Suffolk Closeup: Ticked at Government Response to Ticks

A “roadblock” is what veteran Suffolk County journalist Peter Boody, a former reporter and editor, and now a public official, calls the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s rule on implementing the four-poster deer treatment system developed to counter the spread by ticks of Lyme disease and other illnesses.

Suffolk County had the most cases of Lyme—the most common disease spread by ticks in the U.S. and Europe—of any county in the state in 2024, the most of any in the nation in 2023.

When the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the four-poster system in 2004, it said the system developed by its “Agricultural Research Service scientists” could have a huge impact on tick populations.

It said: “The 4-poster device offers a viable tick-control alternative to spraying insecticides into the environment that might be toxic to nontarget species. Studies by ARS and cooperators have shown that after two to three years, use of the 4-poster technology will control from 92 to 98 percent of the…tick population.”

“The device,” the statement said, “was studied for five years to see if it would control ticks plaguing white-tailed deer in the Northeast…blacklegged ticks,” also called deer ticks which transmit Lyme, and lone star ticks, which spread several illnesses.

The statement continued: “The simple device consists of a bin that's filled with whole-kernel corn. Paint rollers on the four corners of the bin are loaded with a special formulation of permethrin….As a deer feeds on the corn in the bin, the animal's head and neck rub against the permethrin-laden rollers, which gives sufficient coverage.” Ticks seek soft tissue.

Permethrin is a synthetic version of pyrethrum. When derived from chrysanthemum flowers, it’s called pyrethrum and is a natural insecticide. Permethrin was produced as a result of U.S. soldiers facing severe issues with insect-borne diseases during the Vietnam War and not enough pyrethrum was available. It became a standard treatment for application on combat uniforms.

A 2008 article in The New York Times began: “Shelter Island has used deer hunts to try to control its tick problem. Pesticides have been sprayed there and on Fire Island, where disease-carrying ticks are also persistent. Now, dozens of deer-baiting devices called four-posters are being installed in both areas as part of a $1.2 million tick-removal effort.”

(The terms 4-poster and four-poster are used interchangeably.)

The Times piece continued: “After some brief tests last fall, this is the first full-time run on Long Island for four-poster feeder stations that resemble four-poster beds and lure deer with corn. Rollers soaked with the pesticide permethrin rub the animals’ necks as they eat the corn, in hopes of killing ticks. Studies by the United States Department of Agriculture have concluded that four-posters helped decrease tick populations by 90 percent or more.”

Rae Lapides, then chair of the Shelter Island Deer and Tick Committee, who “spearheaded the push for 60 four-posters, which were to have been installed this weekend.” was quoted in The Times article saying: “We are having a health crisis….The four-poster is the most ecologically friendly and efficient thing we have to fight the tick.”

But in 2020 the New York State DEC issued a rule that “owners of all properties that are wholly or partially included in a 40-acre circle, a 745-foot radius, centered on each 4-poster device location must provide written confirmation…that they give consent for the device to be deployed.”

DEC also advanced an explanation that it “finds that the intentional feeding of wild white-tailed deer…is not in the public interest and will unnaturally concentrate wild white-tailed deer… and thereby lead to environmental harm including: destruction of natural habitat; disruption of natural movements; increased risks for introduction, transmission or spread of disease; and alterations of behavior in wild white-tailed deer…that may increase danger to people or damage to property, or both.”

Boody, former editor of the Shelter Island Reporter and The Southampton Press, and now a trustee of the village of North Haven, wrote an article for the Sag Harbor Express in 2021 on how the town of Shelter Island “abandoned” its four-poster program “entirely as a result of the new rule.”

The rule “decimated” the Shelter Island program, explained Boody last week, “by requiring 100 percent agreement” of people in the 40-acre circles—as the rule mandates “owners of all properties” in them. Said Boody: “You cannot under the rule have one ‘no.’ And that’s impossible.” The DEC imposed a “roadblock.” Meanwhile, “in much smaller” North Haven—“a quarter the size of Shelter Island”—there was an effort, said Boody, to “save its program” with Deputy Mayor Claas Abraham “leading” it.

Abraham last week explained how he “drove my bike” around the small village speaking to residents. Abraham said that before the program got fully going again there was a big increase in ticks found on deer in North Haven. Since then, the number of ticks counted on deer has declined sharply, by 90 percent in blacklegged ticks and 80% in lone star ticks, he said. The village now has 21 four-poster devices.

The four-poster system “works,” he said. “It’s one of the few solutions available now.”

Boody said “I believe the North Haven program is now the only one in New York State.”

Last week’s issue of The New Yorker published an extensive article headed: “The Great Infestation.” The piece begins: “It was a perfect day for a blood meal. A salt breeze blew over the western shore of Martha’s Vineyard.” And ticks had “been waiting.” The article reported the island’s “public health-biologist” saying: “Everyone comes here and is afraid of Jaws. That is not what you should be caring about. It’s the little things.”

Deer ticks were “feared most,” now it’s lone star ticks, “confirmed…on the island” in 2011.

Commented Abraham about the Massachusetts islands to our east, “Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, Block Island, they‘d be helped by four-posters.”

But it’s not just New York with a state government impediment. Google says in Massachusetts “the use of 4-poster deer treatment devices is highly restricted and typically requires special permits from the state…Deliberately feeding deer is generally illegal in Massachusetts. Deploying 4-posters requires explicit exemption permits from wildlife officials.”