Ticks

I use flea/tick collars on dogs and around my ankels over my boots, when we hike. Works well. Take collars off when we get home and store them in a zipper baggie. Dogs are on monthly topical flea/tick, but the woods and fields are overrun some years with ticks.

I wonder if 4-6 peeled cloves of garlic in a net bag, pinned to your shirt and your pants and your socks would keep away the ticks? It might be worth a try and you won't have to spray yourself with that heavy smell of garlic.

DEET works pretty well too. I used to go the organic route, citronella and all that. Not any more, due to tick borne disease.

This topic is  so important yet has me so freaked out.
After reading this stuff I went outside and was killing a few Colorado potato beetles with long sticks ( weenie I am ).  I was deep in thought between squishing gross bugs and thoughts of ticks when one of the barn cats walked up behind and rubbed my leg. Poor barn cat totally freaked out over my girly jumping and not so girly words.

Speaking of ticks, I have had many in the past and  just saw this THE TICK KEY
BASICALLy a tick removal system

In "Lee Valley" which is a Canadian Gardening store. Looks pretty cool to have in your pocket for your animals or yourself.
Just google "the tick key" to find out where in the US you can get one.

" http://www.bada-uk.org/wordpress " is a website about ticks that I have recently been proof reading for my friends who built it .

There is a comprehensive guide to pictures and action plus loads of other useful info about them . IMPO it is a worthwhile read if you live in tick infested areas .

I like ProTick over the tick key. It's smaller and it's easier to use on a tick you can't actually see (say the back of your head). Plus it's thin enough you can keep one in your wallet; you'll always have it with you!

I've had more ticks on me in one year than most people see their entire lifetime. Par for the course for biologists! As an aside, DEET will eat through plastic. Not the kind of stuff I want on my skin. I will say that a lot of my field gear is treated with permethrin, but not stuff that comes in direct contact with my skin.

I picked off a crawling tick headed up the back of my neck at walmart today. I always seem to find ticks on me at walmart... I'm sure that's a sign!

newtgirl wrote:I like ProTick over the tick key. It's smaller and it's easier to use on a tick you can't actually see (say the back of your head). Plus it's thin enough you can keep one in your wallet; you'll always have it with you!

I have a tick remover (I think it's called "Ticked Off" or something like that) that looks like a small spoon & tweezer in one, only it's got a notch at the end so that when you place it over the tick & pinch the head, it only closes up to the tick's "neck" as it were, which then makes it easy to pull off.  I used it on DH last year when he had a tick embedded & it worked like a charm!

The thing to remember regardless of what type of remover you use is to not squeeze the tick when trying to take it out so that you don't inadvertently force it's fluids into you, which can contribute to catching any disease the tick might carry.

It may take a certain number of hours of a tick being embedded before bacteria are transmitted "normally", but you don't want to help the process along by forcing the tick to regurgitate into you as you're pulling it out.  It's a gross thought, I know, but better to know than not with the stakes as high as they are.

I've had more ticks on me in one year than most people see their entire lifetime. Par for the course for biologists! As an aside, DEET will eat through plastic. Not the kind of stuff I want on my skin. I will say that a lot of my field gear is treated with permethrin, but not stuff that comes in direct contact with my skin.

snip

YES!  Permethrin works great!!!  And supposedly, it metabolizes out of your skin within 10 minutes leaving no poisonous residue while staying bonded to fabric through a bunch of washings.

That being said, it's highly toxic to bees, other insects, and CATS.  I have some friends who suspect their two cats died after coming in contact with their dog's tick repellent which contained Permethrin.

DH has a set of hiking gear/clothes that he keeps in the garage (which is unattached to the house & the cats never go in there) so that we can prevent the kitties from coming in contact with them.  When stuff needs washing we actually hang them inside the garage to drip-dry to be really sure nothing comes in contact with them since the Permethrin is still bonded to the fabric. 

But it is great stuff against ticks!

[quote="newtgirl"]I like ProTick over the tick key. It's smaller and it's easier to use on a tick you can't actually see (say the back of your head). Plus it's thin enough you can keep one in your wallet; you'll always have it with you!

I've had more ticks on me in one year than most people see their entire lifetime. Par for the course for biologists! As an aside, DEET will eat through plastic. Not the kind of stuff I want on my skin. I will say that a lot of my field gear is treated with permethrin, but not stuff that comes in direct contact with my skin.

I picked off a crawling tick headed up the back of my neck at walmart today. I always seem to find ticks on me at walmart... I'm sure that's a sign![/quote]

I bet it's because your a party animal Newt....

BUMP!

Time for a reminder to check for those dratted ticks! 

We've gotten a bunch on us just from the backyard, and they've been "out" for about a month now up our way.  I imagine others have been seeing ticks sooner.  So, check for ticks!!! 

And also remember that some tick-repellants/poisons are also toxic/deadly to bees and cats, so use judiciously and/or be very alert to the little pesties!

