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Ticks 2014

I just did an application of K9 Advantix 2 and the Soresto Collar is going on tomorrow. That collar hands down worked wonders last year, I would highly recommend it.
 
Get yourself some guinea hens, they take care of ticks on the property quite well. Have a good friend that has some free ranging and it's gotten to the point where the neighbors actually want the chickens on their property now.
 
Nuke the site from orbit with Equil Lambda CS, it's the only way to be sure

If you just want to defend your yard, you can dilute a good Pyrethroid (e.g. Equil Lambda 9.7 CS) and spray down anything growing within a hundred feet of the house, except fruit and veggies you plan on eating.

Also take out as many trees as you can, deer ticks need shade and leaf litter (high humidity environments) to survive and reproduce.

Lastly, you need to kill off all mice, chipmunks, and grey squirrels who dare cross your property line. These rodents harbor both ticks and Lyme spirochetes. If you aren't willing to kill them, you can at least gift them with tick tubes and choose a [thread=227615]good dog tick preventative[/thread].
 
Do you use permethrin on your hunting cloths during deer season.. I know it says odor free but I am skeptical they will be able to smell it
 
Do you use permethrin on your hunting cloths during deer season.. I know it says odor free but I am skeptical they will be able to smell it

In my experience, it has a slight smell when first applying it to your gear. But after it has dried, I cant smell it. If youre still worried about it, do a quick wash with scentblocker stuff, and a dry with earth dryer sheets (permethrin is good for 6 washes). Even if a slight smell DID remain (which ive never had happen), it would be worth it for what permethrin does. You really are shaking dead ticks out of your boots after a trip when using this stuff properly. Its a necessity I think.
 
Take the loudest, most obnoxious gang of boombox toting street urchins and turn them into chickens. That is a flock of Guinea fowl.
 
Do you use permethrin on your hunting cloths during deer season.. I know it says odor free but I am skeptical they will be able to smell it

I have been using it the last 3 years. No noticable difference in deer sightings or reactions. Huge difference in how many ticks I pull off me though. I think it was only a couple last year and at least one was when I was wearing an outer later I know I didn't spray. I only spray the outer later of my gear. If the deer is downwind permathrin doesn't matter anyway. Que the scent-lok evangelists.........
 
last year I went mountain biking, while driving home, had an itch behind my ear, thought nothing of it. Then an hour later, the itch was there again, I scratched it, and it was a damn tick! I threw it on the floor and smashed it so hard the hulk would have been proud.

Then had ticks in my truck last year. They must have snuck in on my mountain bike clothes. They would crawl up onto he dash while I was driving, even a week later. You think driving with a cell phone is "driving distracted", try smashing a tick on the dash doing 65!

Ever had Lyme disease? Imagine your worst hangover, but lasting four days, then sweating buckets every night for a week while you take doxycycline, the Delta Force of antibiotics. I'll take seeing no deer due to permethrin if I also get no ticks!

tl;dr I don't like ticks
 
last year I went mountain biking, while driving home, had an itch behind my ear, thought nothing of it. Then an hour later, the itch was there again, I scratched it, and it was a damn tick! I threw it on the floor and smashed it so hard the hulk would have been proud.

Then had ticks in my truck last year. They must have snuck in on my mountain bike clothes. They would crawl up onto he dash while I was driving, even a week later. You think driving with a cell phone is "driving distracted", try smashing a tick on the dash doing 65!

Ever had Lyme disease? Imagine your worst hangover, but lasting four days, then sweating buckets every night for a week while you take doxycycline, the Delta Force of antibiotics. I'll take seeing no deer due to permethrin if I also get no ticks!

tl;dr I don't like ticks

Doxycycline is far from the delta force of antibiotics! Its a older antibiotic that is quite effective on Lyme but not a whole lot else... Delta force maybe vancomysin or the florquinons like levequin but neither are a prime choice for Lyme anyhow.... Two biggest things to remember about ticks and tick born illness usually the are transferred after the first 18-24 hours so if you get it quick you are often in good shape! Biggest thing remove a tick with tweezers or a tick removal tool! Do not heat it with a lighter or a hot spoon until it falls off or cover it with vasaline until it does.. Both of these methods can cause the tick to vomit so it had only been on for a few hours and had not transmitted a tick born illness it just did!
 
