Tick tubes were developed by Sam Telford and Andrew Spielman's group at Harvard in the late 1980s. The original Massachusetts trials of permethrin-treated cotton in cardboard tubes (Mather and colleagues, 1987-1991) reported 37 to 92 percent reductions in subadult ticks on local mice. Replication in suburban yards has been less consistent but the mechanism is intact.
The most effective personal protection against tick attachment in field studies is the combination of permethrin-treated outer clothing…
Mailing a removed tick to a lab for pathogen testing is useful for community surveillance but should not drive treatment decisions. CDC…
A removed tick is not biologically dead the moment you take it out - it can survive in a sealed container for weeks. CDC recommends…
Wet ticks are surprisingly hard to kill in laundry - even hot wash cycles leave a fraction alive. Tumble drying clothes on high heat for…
Hard ticks find hosts by questing: climbing onto grass blades or low vegetation, anchoring with the back legs, and waving the front legs…
A 2001 NEJM trial by Robert Nadelman and colleagues showed that a single 200 mg oral dose of doxycycline within 72 hours of removing an…