Ecological, Economic and Mechanical Considerations Relating to the Control of Ticks and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever on Long Island

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Abstract
The chief vector (Dermacentor variabilis) of this disease, which occurs sparingly throughout the State, is exceptionally abundant at the eastern end of Long Island. The greatest number of tick fever cases and deaths (about 18 cases and 4 deaths per year) have occurred where the tick vector is most abundant. There is evidently a critical host-vector population ratio below which the Rickettsia pathogen will spontaneously become locally extinct. Reduction of the vector tick population below this critical level is the objective of current control investigations. The tick population is largely concentrated at the margins of highways and paths. Here the ticks are easily killed by DDT at little cost; and it has been estimated that treating 2% of the total area may reduce the tick population of the entire area by as much as 80%. Since vaccination for the protection of the millions of visitors from metropolitan New York and elsewhere is quite impracticable, eradication of the disease by reduction of the vector tick population below the critical level appears to be the only sound procedure.

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