Most of us have dealt with Deer Ticks...
...this new guy is quite invasive.
Just what we need, a new invasive species that can breed parthogenetically and prolifically, and can spread disease. Why can’t we import a species that eats fire ants?
Ugh. I hate ticks and we have tons of deer in our yard. Not looking forward to these making it to Ohio!
I like the new Tick.
step 1: introduce bug with potential to carry disease, to test it's proliferation in potential area of attack
step 2: if step 1 is successful, introduce bug with disease of choice.
At least this one doesn't make you allergic to red meat.
I noticed they're really bad in my yard yesterday. Pulled two off the wife and one off the oldest child.
Yay. So far I've just been seeing deer ticks. Been pulling them since March. Never, never had any ticks around here until about 5 years ago. Sure we learned all about them at scouts and Hunter safety school, but we also went snipe hunting.
At least the giant dog ticks in California didn't bite us.
spitfirebill said:Just what we need, a new invasive species that can breed parthogenetically and prolifically, and can spread disease. Why can’t we import a species that eats fire ants?
The University of Florida has been researching wasps that are predatory on fire ants . Research on biologic controls for fire ants.
We've got 3.5 acres that were very poorly tended when we bought the place. We've kept it much better since but still have a dozen or so deer that are in our yard every day. We have a creek out back and a heavy tree line and a few dozen acres of woods across the street. Still, I have only had one tick on me in the 5 years we've owned this place, and that was the first year while it was still "recovering" from the prior shabbiness. What on earth is happening that you guys get ticks on you all the time? In your yard? Do you mow? Are ticks that much worse where you are versus Ohio?
I live in the woods. Ticks are a serious problem and these new ones are on the way here. During tick season, which is, roughly, the 3rd week in Feburary through the 1st week in Feburary, I won't go outside without spraying my socks, shoes and pants with some pyrethrin. My outside pants get hosed down inside and out when I put them into service, and I "touch them up" daily. I mix the pyrethrin myself from 10% stuff from Tractor Supply and some 91% rubbing alcohol, with a target of 1%. Costs virtually nothing that way, versus "very expensive" if you buy it premixed like that. The dog gets ivermectin twice a month and some spray when they are real bad.
In reply to Floating Doc :
Their last experiment gave us love bugs. :/
dculberson said:What on earth is happening that you guys get ticks on you all the time? In your yard? Do you mow? Are ticks that much worse where you are versus Ohio?
In our case in NE CT, it's bound to happen to you or the kids. During peak season two years ago, we were pulling up to 8 (attached) ticks off the dogs per day, and a few more we caught just walking around on them. That gives you an idea of the density around here lately with the winters not being very cold lately to kill the cycle in the winter. We switched to Revolution for the tick pill, and last year it was probably only 1 per week or less on the dogs, so that was nice.
We have already pulled a tick off of two of the kids this year.
We live on about 7 acres, half of which is wooded, half mowed for reference.
We've been having the yard sprayed for the last several years. They've used a few products, but they're all 100% safe for anything larger than a large tick, and they dissipate within 24 hours. One was chrysanthemum-based, and the other on some sort of wood oil, IIRC. Seem to work very well. Doesn't help out in the world, but at least I can walk around the lawn without undue concern.
dculberson said:What on earth is happening that you guys get ticks on you all the time? In your yard? Do you mow? Are ticks that much worse where you are versus Ohio?
In my case I have a unmaintained field all around the property which is nothing but high grass and various native brush. There's a creek and wooded area at the bottom of the hill that the kids like to play in or around.
It's been really wet here for the last year or so. That's caused the ticks to creep out into the grass that grows way too fast and stay in the yard because it isn't drying out.
Overall it's really bad compared to several years ago.
Dr. Hess said:I live in the woods. Ticks are a serious problem and these new ones are on the way here. During tick season, which is, roughly, the 3rd week in Feburary through the 1st week in Feburary, I won't go outside without spraying my socks, shoes and pants with some pyrethrin. My outside pants get hosed down inside and out when I put them into service, and I "touch them up" daily. I mix the pyrethrin myself from 10% stuff from Tractor Supply and some 91% rubbing alcohol, with a target of 1%. Costs virtually nothing that way, versus "very expensive" if you buy it premixed like that. The dog gets ivermectin twice a month and some spray when they are real bad.
Is pyrethrin the same as permethrin?
I'm about to treat a bunch of my clothes with some permethrin (10% concentrate, mixed down to .5% or 1%--can't remember), but should I look at this pyrethrin instead?
Teh Googlez say it's about the same E36 M3. One synthetic, one "natural." Actually, as I look at it, I think it is the permethrin 10% that I dilute down. Like this:
The rubbing alcohol evaporates really fast, so it makes clothes treating easy. I put some in water for the dog and general bug killin' in the garage. Water being fairly cheap. Adam's Flea Spray used to have it, then they stopped and the stuff stopped working.
The0retical said:At least this one doesn't make you allergic to red meat.
I noticed they're really bad in my yard yesterday. Pulled two off the wife and one off the oldest child.
Tell me about it...
I was rushed to the hospital a few years ago after eating a steak. A couple grand in allergy testing later, it turns out I'm one of the lucky people with an alphagalactose allergy thanks to those bastards. This isn't the way I wanted to be special.
Dr. Hess said:Teh Googlez say it's about the same E36 M3. One synthetic, one "natural." Actually, as I look at it, I think it is the permethrin 10% that I dilute down. Like this:
The rubbing alcohol evaporates really fast, so it makes clothes treating easy. I put some in water for the dog and general bug killin' in the garage. Water being fairly cheap. Adam's Flea Spray used to have it, then they stopped and the stuff stopped working.