Found one crawling in our bed yesterday (shudder).  Dogs are getting baths and started on flea/ tick control today.  Last week, pulled a tick feeding off my daughter for atleast a day or two.  She seems to be okay.

That was extremely informative and pertinent.  Thank you.

cpl100 wrote:That was extremely informative and pertinent.  Thank you.

Yup yup!  

I'm so skeeved out about ticks that I dress like I'm on safari when I go outside: tuck the pants into my calf-high socks & wear long sleeves.  DH isn't quite as diligent, so I've pulled two off him that were embedded to varying degrees.  I've found at least a half-dozen on me, but thankfully only on my exterior clothing. 

R&R, check the site where your daughter had the tick.  If the area feels "hard", it may be that the tick was on her long enough to inject it's fluids into her (I don't know if it's technically tick saliva or what but it anesthetizes and hardens the area so you don't feel it biting into you).  Anyway, if it's been on you long enough to harden the area, you could potentially be exposed to any diseases the tick may be carrying.  You may want to have her checked out and ask about being given a prophylactic dose of antibiotics by her pediatrician.  How bad is Lyme in your area?

mollyhespra wrote:If the area feels "hard", it may be that the tick was on her long enough to inject it's fluids into her (I don't know if it's technically tick saliva or what but it anesthetizes and hardens the area so you don't feel it biting into you).  Anyway, if it's been on you long enough to harden the area, you could potentially be exposed to any diseases the tick may be carrying.  You may want to have her checked out and ask about being given a prophylactic dose of antibiotics by her pediatrician.  How bad is Lyme in your area?

The time line for infection is covered in the link I posted. Also, not all ticks are disease vectors for humans.

BUMP!

It's a really BAD year for ticks up my way, and since I'm further North than most of you, they've only been "out" in the last week or so for us, but that only means I should have bumped this topic sooner because most of you will have been seeing ticks for quite a while now.

Remember to do your research before using any kind of tick repellent being as some of them are highly toxic to cats, bees and other insects (permethrin).

BUT also remember that Lyme disease is a very real thing and not something to be messed with. Wear long pants when you go outside and tuck the bottoms into your socks, check often and thoroughly, and if you find an embedded tick, be careful when removing it not to squeeze the tick's body as that may cause it to regurgitate into your flesh, increasing the likelihood of exposure.

Make sure you put your used "outside" clothes where your pets can't get into them and wash and dry them as soon as is practicable. Ticks can survive a trip through the wash cycle, but they'll die after 20 minutes of a tumble through the dryer (dehydrates them).

We've found that if a tick gets in the house, it will find a wall or corner to climb up and hang out there, at a height of about a foot and a half, waiting for it's victim. When we've been outside, we not only check ourselves and our clothes, but also our walls and our (inside) cats just in case. I've found ticks on them that must have fallen off of us. And pets can get sick from Lyme disease, too.

Safe gardening everyone!

My wife is an essential oil expert.  She must have every essential oil on the market.  When we get ticks, she dabs a combination of tea tree and lavender oils on the tick and around the area.  The tick always disembarks on its own.  You don't have to worry about getting the head out or squeezing anything from the tick into the body.

BTW, our homemade yard spray works wonderfully, but only for about 48 hours.  It has to be reapplied every 2 days, and this is without rain for the last 3 weeks.  Our lawn is slowly turning to desert with more dirt than grass.

mollyhespra wrote:BUMP!
We've found that if a tick gets in the house, it will find a wall or corner to climb up and hang out there, at a height of about a foot and a half, waiting for it's victim.

"Questing" or hitch hiking, waiting for a meal to walk by.We have them in the foothills. Recommended to walk on the downhill side of paths.

mollyhespra wrote:BUT also remember that Lyme disease is a very real thing and not something to be messed with.

This is no joke. I went to school with a kid who died from Lyme. A guy a work with now, his wife got it last spring. It tore her up bad. She survived, but is having residual effects from it and the "experts" can't seem to figure it out.

Some may frown upon it, but I put Ortho Bug-B-Gon on the lawn 2-3 times a year. No ticks, chiggers, or other pests. It's a nuclear option, but something I'm willing to live with since you water it in and it doesn't just sit around.

I must report that our neem oil-essential oil spray was only partially effective.

Spraying the yard, walk, patio, and porch with a combination of neem oil & neem shampoo, cinnamon oil, clove oil, and rosemary oil seems to have controlled chiggers to some extent, but it has done little if anything for ticks.

Sunday, my wife and I both had 3 ticks after working in the garden for about 2 hours.  5 of the combined 6 ticks were deer ticks.  One was almost hidden inside the spot where another tick had previously left a mark.

It worked better during our 4-week drought, but once it began to rain every 2 to 3 days for the last 2 weeks, reapplication has been less and less effective.

We will under no circumstances result to poisonous chemicals.  Too many things are carcinogenic.

This morning, my wife made up a new batch of citronella and other essential oils with jojoba oil, and as much as I detest the odor, it will be applied to us rather than the yard when we go out to garden.

Pests are the one thing that could convince us to stick with using CSAs for our produce.