Found my third tick so far this season. Last year was my worst since buying my property. Im worried this year will be even worse. Are there aby natural repellants that work? Shy of trying to adopt a family of possums is there any plants that work well?
Cedar oil is used as a tick repellent but probably not as effective as permethrin.
I spray my garden pants and shoes, not skin, with permethrin. It is said to work for weeks.
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Try lemon eucalyptus. Not 100%, but worked pretty well for us last year and excellent for mosquitos.
As someone who hunted ginseng for most my life…which includes walking many miles thru woods and some wooly thick stuff, for most of the day…
You would literally get covered with ticks … especially seed ticks and chiggars without the two products linked below.
The 40% deet product helped greatly with chiggars and skeeters… the other product you treated your clothing and tall snake boots with to stop the ticks.
TNHunter
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Its funny as a child I used to play in the woods all the time and never remeber getting ticks. Now i just have to pop into my garden for five minutes and i pick at least one up.
My grandma had a farm in GreenCastle Pa. And when we would go into the woods to play, pick berries etc as a little kid. I would always get a tick inspection afterwards lol.
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Wishful thinking.
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For those of you not familliar with seed ticks… check out these pics I found online.
https://images.app.goo.gl/g6YnUeY1Q4t2xobH8
https://images.app.goo.gl/p4d1XU3ZJSxtjgtQ7
You walk thru a thicket and look down and there is a mob of tiny ticks all over your pants… working their way up.
That poor persons foot and ankle… yep… that has been me in the past a few times.
TNHunter
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Omg 
didn’t realize they came that small.
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When i went camping the last time over 2 decades ago in eastern Washington, these “friendly spiders” would slowly flock to you. Especially if you’re sitting down or merely just staying still. This was a time of no internet cell phones so i thought they were just really friendly teardrop spiders with white dots on them 
I don’t think one got me but my neighbor helped me the other day and she ended up getting a tick on her. I’ve never heard of them in western Washington until recently. Use to go foraging in the woods with a group of my siblings, cousins, and the neighborhood kids and ticks just didn’t exist then but apparently, they do now 
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Down here in the south… only a crazy person would just go for a walk in the woods… unless there is a nice wide walkway cleared.
You have to dress right and spray right to take a serious venture into the wild. If you dont… you will be sorry… for weeks.
Those tiny seed ticks are just as potent as adults as far as itching for weeks go.
TNHunter
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You are not the only one. New to me too,
Went to a wedding by Raineer last summer. At an old farm that was turned into a fancy pants wedding venue.
Every member of the wedding party got ticked, and so did most of the guests. The grass was golf course green look and all the beds were impeccably landscaped and pruned. The paths were all graveled and wood bordered w ties.
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I spend hours in the woods/orchards/foodplots daily from snow melt through early September. I wouldn’t do it without a set of permethrin treated clothes.
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Locals in rural areas of Northern California refer to native shrubs as “tick bush”.
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Unfortunately I’ve learned that if I’m going to be in tick land (the wilder parts of our property), I put on a dedicated set of permethrin treated pants and socks. The dogs get permethrin treated vests and snoods (long ear fur brushes the grasses). We handle it very carefully since permethrin is toxic to cats. I’ve never had a tick with this. I hate hate hate using it, but the consequences of a tick with disease are just too grave to me.
We have worked hard to create anti-tick spaces. The gardens are divided from everything by gravel or mulch pathways and the grass there is cut low. We keep deer and vermin out as best as we can. I wear tall boots with pants tucked in if I’m going into orchard areas where we’re lazier about grass. I inspect my legs and trunk as soon as I’m inside. It just becomes habit. We’re getting chickens soon and I’m going to tractor them around in the hopes of at least cutting down the population some more. Ticks love the edge of woods the most.
At our previous home, the yard was fenced, no deer came in, lots of sun on our grass, and hawks decimated the rodent population. We had zero ticks. I miss that!
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I know where you’re talking about.
I wonder if they’re here now because people have decimated the possum population here. I used to see them so often and had 0 clue ticks existed. Not that i don’t see possums as much, ticks exist here
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What does the anti-tick repellents do? I have some to treat cloths but never used yet.
They have those arms ready to grasp anything… do they grasp onto your leg/jeans then let go n fall off, or walk down towards the ground , or dont try to even cling on and stay on their grass blade?
Growing up my folks raised Guinea fowl. For all the other headaches they can cause, i will admit they did a pretty decent job of cutting the tick population down -also chased feral cats and UPS drivers out of the yard if either are a nuisciance to you 
Granted if you live close to any neighbors, they might prefer you befriended those opposums as they tend to be a quieter option.
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I went out last summer to pick some mushrooms, it was well into seed tick season here, but i really wanted some mushrooms. I got covered in seed ticks. I was walking as fast as I could and picking mushrooms, damn I hate those things. My ankles looked like I had some kind of flesh eating bacteria for about a month.
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