Ticks
 

Pulled a tick off the golden after supper tonight. She doesn't go in the woods, because I have an electric fence, so she definitely picked it up in the yard from rolling around. Too friekin early for this. The deer must be sneaking in at night and eating the bird seed on the ground, or possibly and animal.

Early spring.My allergies are a month ahead of schedule.

After my dog was diagnosed with a tick based illness two years ago (anaplausmosis sp?) I started keeping Front Line on him all year. The vet said that thaws in winter and early spring are one of the worst times for Lyme etc as ticks get all active and most people aren't thinking about it. I really really hate ticks, and it fact in a lot of ways it keeps me from upland hunting more often.

Buying more Front Line tomorrow.

I haven't seen any ticks yet, but i know mice sometimes carry them. The last couple of days i have seen more mice than ever before. They are running all over the place outside along my dirt road.

was reading yesterday on how the ticks get these diseases in the first place (not just LYME disease)

and it was because they have already bitten white footed mice
who had the disease

they can crawl too maybe not to far but day by day they advance.

if it were my place i'd have chickens eating everything in site that crawls ....since it's Not ,,,,i will be spreading a tick preventative on the lawns because this will be a very wet season initially.

Pulled three off my dog on Thursday last year was the wost I can remember starting again thinking of trying advantix as frontline seemed to be ok at best.

Ticks are active year round. Do not be fooled that they lay dormant in cold weather,they are just sluggish until they get into a warm area such as your vehicle and you turn the heat on. So if you are cross country skiing or snow shoeing best check your clothes.

There are two test for lyme disease, if you feel that you may be suffering from the disease demand from your doctor that you want the advanced test. There are other diseases that you can get from the deer tick.

One way to combat ticks is to put toilet paper tubes stuffed with cotton balls that have been doused with sevin dust along the woodline. The small rodents will take the cotton balls as bedding and the sevin will kill the ticks... Doesn't hurt he mice, but kills the disease vector..

Was watching Mystery Diagnosis the other day and one of the shows was about Lyme Disease. She had seen three different doctors, ,the first two gave her the regular test and did not find the disease. After almost a year with problems the third doctor ran a bunch of test and could not find why she was in the condition that she was in. The doctor gave her the improved lyme test and bingo, had the diease all along.

Richard Gere syndrome:devil2:

That would be if i was seeing gerbils running all over the place right???

My cousin was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and treated for it for some 20 years. later with new tests , it turned out he had Lymes Disease all along. Apparently , after its been in your system that long , there is no curing it. I guess long , Like months or years , times on IV antibiotics can help improve your quality of life , you just can't get rid of it once its been in your body a certain amount of time.

The ticks are really REALLY BAD this year.....
hasn't been a day go by that i haven't had one on me

i've been meaning to mention it for awhile
then as i was sitting here typing away
i notice a tick crawling across my monitor :doh:

SIDE note... after pulling ticks or finding crawling ones
i've been experimenting with what kills them when they are dropped
into liquids and cooking oil doesn't phase them nor does liquid soap
they can survive a couple of minutes in a microwave
but they don't survive diotomaceous earth (safer brand)
they get dessicated and die in it having no traction like quicksand.

My wife has had Lyme for 8 years now... so i know what I'm talking about.

1. The ticks are likely traveling on the mice/squirrels at your feeder. They can get Lyme from deer, mice and other rodents.

2. Frontline is NOMINALLY effective. The best stuff is called Proticall(sp). It has permethine(sp) in it which kills ticks w/in 24 hours. Plus it deters them from getting on your pet.

3. DEET is a joke (although I use it as an adjunct). Get a spray with permethines(sp) in it. you spray your CLOTHES, let them dry and the stuff lasts a few weeks.

4. Lyme is GENERALLY easy to cure... However, some people (like my wife) are very difficult. She has been on antibiotics for YEARS including IV for 9 months or so. If I had her life I'd have taken a bullet by now.

I'm not afraid of much. Lyme/ticks scares the living hell out of me

It is the worst I've ever seen, my first dog I ever owned is 6 years old today and my other is 3.

Every day I'm pulling off half a dozen or more ticks off each dog.

They are everywhere this year, been trying the natural route, thanks raven, and that seems to help, my dogs love the brewers yeast.

We stopped taking them to our usual winter trails, just need to find a good area where they can run and burn off some energy.
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Any reason why they are so bad? Is it due to incresed Deer and Bird populations? Is it weather related?

We do Front Line and HeartGuard year round on both dogs. I actually saw a few mosquitoes during a brief warm spell in Feb. Yeah, it's a bit more money but it is cheaper than vet bills.

Snow cover insulated them from severe temperatures. Wet spring.

pulled a deer tick off my son Sunday night. thing was in so tight we could barely get it out and it was a mashed mess.
Called the docs and they said to monitior for rash or flu like symptoms.

i think i read that they inject your skin FIRST with a local anesthesia
type drug so you don't even feel them burrow in...

our new rule of thumb is: when coming in from tick land
is to remove your clothes quickly preferably in a non carpeted
area whether they are dirty or not....

almost every day we find a tick or two climbing the bath room tiles.
that's where the laundry basket is........ in the closet.

Yup. They numb you up before they eat you.

Haven't found any deer ticks yet but had at least five large brown dog ticks all over me after walking through tall grass mid April.

Found Advantix to be way more effective than Frontline for my boys, made the switch a few years ago and haven't looked back. Rarely find ticks on my dogs and they are in wooded/tall grass/marsh areas year round. When I do find a ticks they are never embedded.

Pulled a male deer tick out of my inner thigh - think I might have picked it up while fishing and could have been there for a couple days. Doc put me on a prophylactic dose of doxycycline - two 100mg pills and I was good to go.

Took a deer tick of my neighbor's sons arm the other night before it started burrowing. He and my son were playing out out by a little pond in the woods near our house. We have a lot of woods and a lot of deer in the area so we check my son every night at bath time. We only found 2 on him last year and one was from beach grass down the Cape and neither had broke the skin yet.

i wear frontline on my boots

Elimitick..
 

Gamehide is a company that has a product called ELIMITICK that is made for hunters who hit the bush. Camo pattern pants and shirts,head gear,face masks. They are a little pricey but they work. I have been hunting turkey the last 2 weeks and not a single tick! I also use the tick spray around my setups and never sit direrctly on the ground. I use a swivel seat with a cushion. It is a little tough on the bottom but worth it.:uhuh:

Pulled a fully gorged tick off my INDOOR cat last week. We have no other pets. Got inside somehow.

This might help :)
http://i53.tinypic.com/27yrr7.jpg

someday
 

when we eventually make our last and final move
to a bigger farm....
the first thing i'll do is build a chicken coop so i have
them ALWAYS on Tick patrol...

growing peppermint now ....and hopefully will buy some
strong smelling cedar mulch soon for around the house.