TICKS!!!!!!!!!

greenspun.com : LUSENET : Countryside : One Thread

Help! We are being over-run with ticks! I find 1 or 2+ each day on myself or my wife and kids. Anyone know of an organic spray/dust to use around the house? Rotenone is not an option anymore...I've read too much about it being not as safe as once thought. I'll use a petro-chemical IF I have to...I'm just strictly organic...up to the point of no other option...almost NOW! The dogs have flea/tick collars and the cats get booted out if they sneak in the house. Guineas sound like a good thing.....do they really control them? Will they destroy my garden? Take a bite out of each tomato? That's a good way to get dead quick around here!

Thanks for any advice,

Jason

-- Jason (AJAMA5@netscape.net), September 06, 2001

Answers

Eat garlic and shower with head and shoulders (generic fine).Wear pants. Check hair.

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), September 06, 2001.

Get some gueanies. They work wonders. Also, food grade Diatomchius Earth (sp ?) will teach the bugers some lessons and not kill you!

-- Rickstir (rpowell@email.ccis.edu), September 06, 2001.

We had the same problem. We tried using garlic tables and it worked! Two 1200 mg tables twice a day seemed to work best. If they are completely "odorless" they may not work. It may be sulfur compounds. I read somewhere that eating small amounts of pure sulfur also works. You do have to eat the garlic tablets every day and it takes at least a week to build up to "tick-toxic" levels. It doesn't seem to affect the little 6-legged juveniles as much as the adults. I have not used any DEET this summer at all.

-- Martin Boraas (boraas@miliserv.net), September 06, 2001.

Last year my BIL took his family camping. When they got home they noticed they had ticks on them and the dog was full of them.

Later they started to become ill with flu symptoms, after many tests because they were not getting better they were dignoised with Lymes Disease.

I have seen the youngest child with the worst case of it. They give him maga doses of antibiotics and will be on them no less then a year (what is going to happen to this little guy later in life when he needs antibiotics again?). He is so sick as the antibiotics attack and kill off the litle pesties in his frail body. These pesties die and give off a toxin that can cause headaches, swollen joints and worse.

Use what ever it takes to rid yourself of them even if Rotenone isn't as safe as once thought. I wonder what the doctor has that could be prescriped to take (thinking aobut the monthly meds I give my dogs).

I am so sorry this is happening to you and your family. I hope Lymes disease isn't in your area.

-- westbrook (westbrook_farms@yahoo.com), September 06, 2001.


Are your dogs allowed to run free? I know when I had dogs I would dip them, put flea collars on them and I still had ticks in my yard. I think what was happening was the dogs would go out in the woods/fields and then bring them back into the yard where they would drop off. It has been about two years since I have had a dog and this year I have not had a very bad tick problem at all. I don't have any guinneas, but I do have a lot of free ranging chickens but I'm not sure if they help keep the ticks under control or not.

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), September 06, 2001.


Be carful with sulfur!!!!!!!!! I had a bad reaction to it and it just about shut down my breathing!!!! Make sure you keep benadryl in you med cabnet. That is what emergency had me take to get the hives to go away and so my breathing was back to normal.

-- Teresa (c3ranch@socket.net), September 06, 2001.

We had a bad tick problem last year. We have 3 dogs that have free run of our property and they had to be checked every day and almost always had ticks. This year we ate garlic (I guess garlic tabs would work) and we put garlic powder on the dogs food. So far this year we have found one tick on one dog and it wasn't attached. (just taking a stroll) We tried the guineas and they drove us nuts with their constant squaking. People have said that they make good watch dogs but they made noise all day long. Kinda like the little boy that cried wolf. Good luck with your tick problem

-- Doug in KY (toadshutes@yahoo.com), September 06, 2001.

I beleive there is now a human vacc for lymes .Get some chickens and let them free ranges not as good as gunnies but better than nothing.Keep lawns low and trees trimmed high .Spraying trees will help to .

-- Patty {NY State} (fodfarms@slic.com), September 06, 2001.

Hello. I just went through this problem and there are several posts about it under the "Pest" catagory. My Title was something like "Tick Invasion, Ideas for Natural Remedies/Guineas? I also researched ticks on the internet and learned more than I wanted to know! 1 adult female can lay thousands of eggs, etc. What i found that worked for me was to put Frontline plus on my dogs, every 3 weeks for 3 applications. I also groomed my dogs every night and removed the ticks. I vacumed weekly and washed all rugs/pet bedding regularly. You have to break the tick mating/development cycle. I'm happy to report that all is fine now. Best wishes.

-- Molly McLaughlin (mmclaugh@unm.edu), September 06, 2001.

Guineas are the best organic, long-term protection against ticks! When we first moved to the country 2 years ago, we removed 30+ ticks from our dog every night. I ordered guineas right away, and was amazed at how quickly they began to eliminate ticks, grasshoppers, and other bugs from the property. This year, I have found only one tick on my dog. What a difference! I intend to continue to increase the number of guineas on the property for tick protection. The guineas have never bothered our vegetable garden; they're only interested in bugs.

-- Liz Rhein (merhein@shentel.net), September 06, 2001.


I use Frontline on the dog and Advantage on the cats. They never get fleas or ticks. These are available from your vet in 3 and 6 month supplies. A little pricey, but a whole lot better than having ticks and fleas! Yes, the guineas are good too, but I would use both the medications and the guineas for complete protection.

-- debra in ks (windfish@toto.net), September 06, 2001.

Thanks to all of you for your fine, and fast, answers! I think DE and guineas are the best starting point. I've been cutting the grass lower and more often, that should help too.

Thanks again!

-- Jason (AJAMA5@netscape.net), September 07, 2001.


Save any ticks that you pull off yourselves. Doctors and health agencies can put them under the microscope and see if they ARE carrying Lymes disease. If they are, the quicker you get treated, the less damage done from the disease.

Vitamin B1 and B3 are good for discouraging bugs that bit you, just be aware that B3 can dilate your blood vessels and give you an uncomfortable hot flush through your body. Take small (50 mg or less) up to 100 mg per day is sufficient. I take 100 mg B1 tablets in spring to keep the blackflies away, but like the garlic, it takes a couple weeks for it to build up in your system and become effective.

-Chelsea

-- Chelsea (rmbehr@istar.ca), September 07, 2001.


We had ticks real bad and I bought guineas. The guineas were too young and let out for a day and never came back. They were so happy to be free and just kept going, I fear something got them. Anyway about that same time we had let several chickens free range in the yard and then we had more hatch. Not long after that the ticks started disappearing! Someone else in the old posts said something about chickens eating ticks and I put 2 and 2 togethor. Now at the time I was not feeding the chickens lushly if you know what I mean, so they were working for their food. I believe this helped tremendously as we did nothing else!

Lynn

-- Lynn (johnnypfc@yahoo.com), September 07, 2001.


If I only got one or two a day I would think I was doing OK. Cold weather will take care of them.

-- Don (dairyagri@yahoo.com), September 07, 2001.


Moderation questions? read the FAQ