Ticks Ticks and more Ticks

[300winmag]

The ticks are worse this year than ever before, I think my yard and the field behind us is infested. They are even crawling up the screen on my patio doors.
I hate them little critters.

[timbuck]

I hear Guinea hens will eat the ticks. Then you can eat the Guinea hens.
http://tickkey.com/ This works good too.

[x101airborne]

Guinneas love ticks. Since we have had guinneas, we havent had one tick.
Other than that, a 4 wheeler sprayer full of Dursban or a good grass fire are about your only options that I am aware of.

[dbosman]

It seems the world has forgotten that spring burns were for more than getting rid of the old grass. That I blame on the success of Smokey the Bear.

[oneokie]

Guinneas love ticks. Since we have had guinneas, we havent had one tick.
Other than that, a 4 wheeler sprayer full of Dursban or a good grass fire are about your only options that I am aware of.

There is always Red Imported Fire Ants.
They love ticks.
One has to decide which is the lesser of the two evils.

[Smitty's Retired]

Havn't seen any ticks yet, but the chiggers are out plenty already.

[deep creek]

A few years back i was horn hunting east of town.I ran into several blue grouse acting like barn yard hens.they were eating ticks .I was getting about a dozen a day on me.Coming dowm the hill one day i saw a cow elk laying down in front of me.I thought she had a broken leg because she didnt struggle to run . I walked up an spoke to her and petted her.Then i noticed she was covered by thousands of ticks she was so weak from blood loss from ticks she couldnt get up.I didnt know that was possible .I wound up shooting her so she didnt suffer.

[Hamish]

deep creek, I had actually forgotten about the deer fawn that was blindly wandering a few years back. The ticks around and in it's eyes and ears was staggering. Same outcome.

[x101airborne]

I hate chiggers worse than ticks. I hate chiggers worse than hogs. I hate chiggers worse than unlicensed drivers. I really hate chiggers.

[labradigger1]

we used to be overrun as well with wood ticks, chickens and guineas will eat them happily. we have not even had any on our dogs since we got the birds, as a bonus the guineas make excellent watch dogs

[762 shooter]

Chiggers are public enemy NO. 1. I hate chiggers. Here in South Carolina we have yellow jackets, hornets, ticks, deer flies, horse flies, and mosquitoes. All of those can be killed and you can get some satisfaction in their demise. But a chigger. That damned bastid spider mite larvae can rot in hell. Did I mention I hate chiggers?

762

[kbstenberg]

Snow around here disappeared last Sat. Ticks were out the next day.

[DCP]

I hate chiggers worse than ticks. I hate chiggers worse than hogs. I hate chiggers worse than unlicensed drivers. I really hate chiggers.

You took the words right out of my mouth. Cant even see the little suckers
My problem is chiggers just love me.

[10-x]

Man, I hate tics and chiggers as much as anyone, tics get on our Grey and then in the house. Have to watch closely when he comes in. Chiggers aren't bad down here. Used to have them bad in Va. ,clear finger nail polish did them in ASAP., all this + 1 on the spring burns, all this PC "nature boy" **** is crazy.

[dragon813gt]

Opening day of turkey was last Saturday. I usually come home covered in ticks. I guess it was to cold because I didn't get one on me. The dog has been free of them as well. They were horrible last year. I have a feeling as soon as it warms up more they will be out in full force. I'm very grateful we don't have chiggers here. They're one of the things I hate most about traveling south.

[Alchemist]

Well boys, I took a tip from the wife and so far I get a lot less ticks. Bath & Body works lotion. If you can put up with smellin' purty, you can worry less about them rotten no good ticks. Don't matter what "flavor" you use...they don't like any of it that the wife wears. I still use some Deep Woods OFF on my shoes, hat and pant legs. But the OFF wouldn't keep the ticks off as well by itself.

