Saturday, May 30, 2009

Help! Tick Invasion 2009

The woods behind our house are TICK CITY this year. Seriously, they should put up a sign with blinking lights and apply for a liquor license. They are EVERYWHERE. In all the years we have lived here (seven to be exact), I have seen ONE tick—on our dog Munson—several years ago. This year, we have picked SEVEN off him in the last TWO weeks. Just picked another one off him yesterday. AND, we use Frontline Plus on poor Muns religiously, which is supposed to help with that sort of thing. What gives?

Looking for answers, I googled "ticks" and discovered that there are two types that could be invading our woods. Brown dog ticks and "paralysis ticks." Now that doesn't sound good. Bad news: these ticks we're finding ain't brown.

Oh, and I got a lovely chigger already this year, too. Nice.

If anyone has ANY ideas for limiting ticks on your property, PLEASE SHARE! I'd love to turn Tick City into a ghost town. SOON.

4 comments:

DaveStew said...

http://chppm-www.apgea.army.mil/ento/facts/TickControlAroundTheHome.pdf

Elizabeth @ things with feathers said...

Thanks, Dave! That's good advice. Sounds like our best bet is to get the leafy, weedy ground cover in our woods cleaned up and cut back....

Kessler Kido said...

Three thoughts - !. Call your country extension service found in the blue pages of the phone book. Tell them you want a more natural approach for getting rid of ticks.
2. UGA might have an epidemiologist to contact - or call Walter Reeves Show (AM 750) on Sat morning to get a connection thru him.
3. Call Birds Unlimited to find out how to attrack tick loving birds into your yard.

Ms. Tee said...

I would *love* to know the answer to this, too. We've already had 4 ticks make their way into out house - 3 on people and one via the kitty!