Bryna Greenspan advises Gazette readers to plant tubes permeated with “natural permethrin” (pyrethins) in backyards as a means of reducing the tick population. This is a terrible idea.
While this substance is toxic to ticks and mosquitoes, it also paralyzes and kills bees and a whole range of beneficial insects, without which we would have no food. It is also fatally toxic to cats, even more so in the “natural” form derived from chrysanthemum plants than in laboratory-developed permethrin.
The danger of tick bites is best contained by covering up properly when near tall grass, leaf litter, or the woods, and checking oneself and outdoor pets thoroughly every day. Saturating the landscape with poison is not the solution.
Donna Wiley
Whately