Until an all-encompassing solution becomes available, controlling tick-borne diseases will probably require an array of smaller-scale approaches that attack the problem, bit by bit, on a number of levels. That an arsenal of such weapons might be needed to hold back the enemy is not particularly surprising, considering the complexity of tick-borne-disease ecology, how drastically humans have been changing it, and how close people live to these disease-carrying parasites. “We've disrupted the balance of nature,” Telford says. Steadying the scales again will be no small feat.