To determine if destruction of woodland ground vegetation affects abundance of questing adult deer ticks, Ixodes dammini, four plots were burned and one plot was mowed at a tick-infested site in Cape Cod, Mass. Burning or mowing, followed by tick sampling by dragging, was undertaken during spring or fall when adult ticks were most active. Abundance of questing adult deer ticks was reduced by as much as 88% and persisted for as long as 12 months following burning, but this effect disappeared thereafter. Mowing produced similar results. Vegetation modification is an effective method of reducing local abundance of questing adult I. dammini.
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Mark L. Wilson (1986) studied this question.