Deer are the only large mammal present on the east end of LI in sufficient numbers to provide the several days of blood meal required by the ADULT female tick in order to mate and lay its eggs. Smaller hosts can not do this and the other possible host, humans, can pick them off. One deer can host enough adult ticks to produce 1.5 to 3 million eggs and subsequent larva which then go on to become nymphs and adults during the 2 year life cycle. To ignore the key role of the adult tick and its dependence on the deer is to ignore the key to interrupting the life cycle and effectively eliminating ticks and their diseases.