This also accurately describes the deer overpopulation in Pennsylvania, where there is also rampant lyme disease. In Pennsylvania, the deer hunters really enjoy the status quo, because of the good odds they can bag a buck every year. And because the hunters have some political influence, proposals to reduce the deer population go nowhere. I'm not sure if the political landscape is similar in New England.
Looking at this from the outside, it seems to me that deer hunters are more likely to get lyme disease and so, they should favor deer population control.
If you're just going out into the woods for a day, its relatively easy to stay safe. You wear certain types of clothes, tuck them into each other a certain way, spray yourself with tick repellent, come home, throw them immediately into the wash, and then shower and check your body.
Ticks are much more difficult for children (who have to be taught the above), definitely people with outdoor pets, people who didn't expect to be in the woods (gardening, picnics, shortcut on the walk home, etc), and people not returning for the night (ever try checking yourself for ticks by firelight? even then your laundry is nearby, and they might crawl out. etc)
Specifically, when going into tick areas, no open toed shoes, no shorts, and wear long sleeves. Tuck your pants legs into your socks. Most ticks climb up from your feet. Another tip is to treat your outdoor shoes with permethrin on the first of each month in May, June, July, and August.
Talking to a lot of hunters, many don't recognize the Lyme threat, since it is a relatively new phenomenon, especially outside of New England. I also suspect that many outdoor people have been exposed to Lyme and don't know it, just had a "summer flu". Finally, hunting season (Oct to Dec) isn't a high risk time-- only larger adult ticks are active in October and never active when temps go below 40 degrees.