THat looks like the same stuff I have. Different label, but same bottle and same ingredients.
I just use water and soak the clothes in the mixture in a bucket for about an hour, then hang them up to dry. Then send them through the wash a couple times--Even after months and probably 5 washes, I've watched a tick crawl up my pants and fall off, dead, by the time it got to my belt. So it seems to last quite a while.
I hate ticks, they totally freak me out. I hope our tick problem doesn't get to anywhere near as bad as you guys. I've got a lot of woods around, but they don't really like woods as much as they like open unmowed fields, as I understand it.
grover said:In reply to Floating Doc :
Their last experiment gave us love bugs. :/
I was waiting for that. I'm sure that there's lots of people that believe it, but I get that your answer was sarcasm. Funny.
Further comments, since parasitology is a big part of my practice:
Ivermectin is effective in cattle, but I have concerns about it's use for ticks in dogs.
Effect of ivermectin on the brown dog tick, Rhipicephalus sanguineus.
Morsy TA, Haridy FM.
Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.Ivermectin (Ivomec) proved to be effective in controlling R. sanguineus. All brown dog ticks infesting the treated dogs (subcutaneous injections) with 1.5 ml or 2 ml/50 kg dropped off within 4 or 3 days respectively. The dropped off ticks were completely inactive and died within one day or two. Ticks exposed to filter papers impregnated with 100 micrograms/ml (66.67%) died within four days. A dose of 1.5-2 microliters/50 kg eradicated Toxocara canis infection in four dogs, and caused shrinkage of Dipylidium caninum gravid segments in three. A general discussion was given with special reference to the contraindications and side effects of ivermectin particularly for human usage
If the tick hasn't fed previously since it's last molt, it should take about 24 hours for it to begin transmitting disease. My concern is that we don't know how long the ticks were still feeding before the ivermectin began to work.
The 1.5 to 2 mL per 50 kg (0.3-0.4 mg/kg) dose of ivermectin is potentially toxic in dogs.
A summary of my usual discussion with my clients about ticks:
Consult with your veterinarian for advice about what tick control is appropriate for your pets, and in your area.
Finally, while we use permethrin clothing treatments when our family is in Maine, use caution and follow directions. If you use a home brew product, you have no recourse if there's complications. It's up to you to decide how much this matters.
Be aware that permethrins are very, very toxic to cats. I've also had a dog presented for permethrin toxicity (tremors) after the owner gave him a flea bath, then dipped him, then applied a topical spot-on treatment, all three permethrin based.
Floating Doc said:spitfirebill said:Just what we need, a new invasive species that can breed parthogenetically and prolifically, and can spread disease. Why can’t we import a species that eats fire ants?
The University of Florida has been researching wasps that are predatory on fire ants . Research on biologic controls for fire ants.
Clemson has too. But they don’t overwinter and have to be released each year. At least up here they don’t. Now my info is 40 years old from grad school.
BTW fire ants reduce the populations of some insects. Hopefully one of those is ticks.
They aren’t too terrible in southern Ohio, but they are here. My brother-in-law ended up getting infected with Lyme disease while here. Took doctors a while to figure it out, too, as he lived in northern Nevada at the time.
If you see possums around, leave them be. They eat ticks.
"I've heard" that if you have fire ants, you don't have ticks because they eat ticks. Is it true? Dunno, but when I lived in Texas, we had fire ants all over the place and no ticks at all. Some fleas, but no ticks. Up here in Arkansas, no fire ants and ticks all over the place, plus fleas. I'm pretty much on top of the fleas. As I said, Bubba
gets a dose of ivermectin twice a month. It seems to have completely knocked the fleas out. He also doesn't have any ticks in his pen, but venture outside of it and they will get you (and him.)
In reply to Dr. Hess :
I've never know ivermectin to be effective, but if it's working for you, that's great. When tested at a greater than 100X labelled dose, it showed zero efficacy.
Systemic activity of the avermectins against the cat flea (Siphonaptera: Pluicidae)
J Med Entomol. July 2001;38(4):576-80.
M Zakson-Aiken 1, L M Gregory, P T Meinke, W L Shoop
Article Abstract
Ivermectin has potent systemic activity against numerous species of nematodes and arthropods, but there are some important species in these two groups, such as the cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis (Bouché), that appear to be refractory to it. In an effort to determine if the lack of systemic activity against C. felis is specific to ivermectin, or if it is a class-wide phenomenon, 20 avermectin derivatives were tested in an artificial membrane flea feeding system at concentrations of 20, 10, and 1 microg/ml. Results showed that ivermectin had LC90 and LC50 values against fleas of 19.1 and 9.9 microg/ml, respectively. Only four of the other 19 compounds evaluated possessed both LC90 and LC50 values more potent than ivermectin and even then the advantage was modest. Among those four compounds was a two-fold increase in potency relative to ivermectin when the LC90 values were considered (range, 9.2-10.3 microg/ml) and a two- to eight-fold increase when the LC50 values were examined (range, 1.23-5.26 microg/ml). Neither the possession nor the number of oleandrosyl sugars on the macrocyclic backbone were relevant for additional flea activity because among these four compounds were two disaccharides, a monosaccharide and an aglycone. Also, bond disposition between C-22 and 23 did not contribute to increase in activity because these molecules comprise members with either single or double bonds. One of these avermectin analogs was scaled-up and tested subcutaneously in a dog at >100 times the commercial ivermectin dosage and zero efficacy was observed against the flea. We conclude that even the best in vitro avermectin does not have the in vivo potential to become a commercial oral or subcutaneous flea treatment for companion animals.
Jerry said:
I like the new Tick.
This was my first thought too. Love that show
You'll need to log in to post.
