Can acaricide treatment of sheep control ticks and tick-borne disease in the environment?

The Knowledge Scotland website has provided a briefing about research published last year by a team of researchers at Stirling University and Macaulay.  A modelling approach has been used to investigate the effect of increasing deer populations on the ability of the 'tick mop' approach to control sheep ticks.

There is nothing new here for landowners and managers, but it is helpful to see the research supporting the techniques that have been promoted as best practice: a highly effective acaricide regime is necessary to produce a reduction in tick numbers and tick control will lose its effectiveness quickly with increasing deer numbers.