[dbosman]

Can you get burn permits for at least your yards and out around barns and sheds.

http://www.entsoc.org/PDF/Pubs/Periodicals/JME/JMETOCS/PDF/me049800510.pdf

http://www.nature.nps.gov/biology/ipm/manual/ticks.cfm
...
Controlled burning of habitat may reduce tick numbers and may be feasible in a park if it is consistent with a fire management plan. For example, burning tick- infested areas on Great Island, Massachusetts, reduced deer tick populations by 38% six months after the burn (Wilson 1986). However, the long-term implications of burning are unclear. Burning typically improves deer browse in the area; thus increased deer abundance may result in the movement of ticks back into the area. ...

http://tickapp.tamu.edu/control.php
The timely use of prescribed fire (judiciously administered by experienced natural resource professionals) can effectively reduce and control populations of some ticks and other internal parasites. Slow moving prescribed burns (e.g. backfires) performed under adequate fuel loads and environmental conditions, generate temperatures sufficient to kill or physically damage ticks and other parasites on rangelands and improved pastures. The benefits of initial tick reduction extend beyond the acute impact of burning, as fire also removes the leaf litter, undergrowth, and shrubby hardwood vegetation rendering the soil-vegetation interface less hospitable for off-host tick survival. Prescribed fire also hastens nutrient recycling to soil microbes, improving the productivity of top soils and resulting in increased forage availability for grazing livestock.

[phonejack]

Yep, chickens will feast on the ticks. Once, on an early season hunting trip I got infested with seed ticks. Those little buggers. Took off my pants, all over my legs. Looked in the netherlands, oh lord they were all over there too! Nothing in my truck to get them off, nothing in the club house either. 2 hours from home, what to do ? I had my motor bike with me and a can of gasoline. Putting that on a wad of toilet paper I rubbed my legs, that wasn't too bad. But when I started applying to the netherlands, GOOD GOD ALMIGHTY, THAT WAS LIKE SQUATTING OVER AN OPEN FLAME ! I had red inflamed skin from the waist down and some small water blisters, but it certainly killed the little buggers.

[bear67]

Grew up in tick and chigger country and learned to fight and live with it. I have worked outdoors all my life and add hunting and shooting and I have plenty of exposure to the varmints.

I use a cattle fly and tick ear tag on my bootlaces when going to spend lots of time in tick country. We keep them for cattle and they will last several weeks even being wet. A cotton sock full of sulfur powder dusted on sock tops and pants bottoms also works. Lots of them fall off of brush and trees also, so it is not foolproof, but harmless to people persons.

I hate chiggers and they gravitate to the belt line, where your pants get close to you and your crotch. The quickest remedy to remove them when you have hundreds, as I often have, is to soak in a warm bath with 3 tbs bleach. It really does work and I have yet to turn blond in my pants. I helped run cattle through dipping vats as a younker and we dipped sheep up until 1980 as it was a quick treatment for bigger bunches. So dipping your body is just good animal husbandry.

[bear67]

Grew up in tick and chigger country and learned to fight and live with it. I have worked outdoors all my life and add hunting and shooting and I have plenty of exposure to the varmints.

I use a cattle fly and tick ear tag on my bootlaces when going to spend lots of time in tick country. We keep them for cattle and they will last several weeks even being wet. A cotton sock full of sulfur powder dusted on sock tops and pants bottoms also works. Lots of them fall off of brush and trees also, so it is not foolproof, but harmless to people persons.

I hate chiggers and they gravitate to the belt line, where your pants get close to you and your crotch. The quickest remedy to remove them when you have hundreds, as I often have, is to soak in a warm bath with 3 tbs bleach. It really does work and I have yet to turn blond in my pants. I helped run cattle through dipping vats as a younker and we dipped sheep up until 1980 as it was a quick treatment for bigger bunches. So dipping your body is just good animal husbandry.

[John Allen]

I took are 12 week old lab for a walk in the woods. I ended up taking 9 of them off her.

[x101airborne]

I go to LA (Lousianna) quite often to visit my mother in law (she is a saint and I love her). She has a Menthol tree in her yard. When I go fishing with her brothers, I always blouse my boots and put some crushed leaves of the menthol tree down my pants legs. We go crawling some rank banks of creeks, bayous, and lakes looking for perch and bass, so we really get into them (chiggers). Perfect use for some of that military surplus.

[Mk42gunner]

I don't know if it still does, but 40 years ago Ban roll on anti-perspirant worked pretty good on chiggers. The bleach in the bathwater works better though.

