AI Insight
A two-year experimental field study conducted by researchers from the University of Ottawa and partner institutions found that woodchip barriers placed on recreational woodland trails significantly reduce tick populations, including those carrying Lyme disease. Both untreated woodchips and woodchips treated with insecticide demonstrated effectiveness, with the insecticide-treated variant nearly eliminating Lyme disease-carrying ticks in the study areas. The research provides evidence that this intervention represents a simple, low-cost method for managing tick exposure in community recreational spaces.
Why it matters
Tick-borne diseases such as Lyme disease represent a growing public health concern in North America, and this finding offers municipalities and land managers an accessible, practical tool to reduce human exposure on trails without requiring complex or expensive infrastructure.
New research has shown woodchips to be the secret weapon to keeping ticks off recreational woodland trails, including eliminating nearly all Lyme disease-carriers when treated with insecticide. The two-year experimental field study led by Katarina Ost, doctoral candidate at the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa under Manisha A. Kulkarni’s supervision, and in collaboration with researchers from Bruyere Health Research Institute, Université de Montréal, and Dalhousie University, provided evidence that both treated and untreated woodchip interventions can effectively reduce tick populations in a recreational context, a simple and cost-effective way for communities to combat these critters.
Source: The secret to keeping ticks at bay this summer: Woodchips