![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/030314i_Deer_ticks_jal.jpg\")
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tREPORTER FILE PHOTO
\n Deer at a Shelter Island 4-poster feeding station.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tREPORTER FILE PHOTO
\n Deer at a Shelter Island 4-poster feeding station.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
A \u201croadblock\u201d 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\u2019s rule on implementing the four-poster deer treatment system developed to counter the spread by ticks of Lyme disease and other illnesses.<\/p>\n
Suffolk County had the most cases of Lyme\u2014the most common disease spread by ticks in the U.S. and Europe\u2014of any county in the state in 2024, the most of any in the nation in 2023.<\/p>\n
When the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the four-poster system in 2004, it said the system developed by its \u201cAgricultural Research Service (ARS)\u00a0 scientists\u201d could have a huge impact on tick populations.<\/p>\n
It said: \u201cThe 4-poster device offers a viable tick-control alternative to spraying insecticides into the environment that might be toxic to non-target 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\u2026tick population.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe device,\u201d the statement said, \u201cwas studied for five years to see if it would control ticks plaguing white-tailed deer in the Northeast\u2026blacklegged ticks,\u201d also called deer ticks which transmit Lyme, and lone star ticks, which spread several illnesses.<\/p>\n
The statement continued: \u201cThe simple device consists of a bin that\u2019s filled with whole-kernel corn. Paint rollers on the four corners of the bin are loaded with a special formulation of permethrin\u2026.As a deer feeds on the corn in the bin, the animal\u2019s head and neck rub against the permethrin-laden rollers, which gives sufficient coverage.\u201d Ticks seek soft tissue.<\/p>\n
Permethrin is a synthetic version of pyrethrum. When derived from chrysanthemum flowers, it\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
A 2008 article in The New York Times began: \u201cShelter 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Times piece continued: \u201cAfter 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\u2019 necks as they eat the corn, in hopes of killing ticks.<\/p>\n
\u00a0Studies by the United States Department of Agriculture have concluded that four-posters helped decrease tick populations by 90 percent or more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rae Lapides, then chair of the Shelter Island Deer and Tick Committee, who \u201cspearheaded the push for 60 four-posters, which were to have been installed this weekend,\u201d was quoted in The Times article saying: \u201cWe are having a health crisis\u2026.The four-poster is the most ecologically friendly and efficient thing we have to fight the tick.\u201d<\/p>\n
But in 2020 the New York State DEC issued a rule that \u201cowners 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\u2026that they give consent for the device to be deployed.\u201d<\/p>\n
DEC also advanced an explanation that it \u201cfinds that the intentional feeding of wild white-tailed deer\u2026is not in the public interest and will unnaturally concentrate wild white-tailed deer\u2026 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\u2026that may increase danger to people or damage to property, or both.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boody, former editor of the Reporter and also 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 \u201cabandoned\u201d its four-poster program \u201centirely as a result of the new rule.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rule \u201cdecimated\u201d the Island\u2019s program, said Boody last week, \u201cby requiring 100 percent agreement\u201d of people in the 40-acre circles\u2014as the rule mandates \u201cowners of all properties\u201d in them. Said Boody: \u201cYou cannot under the rule have one \u2018no.\u2019 And that\u2019s impossible.\u201d The DEC imposed a \u201croadblock.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, \u201cin much smaller\u201d North Haven\u2014\u201ca quarter the size of Shelter Island\u201d\u2014there was an effort, said Boody, to \u201csave its program\u201d with Deputy Mayor Claas Abraham \u201cleading\u201d it.<\/p>\n
Abraham last week explained how he \u201cdrove my bike\u201d 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.<\/p>\n
The four-poster system \u201cworks,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the few solutions available now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boody said \u201cI believe the North Haven program is now the only one in New York State.\u201d Last week\u2019s issue of The New Yorker published an extensive article headed: \u201cThe Great Infestation.\u201d The piece begins: \u201cIt was a perfect day for a blood meal. A salt breeze blew over the western shore of Martha\u2019s Vineyard.\u201d And ticks had \u201cbeen waiting.\u201d The article reported the island\u2019s \u201cpublic health-biologist\u201d saying: \u201cEveryone comes here and is afraid of Jaws. That is not what you should be caring about. It\u2019s the little things.\u201d<\/p>\n
Deer ticks were \u201cfeared most,\u201d now it\u2019s lone star ticks, \u201cconfirmed\u2026on the island\u201d in 2011.<\/p>\n
Commented Abraham about the islands of Massachusetts to Shelter Island\u2019s east, \u201cMartha\u2019s Vineyard, Nantucket, Block Island, they\u2018d be helped by four-posters.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"REPORTER FILE PHOTO Deer at a Shelter Island 4-poster feeding station. A \u201croadblock\u201d is what veteran Suffolk County…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305974,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[115810,9,24,63,115811,88716,134,136,135],"class_list":["post-305973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-staten-island","tag-4-poster-devices","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-permetherin","tag-shelter-island","tag-staten-island","tag-staten-island-headlines","tag-staten-island-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}