New Non-Profit Hopes To Start Program To Decrease Tick-Borne Diseases

The East Hampton Deer and Tick Management Foundation, a new non-profit group, wants the Town to start a program decrease the amount of tick-borne diseases, The East Hampton Star reports.

The program would treat the primary host of the disease, deer, with a pesticide designed to kill ticks at eight feeding stations located in Springs, according to The East Hampton Star.

The plan, known as the four-posters system, has been working on Shelter Island since they implemented the plan seven years ago, according to The East Hampton Star.

The system, which could decrease the tick population in a specific area by over 90 percent, would including baiting the stations with corn, attracting the deer which will then come in contact with rollers that would treat them with perethrin, according to The East Hampton Star.

The plan is estimated to cost $4,500 per year for each feeding station for the three-year pilot program. In addition, more money would be needed in order for stocking, maintaining and monitoring the stations, according to The East Hampton Star.

The non-profit’s board, former town councilman Randy Parsons, and residents Ron Brack and Alex Miller, hope to raise $50,000 for the program by the end of the year, according to The East Hampton Star.

The groups also hopes to get permission from Town officials to build the stations on public land and to use donated money for the program, according to The East Hampton Star.

They hope to have the stations installed by March and have been baited from mid-March to mid-December, Parsons told The East Hampton Star.