Ticks

T

tOlzon

New member
I know this may not seems like it's directly related to pheasant hunting, but stick with me for a minute...

I currently have one dog, which is almost 9 years old. I want a 2nd dog (a Springer), but we have a MAJOR wood tick problem near our house, and my wife says I can't get another dog until we figure out a way to deal with all the ticks.

Now do you see how this directly impacts my pheasant hunting?

Frontline works OK to keep ticks from biting, but it's literally to the point where the dog comes into the house with 10 ticks on him after going out to potty (yeah, I said "potty"). They drop off the dog and crawl all over the house. It's horribly disgusting to wake up in the middle of the night with ticks crawling all over you.

I've looked into getting Guinea Hens, as I've heard they will eat the ticks, so I'm hoping that helps. Any other suggestions?
 
Get one of those nit combs - metal with fine teeth -- used to comb lice nits out of human hair.
 
Thanks, I will try that.

However, I'm not as concerned with getting the ticks off the dog as I am with keeping them off in the first place.
 
I hate them little bastards!! The only thing I have found that works, wont work for you. Parathrin. Toxic to everything. I had dead ticks on my boots while out catfishing, thats how lethal it is. I dont know if there is a way to spray down outside areas, but the stuff is rough. Would like to know if there is anything out there that is safe and effective. For dogs and humans.:eek:
 
Guineas will help but they will drive you insane with their racket! You'll be having guinea for dinner fast... they are tasty though.:cheers:
 
Geese,ducks and chickens have helped me out.
 
This may sound stupid but Ticks will not stay on a manicured lawns; you just won’t find ticks there.

I have two acres fenced for my dogs as a run area. I mow it anytime it get more than 4" tall. I do not have any ticks. I also trim all tree limbs as high as my pole saw will reach.
 
I hate ticks and I also hate the cure. If you have no other way Diazonon crystals will kill all insects when spread over an area, it's what golf courses use, it's also a secondary killer of song birds as well as beneficial insects, who knows what else. I agree mowing helps. Diazonon is nuclear war, indescriminate weapon of mass destruction. But sure breaks the tick and flea cycle.
 
Spray the lawn from time to time and the surrounding area. Just take the dogs away to run for a day and your good, or just do 1 half one day and keep them on lead, and repeat the other half. There is several products that work well.:thumbsup: I just pulled 2 off Odie from being down in IL at a trial. Also a leaf vacuum or bagger helps a bunch too, just burn or get rid of right away. I have few problems with these two methods.
 
Maybe some of the other vets on board will chime in but in my practice (NM) we don't have many fleas but do fight ticks especially in the odd "wet" years. Some dogs, like some people, seem to attract more attention from ticks and are not controlled by Frontline (or Frontline Plus or advantix or any other tick med) and carry a heavy tick burden in spite of regular applications. For those dogs I prescribe a special collar containing amitraz in addition to frontline and that typically stops the problem. Amitraz is a toxic drug, kills the crap out of ticks but I don't like to use it if little kids are hugging the dog. Merial (makers of Frontline) have a new spot on product that contains a small amount of amitraz which should boost the tick killing but keep the toxicity down. I havnt used it yet because it evidently is never going to rain again in NM so we haven't had many ticks this year.
 
zia said:
Maybe some of the other vets on board will chime in but in my practice (NM) we don't have many fleas but do fight ticks especially in the odd "wet" years. Some dogs, like some people, seem to attract more attention from ticks and are not controlled by Frontline (or Frontline Plus or advantix or any other tick med) and carry a heavy tick burden in spite of regular applications. For those dogs I prescribe a special collar containing amitraz in addition to frontline and that typically stops the problem. Amitraz is a toxic drug, kills the crap out of ticks but I don't like to use it if little kids are hugging the dog. Merial (makers of Frontline) have a new spot on product that contains a small amount of amitraz which should boost the tick killing but keep the toxicity down. I havnt used it yet because it evidently is never going to rain again in NM so we haven't had many ticks this year.
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+1

Preventic collars use Amitraz and are very effective at keeping ticks from attaching. You can use them in conjunction with frontline. The collars are effective for 3 months but you need to have them tight enough as to contact the skin.
 
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Maybe the Vets looking in can answer a tick repellant question for me: All Vets I have seen push Frontline. Using Frontline in the past, I find dead ticks imbedded in the dog. If they are imbedded, they've obviously bitten and to my deduction have had the chance at passing on lymes or angioplasmosis. For this reason I won't use Frontline. Why do all the Vets push Frontline when it apears to me to be an inferior product?

I've used Bio-spot because the ticks drop off and don't bite. This year my Vet talked me into using Advantix and I haven't noticed any ticks since.

I have woodticks at my place in N WI. Keeping the lawn mowed helps and I also spread diazanon. That keeps the family and me from getting many ticks, but doesn't help the pup, who roams around in the woods. A good preventative on the dog is needed.
 
I am not a huge fan of any tick products but I have had even less luck with biospot and advantix than with frontline. I am hopeful the new amitraz product with be more effective than the other "inferior" products. Good call on the environmental control, I forgot about people have grass is some parts of the world.
 
FCSpringer said:
thumbsup: I just pulled 2 off Odie from being down in IL at a trial.
Click to expand...

They are bad this Year in the Flatlands :mad: just make sure your dog gets vaccinated for Lyme disease I would not want for anybody to go through what I went through.
 
Thanks for the responses, everyone! Based on the feedback on Guinea Hens, my wife has put the kibosh on that idea :)

My house sits on a 1-acre lot, but is surrounded by 160 acres of undeveloped grassland. Given that I can really only control 1/160th of the surrounding area (where my dog is allowed to basically roam freely), I will likely need to look into a better tick collar. I will also experiment with Bio-spot and/or Advantix.

Bandit has already been diagnosed with Lyme disease a couple years ago, but is asymptomatic. We seem to live in some sort of tick haven, and I'm worried about the kids also. Spring and early summer are ridiculous!

I do have relatives with a farm not too far from my house. Maybe during the tick month I could take the whole family out there daily to get our outdoor exercise.
 
Do some research on Bio Spot before you try that product, I think there are better alternatives.
 
Advantix is not some amazing solution. Mojo is on it and we had a tick embedded just a week ago or so.

I have heard the chances of a dog contracting Lyme in the first 24 hours is slim and the chance goes up after that, so that's why it's "okay" advantix and frontline don't necessarily kill ticks until they have attached for 24 hours if you read their literature.

Always a struggle I guess

Chuck
 
I know this is a thread about what to use to control ticks, but I HATE ticks. I say bring back DDT!

27-30 years ago when I lived in Waupaca the wood ticks were horrendous. I went trout fishing and was litterally covered with hundreds. The dogs were also covered running around the yard and surrounding woods. Now there are no wood ticks and the deer ticks have taken over. No one's been able to explain to me why the deer tick has displaced the wood tick.

Around the Wausau area there are some places I used to hunt and shoot a lot of birds, two dogs ago. I quit going to those spots with the last dog because the deer ticks were so bad. The dog would come out of the woods looking like someone opened the top of a course black pepper container and then thrown the whole works on the dog.

When I lived in Florida we had seed ticks. There were tiny little buggers. Impossible to detect on a dog and hard enough on me. Being a forester, I was in the woods almost daily and did a constant battle with those ticks and chiggers. I get all itchy just thinking about it. The fleas were horrible down there, too. If I ever moved back down there again there's no way I would ever own a dog.

Good luck conducting your battles with the little ba$$tards!
 
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