Ortho Bug b gon max works to control ticks in the yard, I put it on kind of heavy with one of the Scotts lawn spreaders. It is supposed to be wet down after spraeding, so I do it right before a rain or spray the area with a hose.

One application usually lasts my yard all year. Without it I have ticks everywhere.

Robert

[uscra112]

Lotta folks in my rural area let chickens run loose. Instead of the ticks feeding on you, you (at one remove) eventually feed on them.

[jaydub in wi]

I took are 12 week old lab for a walk in the woods. I ended up taking 9 of them off her.
Frontline works pretty well at killing ticks on dogs. Have to apply 1x a month. The only ticks I pull off are dead ones.

[Boyscout]

I've done well with Permethin Spray on my hunting clothes and I do a tick check at least once a day. Deet is a condiment for ticks; I don't even bother. Chiggers, I get into them every two or three years; they irritate me but at least they don't carry Lyme Disease. My personal record of attached ticks is 46! I hate them. I was like a Section 8 housing project for blood sucking parasites.

[freebullet]

Lots of great tips here. In addition to a bunch of them I duct tape pants to boots when its really bad. If its to bad out for all that to work I guess you need a mud bath, or stay inside. Hunting would be plentiful if ticks were a tad bigger, anyone up for tick stew? Eew

[badbob454]

no ticks or chiggers where i live , foothills of california , but we have something worse , politians and gun laws... man i hate them ..

lived in Arkansas 7 years loved it , ticks were bad thousands of what they called seed ticks , and chiggars not too bad if you didnt go bare foot , but no mosquitos =bonus , and loved the thunderstorms there , dull weather in california

[44man]

We have had almost none here in the eastern panhandle of WV, so many deer I think they stay on them!
My friends in VA report billions of them. One had lime disease and just had to take his boy to the doctor. His cat came in the house and ticks were falling off. He even seen some on the window screens.
We have gnats here and they are BAD this year. One bit me on the knuckle, it swelled up bad so I bought booze to treat it internally. [smilie=s:

[BoolitSchuuter]

OK, so if I wanted to spray a large area for ticks and chiggers, what would I use?

[mold maker]

So far we don't have ticks, but I'm being carried away by tiny black ants. I have never seen this many. They have invaded every nook and crany.
I've spread malathion, sprayed the in and outside, of the foundation, and spray their trails, which gets what you see, but they return with a vengeance.
I've put out bait poisons, of several brands, to no avail.
These are the little buggers that you have to look hard to see.
They even woke me up crawling on my face the other night. I keep a pretty clean house, and try not to leave anything out, for them to feed on, but they always find something.
Is there a secret I've missed, or should I move?

[44man]

OK, so if I wanted to spray a large area for ticks and chiggers, what would I use?
I am going to lend my big sprayer to my friend but he is going to the store to see what he can use.
Some stuff does not work on anything, it is the EPA junk. Still poison that kills nothing.
I bought stuff for gnats once and was spraying the yard. I had a cloud in front of my face so I backed up quick and put the fine spray through the cloud. They just came back, never seen a single one drop.
I bought one of those mosquito traps that makes CO2 from propane. The things walked on it and would not get sucked in. I never caught a single one. They preferred me.
I have to wonder if Sevin or the other stuff called Eight will work. It is not as dangerous.

[oldarkie]

i guess im real lucky,never had a chigger in my 64 years and if a tick bites me they die,worked out side all my life. most people i know use skin so soft and drier sheets,they say it works real well.

[Shooter]

Got this tip from a land surveyor;
For ticks or chiggers buckle a dog flea and tick collar around your ankle out side of your pants and boots.

[300winmag]

69218 At war with the ticks, went and picked up this spray at the local hardware store yesterday, got home and sprayed about 10ft radius around the house and the front porch and back patio. Found a dozen or so dead on the front porch and 50+ dead on the back patio this morning. My poor little house dog, let him out for 5 min to go do his doody he would be covered in ticks. Chiggers are not bad here yet.

[Phoenix]

Two things work really well. Pyrethrum flowers planted around the property will really keep things at bay. But you can make a spray from the flowers. It works on about everything.

