Environmental Health Center

EnvironMinute Health Scripts

In the war against Lyme-Disease-spreading deer ticks, deer may become our best allies. A new project just might lure the deer into a tick-free life. We're almost out of the woods on today's EnvironMinute. [:11]

[Sound Effects: Woods ambience or walking :01]

The threat of catching Lyme Disease has turned harmless hikes into a potential health hazard. So far, prevention and early treatment have been our main weapons in fighting Lyme disease. But an experimental project by the U.S. Agriculture Department should change that. The project will use stragetically-placed corn feeding stations in five Northeast states, each equipped with paint rollers soaked with a tick-killing chemical. The deer poke their heads in for a treat and get a fresh coating of pesticide that doesn't harm the deer, but destroys the disease-carrying ticks. Field tests in Texas have proved successful. Now the scene rolls north to the front lines of the war on Lyme Disease. [:37]

The EnvironMinute is produced in cooperation with the National Safety Council and made possible by the Teresa and H. John Heinz III Foundation. [:10]

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