I’m sure most of us see a lot of ticks in our fruit growing and gardening (I know I do). I’ve seen reports speculating this is going to be a bad tick year due to mouse populations last year. The mild winter is only going to make it worse! Any good tick advice out there to share?
I’m thinking of planting a bunch of beautyberry around my yard, research has shown it repels ticks. Folk wisdom got that one right!
It is suppose to be a bumper crop of ticks this year from what i’ve read.
Pyrethrins work great against ticks.
You gotta love the desert, no rain, no weeds, and no ticks. At least not that I’ve seen.
IMHO repelling ticks (or other pests) or even killing them does not gaurantee you won’t encounter them…firmly attached. Just offering some info here just in case… Don’t pull it out, as is our natural instinct. First apply something to it to make it unhappy and ready to let go willingly. I use essential oils, like tea tree or geranium or lavender or whatever you have on hand. These are not only unpleasant to the insect but antiseptic & anti microbial. Wait a few minutes and then pull it out whole. Has always worked.
I have a surgeon friend who holds a lighted match tip to the tick and it backs right out. You need his steady hands to keep from getting burnt.
http://www.tickencounter.org/prevention/how_to_remove_a_tick_video
http://kidshealth.org/en/parents/tick-removal.html
If you read each of these very reputable web sites, you’ll see the instructions for tick removal are consistent. And, on several of these sites, they state not to use a lit match, vaseline, oils, etc. Quoting directly from the CDC: “Avoid folklore remedies such as “painting” the tick with nail polish or petroleum jelly, or using heat to make the tick detach from the skin. Your goal is to remove the tick as quickly as possible–not waiting for it to detach.”
These are the instructions we provided our patients when I ran Nurse On Call at Goshen Health System. TIme is of the essence, in case the tick is infected with either Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, or other tick-borne diseases. This is the best and most effective way to remove ticks. Don’t fool around trying other folklore remedies. Get the tick out as quickly as possible using the above instructions is the safest and best practice. Then, be very familiar with the signs and symptoms of some of the more common tick-borne diseases, and monitor yourself for those symptoms. If you do end up feeling generally ill after a tick bite, and you don’t think your symptoms match up with something like Lyme disease (i.e., never saw a bull’s eye rash), you should still get yourself to the doctor to be tested for a couple of tick borne illnesses. If you’re testing for Lyme disease, be sure the doctor follows these current guidelines from the CDC that involve a two-step testing process:
https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/diagnosistesting/labtest/twostep/index.html
Patty S.
And keep in mind ticks can be active even when you think you’re safe. A couple of years ago my wife found a tick crawling on her clothing. Not surprising other than we just had a snow storm and there was 18" of new snow on the ground. So you never know…
What are your favorite ways to kill ticks? I normally try to avoid chemicals, but I will make an exception here.
So far, I’ve laid down Sevin (twice). I want to attack from multiple angles, so I’m also looking at tick tubes and tick-killing fungus. I want them dead dead dead.
Any of you tried these with success? My wife was also looking at praying mantis eggs, but I’m skeptical those would actually impact the population.
That is one horror story-esk looking fly.
A little off topic but focused on reducing the threat so we don’t have to use the removal methods discussed here as much.
I read a piece about a way to reduce the tick population around our homes/orchards.
It involves using the LINT from our clothes dryers (or some other easily friable fluffy cotton like material).
Because of the warmish winter and plentiful food (at leas herein the Northeast), many rodents who would not have made it through the winter survived and some thrived.
The majority of hard ticks require three different hosts to complete their development. During this development, ticks go through four stages of life. These stages are egg, larvae (or seed tick), nymph, and adult. Generally, adult female hard ticks breed while on the host animal and then drop to the ground to lay eggs.
The ticks hitch a ride on mice, chipmunks squirrels etc. So… in order to reduce the tick population around us…
Ingredients:
Pieces of 1 - 2 inch pipe ( metal, pvc, empty paper towel rolls, etc )
Fluffy stuff - lint
Spray the “lint” with pyrethrin and let it dry.
Stuff the lint into the tubes.
Lay the tubes outside and all around the orchard.
The mice and chipmunks love to line their dens with this stuff.
They bring the Pyrethrin laced lint into the den and it kills the tick on site.
I don’t much worry about any effect the Pyrethrin may have on the mice 
.
Mike
Interesting concept. I’d love to see some experiment data on the effectiveness of it.
See the tick tubes link above, with the caveat that they are a commercial site trying to sell them.
Anytime after I’ve been in a tick rich enviroment, I get out the Prell shampoo. Gets them off you in a hurry.
Well so far in my Western MI ventures this season I have pulled one out of the back of my head and 1 from my chin under my beard, yee haw!
Somewhere i read someone who was taking a bunch of garlic supplements before going out into the woods and not having any ticks on him… I suppose your body probably gives off that odor that they don’t find appealing…not sure. Nothing scientific so who knows if it would work as well as he claimed.
Keeping grass mowed as short as possible is supposed to help. I don’t know how effective it really is.
The shorter the grass is it gives the ticks less of a platform to grab you from as you walk by. They like to grab onto cloth so if the only surface touching grass is your shoe sole it really cuts back on the number of ticks that get on you. In taller grass wearing slick rubber boots that are almost knee high will help a lot as they cat grab the rubber as easily. I have even worn hip waders in really tall grass to keep the ticks off.
Ticks this year are awful. They seem to be everywhere.
I always wear light colored pants (tan carhartt) and long sleeve shirts when I work outdoors. I shower and check myself carefully after coming in from tick infested areas.
I’ve found dozens (hundreds?) of ticks crawling on me over the years, but only one embedded.
Pulled out about 5 already this year, 2 dog ticks a couple days apart in the same spot inside the top of my ear!
btw, best thing to pull small ticks I have found is a plain old white vinyl plant tag folded in half, used like sideways tweezers, there is a rolled edge on one side of the tag that grabs them.
Another reason I love the desert. I’ve been outdoors a lot in west Texas since 1971 and have yet to see a tick. They’re not far away. An entomologist I used to work with said they kill half the fawns in OK. He used to come home covered in the seed ticks when he worked there.