Tick season is here!

[CarolAnn]

Great show on WPR's People's pharmacy today - about all the diseases you can get from ticks - lots more than lyme's disease or spotted Rocky Mtn tick disease, although since they're caused by bacteria, they can be easily treated with antibiotics.

http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/

My favorite way to deal with ticks - a roll of tape to get 'em off skin and clothes before they dig in!

I found this on a related website:
http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/idepc/dtopics/tickborne/prevention.html


If you live near the woods in an area with ticks:

* Keep your lawn mowed short.
* Remove leaves and clear the brush around your house and at the edges of the yard.
* Keep children’s play-sets or swing-sets in a sunny and dry area of the yard.
* Make a landscape barrier (such as a three foot wide border of wood chips) between your lawn and the woods.

Prevention for pets

* A vaccine to prevent Lyme disease is available for dogs. However, the vaccine will not stop your dog from bringing ticks into the home.
* Check your dog or cat for ticks before allowing them inside.
* Topical tick repellants are available for pets.

Tick removal

If you find a tick on yourself, remove the tick promptly.

* Prompt tick removal is important.
* If possible, use a pair of tweezers to grasp the tick by the head.
o Grasp the tick close to the skin
o Pull the tick outward slowly, gently, and steadily
o Do not squeeze the tick
o Use an antiseptic on the bite.
* Avoid folk remedies like Vaseline®, nail polish remover or burning matches - they are not a safe or effective way to remove ticks.

[johnny]

This is great, because it works in those places where it's sometimes difficult to get to with tweezers.


Apply a glob of liquid soap to a cottonball. Cover
the tick with the soap-soaked cotton ball and swab it for a few seconds (15-20), the tick will come out
on its own and be stuck to the cottonball when you lift it away.

[taynormom]

i have found a great gadget of removing tics. Its a tic sppon
i have used them on my kids, me and my pets
works great and is pretty cheap
i keep in my house, truck and barn and my Green house LOL
http://www.tickedoff.com/
i like the cotton ball idea ! sounds like alot less pain involved too
i will have to try that

[Lobo]

I have had good luck with a clove of garlic sewn to my dog's collar and change it every week. My vet nor I have ever found a tic on the dog and we live right in the woods.

Lobo

[Anon001]

I have had good luck with a clove of garlic sewn to my dog's collar and change it every week. My vet nor I have ever found a tic on the dog and we live right in the woods.

There is a salt block for livestock that contains sulfur. It is fed to help reduce the flies and ticks. It works better than nothing. Garlic is the same for us and animals. I eat a lot of garlic and don't find near the ticks on me that I hear other people talking about.

I never thought of putting a clove on my dog's collar. I'll have to try that.

[earl3447]

my dh came home today after helping a friend put up a turkey blind and so far we have taken 24 ticks off him. I feel crawly just looking at him.

[SpoonBread]

Pulled a tick off my little girl the other day, then a few days later I started feeling lumps on her head and neck. We took her to the Dr and he said she got something from the tick so now she's on antibiotics for the next month. :-[ I just hope she gets better soon.

[Funmommy]

Poor baby I hope she gets better soon :(

My 5 yr old (boy) kept telling me he got another "never dying spider" off himself again.
It took me a few tellings before I realized he was talking about ticks. ::)
And that was after he was bit too. :o

[bookwormom]

how does the dog like the garlic smell? I need to tie one to both my ankles, maybe it will work on me. Thanks Lobo

[Lobo]

bookwormom,

Dusty hasn't told me she dislikes it *;), but her lack of scratching, smiling and wagging tails says alot to me.

While I had her collar off yesterday to sew on fresh garlic I heard the tags rattling and remembered reading that hurts dogs ears so I put on the colored key covers and they are quiet now.

Lobo

[ozark_gal]

I am bumping this back up ... hopefully we can get some more responses.. There are no mosquitos on my land for some mysterious reason, but the ticks are TERRIBLE! We are getting ready to move down in a hollow on a creek.

I've got mowing, chopping, clearing and all kinds of tick related work that cannot be avoided. I've tried everything from deet to garlic, long pants to no pants.

Those devils crawl up in drawers every single time. The seed ticks dig in too fast to get caught. Their itchy welts lasts for weeks.

Don't know if this is vent or a plea for help. Perhaps both.

>:(

[bee_pipes]

Ticks are kind of a fact of life. Even with the preventatives, you will still find them. You may reduce them, but some will still sneak through. They typical outfit I wear is high boots, long legged jeans, tee shirt, long-sleeved cotton shirt over that and a hat. The ticks get bed here in May usually. We should be up to our eyebrows in them by now, but the cool wet spring seems to have slowed them down. They get really bad for a month, then back off. I think they flare up again for a week or so in September.

Yeah, ticks are gross, there's a chance of tick transmitted disease, but for all that I'd take ticks all summer long if I could pass on chiggers.

Ticks are a small price to pay fro the freedom of living in the woods and the wonderful summers here.

Regards,
Pat

[sissy]

Hi all, don't know anything else that will deter the ticks. But maybe use some plantain salve on the bites. Or Grizzy mention charcoal in another thread.They both pull poison out. (always test new treatments on small area first to see if you are allergic) Grizzy's post is (Re: Everyone be careful this year please ) page 3
Hope this helps.
Sissy

[Lobo]

ozarkgal,

Wearing high boots with long pants on the outside and then putting a rubber band around the cuff of the pants (and shirt sleeves in the gloves) helps or tuck the pants in the tall boots. Ticks crawl upward (not downward). Backwoodsmen worn fringe on their boots, etc to cuff them off while walking.

Once you get settled try guinea hens. They eat the egg larvea of the ticks in the spring and cut down on the population tremendously.

Hope this helps,

Lobo

[ozark_gal]

PAT: yup. chiggers too. ticks and chiggers. oh my. but I agree, worth the price.

Sissy: thanks for the remedy advice. going to check that out.

lobo: I will be wearing this uniform in a couple of days, thanks! PS, they do too crawl down... I will typically find 2 or 3 around my ankles. they get there through the bug spray, sox, long pants and shoes each time. they are something else...

[ozark_gal]

Sissy: Can't find that post from Grizzly. Is it in Homesteading?

[sissy]

It's in General in the general board under (Everyone be careful this year please) page 3
Sissy

[mikeo]

Someone told me to drink buttermilk. It alters the taste to them. (I prefer cottage cheese:)