06/16/2026
Researchers fed wild deer medicated corn to make their blood deadly to ticks. A CDC-funded proof-of-concept study in Connecticut fed free-ranging whitetails Cydectin-coated corn in 2021 and 2022. The active ingredient was moxidectin, a drug related to ivermectin. The idea was to let the deer eat it, let the drug show up in their blood, and when ticks bite the deer, the ticks are exposed to it.
The study found moxidectin levels high enough to target ticks in 24 of 29 deer, or 83%, while the treated corn was available. The researchers did not claim ticks stopped attaching to deer, because that is not how this works. The tick still bites. The point is that once it feeds on treated blood, it dies or fails to engorge like normal. Deer are major reproductive hosts for ticks, and if adult female ticks cannot fully feed, drop off, and lay eggs, you are not just killing one tick, you are attacking the tick population at the source.
— Stephen Ziegler
Outdoor writer | Owner, DeLong Lures