Pyrethrum was used for centuries as an insecticide,[1] and as a lice remedy in the Middle East (Persian powder, also known as "Persian pellitory"). It was sold worldwide under the brand Zacherlin by Austrian industrialist J. Zacherl.[2]

The flowers should be dried and then crushed and mixed with water.

If you have friends that smoke. have them collect their butts for you. Put a bucket full in a barrel and let them soak for a while stirring occasionally. (days/weeks) Then take the water and strain it into the sprayer. This works on the garden, on the chickens, the chicken house, barn, yard, kids you name it. nicotine is a potent insecticide. It kind of burns your eyes if you get it in it. So don't. Trust me the store bought stuff in your eyes is MUCH worse.

[Case Stuffer]

In years gone by one could purchase sulfur and cream of tartar tablets ,take a few hours before going in the woods and nothing bothered you.

I believe it is(was) mostly the sulphur that acted as a repelent but even most powdered slphur these dasys says not to be injested.

[300winmag]

In years gone by one could purchase sulfur and cream of tartar tablets ,take a few hours before going in the woods and nothing bothered you.

I believe it is(was) mostly the sulphur that acted as a repelent but even most powdered slphur these dasys says not to be injested.
I bet it was the nasty gas it created that cleared the woods and the house.[smilie=s:[smilie=l:

[TenTea]

Great thread - great tips - taking notes - thanks!

[sparkz]

Blood suck-in little B@$tards!!!! Hate those chicggers most as stinkin tick i can deal with but dam chiggers last a week!!!

time to turn out Seans Gunnie fowl,, she sucks em down lol

Patrick

[popper]

Fire Ants Never, never. I think they will be around after the roaches die out.

[Charley]

So far we don't have ticks, but I'm being carried away by tiny black ants. I have never seen this many. They have invaded every nook and crany.
I've spread malathion, sprayed the in and outside, of the foundation, and spray their trails, which gets what you see, but they return with a vengeance.
I've put out bait poisons, of several brands, to no avail.
These are the little buggers that you have to look hard to see.
They even woke me up crawling on my face the other night. I keep a pretty clean house, and try not to leave anything out, for them to feed on, but they always find something.
Is there a secret I've missed, or should I move?
You aren't going to solve any ant problem with an OP (Organo Phosphate) insecticide. You need one of the newer transferable products that doesn't repel. Premise, Temprid, Phantom, or Termidor will work. Read the label, follow it. Many baits work as well, but most OTC baits are of limited use. Advion Ant Gel or Maxforce Quantum will probably help you out.
Problem is, most people won't spend what it takes to buy professional type products, they want to go to Home Depot or Lowes and spend $10. Good luck with that!

The liquid concentrates I listed will run about $40-$80 per pint, the baits $15-$25 per unit.

[x101airborne]

The stuff I use to kill scorpions, black widows and ticks is called Demon. Available without a license. Sorry I didnt post it earlier, but I had to go to the spray locker and get the name back.

[deep creek]

One of the best sprays is bifenthrin i use it for ants ,spiders roaches scorpions but you need the 7% not the .2 at home depot its a systemic so it takes a bit for them to absorb it.You can look it up for dosage.I use one ounce per gallon.

[10-x]

I bet it was the nasty gas it created that cleared the woods and the house.[smilie=s:[smilie=l:

Anyone tried pickled eggs?????
On a serious note, when the damn yellow flies get bad I swat them and drop them on a fire ant nest so they get their "just reward". Will fire ants eat tics????

[oneokie]

Anyone tried pickled eggs?????
On a serious note, when the damn yellow flies get bad I swat them and drop them on a fire ant nest so they get their "just reward". Will fire ants eat tics????

See post # 5.

[Duckiller]

Chickens KILL ANTS. When we moved into our house the previous owner had a horse in the back yard. Ant hills all over the place. We modern chemistry we kept most of them out of the house. When one son was in preschool they hatched eggs and raised the chicks. At the end of the school year we took the chickens. Soon there after ants started diappearing. Chickens chasing large bugs are fun to watch.

[lcclower]

The dogs, deer, cows, whatever experiencing severe or terminal blood loss through ticks most often are sick from tick transmitted diseases.
Having Rickettsia once from a tick, I guarantee you that you'd have to die to feel better.