Decades after becoming the initial epicenter of the disease, some remain critical of whether Connecticut is doing enough to tackle the spread of the disease, especially with more milder winters and rising temperatures expected in the coming years.

“Connecticut’s climate and health strategy suggests increasing monitoring of vector-borne disease as changes in precipitation and temperature intensify,” Kim Knowlton, senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told weather.com in an email. “But the state needs to develop a concrete plan to prepare for the health impacts of more vector-borne diseases.”

Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy released a statement in late June urging state residents to take personal steps to prevent the spread of the disease.

“Lyme disease is a significant public health problem that anyone in any community can get,” Malloy said. “There are several prevention methods folks can take to prevent tick bites, and several steps that should be taken immediately after a bite is discovered.”

Despite numerous statewide efforts to educate the public, Aquilina feels that Connecticut hasn’t adequately addressed the prevailing health concerns, urging a greater effort to ramp up adaptation efforts.

“Connecticut should have — at least by in the late ‘80s — enacted some sort of environmental adaptation program,” he said. “There certainly should have been some form of outreach program to the residents of Connecticut and especially those in high-risk areas.”

“I believe that wildlife, especially deer, have adapted to us much faster than we have adapted to them,” he added. “Deer in New England will walk up onto your deck and eat flowers in a planter that is right next to the door. They simply know that we can’t shoot them, or harm them.”

GlaxoSmithKline, which produced the only human vaccine against Lyme disease, pulled it off the market in 2002 as a result of “poor sales.” The vaccine was, spuriously, according to the FDA, linked to autoimmune disorders.

“What that does unfortunately, it plagues that vaccine field,” Verardi said.

“And now it’s hard for a for-profit company to venture into the field and get something licensed,” he added.

“Clinical trials are very expensive,” he explained. “It’s a lot of investment for a company to take. People are afraid because they’ve heard in the past it could give an autoimmune disease. It is a risk too big for a company to take.”

The scientists we observed are researching a number of different approaches in attempting to tackle the startling spread of ticks.

“One of the research programs we have is to look at using a vaccine to reduce infection in white-footed mice,” Molaei told weather.com. “This may help to reduce infection rates. It may offer some hope. We are investigating rodent-targeted vaccines incorporated into rodent bait and offered in rodent boxes, to see if this is working.”

The scientists believe that if they can specifically vaccinate biological hosts like mice, they can help stem the spread of Lyme disease.

Have they had any luck?

“We have had some limited results thus far, but are tweaking the dosage and volume of product needed to be distributed,” Williams said. “Currently we are running a baseline surveillance year to see what the latent infection is and next year and the year after will be treated mice with the oral bait.”

Other tick researchers lamented that further federal funding for studying the parasites was necessary for the disease to be successfully eradicated.

“I hope there will be more funding for new team monitoring and surveillance,” Sporn said.

Randall Nelson, state public health veterinarian at the Connecticut Department of Public Health, concedes that Lyme disease is here to stay and that the disease was going to remain a critical health concern for the immediate future.

“We try to do our surveillance the same way every year,” Nelson said. “You can’t rid the world of ticks. You can’t rid the world of wild animals.”

“I have not heard that a vaccine is imminent,” he added. “I don’t think it’s at the stage where bringing a vaccine to market is imminent, so for now, prevention requires personal protective measures.”