late-term abortions.
It is a similar mentality that refuses to accept the scientific necessity to intervene, in this case.
Unfortunately the New England press is on the dance card, spreading misinformation and rallying the kooks.
I'd like to get one of these feeders just to kill off some of the ticks we have on our property! I'm not worried about LD (not casual either) but the ticks are HORRID here.
THANKS. GREAT POST.
I still think that some people are toooooo stupid and self-destructive to warrant continued existence.
Idiot bureaucrats and environmental whackos.
My daughter had the german variant of Lyme disease. She spent a week in the hospital, very sick. The spinal tap was horrible and the poor kid couldn't eat for five days. She just layed there are cried. Thank God antibiotics work well against that strain. She doesn't seem to have any lasting issues.
OK, m'dear. This could be very serious and not just Lyme. I was bitten by a young Brown Recluse. It developed a bullseye pattern that expanded with a new ring every day for a week. I almost lost my leg to that one. (My mother was bitten ten years later and it looked more like that traditional Recluse bite.) My daughter almost died from Lyme disease back in 2000. Is it smooth or rough to the touch? (Ring worm isn't dangerous, and you can treat that easily with antifungal cream.)
Don't know about other causes--you should have it checked, though.
Lacey,
Get your a$$ to a doctor fast. A bulls-eye rash means you have lyme disease and you have to get it treated before the bacteria disseminates into your central nervous system and deep tissue. You should demand a minimum of four weeks of antibiotics - six is better - as there are tons of treatment failures when people get less than a month of abx. Believe me, you do not want to let this go even another day. I'm one of those unfortunate people who didn't get diagnosed right away - they didn't recognize what the bulls-eye rash was back then - and it has effectively destroyed my life. It invaded my central nervous system and the consequences have been dire. Call your doctor now. Also, take high quality photos of the rash so you have proof of infection later if your insurance company gives you a hard time should, God forbid, you have any complications. And, btw, lyme rashes can sometimes be mistaken for ringworm rashes as they do have some features in common. The way to be sure is to actually culture the rash if there's any doubt. I can't tell you how many people I know who were told by doctors that they had ringworm and it turned out to be lyme.
Please Freepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Connecticut ping list.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my infrequent Rhode Island ping list.
This is a crock!!
Feeding stations would attract the animals away from my shrubs and black-eyed susans.
And if they really wanted to reduce the overpopulation they could add birth control to the feed corn.
What the liberals say is good for women all around the overpopulated planet is not good enough for the deer?!
Give me a break!
Hey Cousin,
I just sent this page off to Senator Algiere. Hope he finds it of value and can move on it.
The CT DEP is nothing more than a bunch of bull crappers.
We have a beach in CT called Hammonasset on the Long Island Sound shore. But the DEP runs it. They maintain a swamp ten times the size of the beach and the mosquitos are attacking ten a minute only 50 feet from the ocean. It's horrible. Not to mention the unusability that the campground has become.
There's also the case that the DEP decided to plant poisin ivy to control dune erosion and now they can't control it and get rid of it. THEY PLANTED IT IN THE FIRST PLACE.
MORONS.
Have been to re-enactments there. Of course, we don't do them at Hammo anymore. Too much wet stuff. And then it usually rains, too!
It'd be nice to get some of these 4-posters put in all that acreage behind my house. I'd even volunteer to keep them filled!
"Lyme disease is the hazard."
Sounds like THE EPA IS THE HAZARD.
These are states, CT and NY, that WANT to increase the human disease as to increase the need for medical attention, to push up the cost of health care, to force socialized health care upon all of us.
They've been doing this through needless vaccination requirements in the public schools, new requirements for physical exams for students almost yearly, etc.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.