What is the study design?

The study will enroll up to 230 households in Connecticut and Rhode Island that will be randomized into a group of single properties that will receive pesticide spray (beta-cyfluthrin) and bait boxes with pesticide (fipronil), contiguous properties that will receive the spray and bait boxes, or a group that will receive a water spray and bait boxes without pesticide. The first bait boxes will be placed on the properties of all participants in August of 2017. On average, between 6 and 10 boxes will be placed at the landscaping or wood-lawn interface (including front, back, and side yards) of participants’ homes. Study participants do not have to do anything regarding the bait boxes that are placed around their property. Study personnel will conduct a short introductory survey at the beginning of the study, and then they will send web-based e-mail surveys a few times per year until the study ends in 2020. These surveys are about whether household members have had any ticks crawling on or attached to them and whether any household member has had a tickborne disease. In addition, study personnel will collect data on where study participants spend their time outdoors during a one-week period to determine where people are exposed to ticks. This survey will take place during the first week of June 2017.