I pulled the first ticks off of one of my dogs today. Regular wood-tick, I’ve never pulled a deer-tick off a dog, they are too small to see, at least for me. I just pull them off.

Lymes is nothing to take lightly. I’ve had two bouts with Lymes and the first one knocked the living shit out of me.

I stopped using tick treatment on my dogs. A friend of mine thinks the ticks were abandoning ship off his Retrievers because of the Frontline and getting onto his daughters. Don’t know if that’s true or what but I stopped using tick treatment. YMMV.
 
^what about just yanking them off with your fingers, any issues there? I don't think I've ever used a tool to remove a tick.

Firm steady pressure till they release. If you just yank them off you usually leave the head imbedded in your body and it usually gets all infected and rots it's way out. Instinct is to yank that sucker out but instead get a grip on it and pull with some force but not a lot until it comes out. At least that is my advice.
 
Just pulled one off my dog this morning. Two days ago it was 29 degrees in the morning, hell there's still snow on the ground!
 
Frontline is not a tick repellent, but poisoned ticks take time to stop moving

Permethrin and other pyrethroids are both toxins and repellents. These work great for clothing and area treatment, which is why canine Advantix works so well.

I stopped using tick treatment on my dogs. A friend of mine thinks the ticks were abandoning ship off his Retrievers because of the Frontline and getting onto his daughters. Don’t know if that’s true or what but I stopped using tick treatment. YMMV.
Maybe he was using a repellent such as Advantix? The described tick behavior won't happen with Frontline -- The active ingredient is fipronil, which is not a repellent, only a toxin. They never know what hit them.

After walking in the woods with a dog treated with Frontline, I have found ticks wandering around on the floor. On closer examination, they were in bad shape, spastically twitching rather than purposefully seeking a blood meal.
 
Was @ the vet this morning. Our little silky terrier was co-infected with both Lyme diseases, as well as anaplasmosis. she's only 11lbs, so it's 1/4 of a pill, twice a day for 25 days.

We'd put the Hartz drops on her back just last week, but had already pulled three ticks off her prior, at least one of which must have infected her. While at the vets I got some Advantix II drops, which will hopefully work better.

I'll also be spraying my entire property with "Bug Free Backyard" monthly.
 
I have been using it the last 3 years. No noticable difference in deer sightings or reactions. Huge difference in how many ticks I pull off me though. I think it was only a couple last year and at least one was when I was wearing an outer later I know I didn't spray. I only spray the outer later of my gear. If the deer is downwind permathrin doesn't matter anyway. Que the scent-lok evangelists.........


I wore it every day this past season. I did not find a single tick on me ever. I was out every Saturday for all 3 deer seasons and at least another 5 or so days I took off from work too. When I was scouting I would wear light colored cloths so I could spot them easily. When I would pick one up they would crawl about 4-6 inches and be on me for a couple minutes. Then they usually would fall off. They would start acting all spastic and f*cked up right before they fall off.

The stuff works wonders! I swear by it. Just keep it away from cats. I would coat my outer layers, boots, and socks. I can't say enough good things about it. It works.... I can tell you the 2 deer I killed this past year never smelled it either.

I even coat my car seats with it before the season starts. I HATE ticks. I wish they could spray or something for those bastards. I'm doing my part and killing as many tasty deer as I can though.
 
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I'm on a 10 day regimen of doxycycline after finding one in me after a day of yard work. After a few hours the bite site started looking pretty nasty. I went to the docs the next mourning because it looked worse. The doc didn't want to mess around and put me on the meds right away. It looks much better after 6 days.
 
I must have walked through a nest last week taking down a tree stand, I pulled at least 30 off my pants

Tick Bombs! Yeah gotta love it whey you hit one of those!

Scouting for Turkeys yesterday with the wife and boy.......3 hours in the woods only found two on our pants when we got back to the car......not too bad.
 
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