Selling Fear of Ticks

I saw this product for sale at a local big box hardware store today.

I think it’s a very defective product.

The theory is that pyrethrum-soaked cotton balls will be carried by mice into their burrows to use as bedding, thereby killing off the ticks that feed on the mice and spread Lyme. Problem:

1. Pyrethrin is not long-lasting, especially if exposed to sunlight;
2. White-footed deer mice are not normal house mice;
3. Mice breed in such huge numbers you would have to drop thousands of insecticide-soaked cotton balls all over a farm to have much of an impact;
4. The mice will still carry Lyme — they are the actual repository of the disease.

Want a better solution that this nonsense?

1. Encourage fox, hawks, and possums to take up residence with places for them to perch and shelter (hedges, old tree snags, brush piles);
2. Put several “mechanical cat” multi-mice traps around barns and lofts;
3. Cut grass low and make your mow paths wide;
4. Spray your pants with pyrethrum before going through tall grass and brush, and check yourself over after being in the field.