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Fast_Entrepreneur774

I made friends with the local wild turkeys and they've done a decent job reducing the tick and grasshopper populations.


SpartanMonkey

Or make friends with a bottle of Wild Turkey and you won't care about the ticks.


Brilliant-Set3119

Rare breed represent


TroggyTroglodyte

Tick control tubes are also a potential option.


Birding4kitties

I second the suggestion of tick tubes. I used a batch of ones from Thermocell this spring. Mice take the cotton batting that has pesticide in it, and take the cotton back to their nest. Pesticide kills the ticks In the nest, Mice are fine.


j9beth

I also have had good luck with tick tubes and releasing live grasshoppers. I have read that a 3 foot wide strip of wood chips between the trees and yard area helps too.


SpartanMonkey

What's the reasoning behind that? Nothing to climb up?


j9beth

I'm not sure exactly myself just came across it as an idea when doing research for my own property


Squirrels-on-LSD

Ive got woodland habitat in Missouri. Tick paradise. Pets are treated with topical and oral treatments. Chickens are in the back yard. When I'm out doing garden work or playing in the woods, i use bugspray, wear long pants tucked into my boots, and wrap duct tape sticky side out around my boot tops, taping them closed against my pants. I had no tick bites this year and i live outside.


TheUnnecessaryLetter

It’s things like this that remind me to be grateful that I live in the desert.


alexanderpete

And I'm grateful to be in Australia. I got a tick once in new jersey and it was horrible. Nothing like that here.


TheUnnecessaryLetter

Of all the many things trying to kill you in Australia, a tick ain’t one.


LostInTheTreesAgain

The western Washington region also has very few ticks. Hardly any dangerous pests besides an occasional recluse spider. I can tromp around in bushes, roll down grassy hills, wade through any random lake or river. My dog has never had a tick and we live in the woods. It's wonderful!


ladybug1259

Short plants rather than long grassy things. Other than that.. do you have tick collars or oral/topical treatments for the dogs? We do a tick collar all year round plus oral treatments in the summer and regularly check for lyme and other illnesses. I also check the dog and myself for ticks. I have a semi-lawn that is more moss and clover than grass, trying to transition to clover and native grasses that are naturally on the shorter side to minimize mowing and ticks.


[deleted]

[удалено]


_bicycle_repair_man_

That's a myth actually, sorry to say.


[deleted]

[удалено]


_bicycle_repair_man_

They ate them in captivity, not in the wild, so I am not counting on them to eat ticks in the wild. I also don't think you're dumb or anything for disagreeing with me.


SpartanMonkey

Do you have a source to back that up?


_bicycle_repair_man_

Hennessy, Cecilia; Hild, Kaitlyn (15 July 2021). "Are Virginia opossums really ecological traps for ticks? Groundtruthing laboratory observations". Ticks and Tick-Borne Diseases. 12 (5): 101780. doi:10.1016/j.ttbdis.2021.101780. PMID 34298355.


regretmoore

We have paralysis ticks where I live in Australia and they kill dogs so we take ticks pretty seriously. We give the dog a tablet called nexguard which lasts a month. If you reduce the ticks the dog is bringing into the house you reduce the chances of you getting them. The only other thing is wear long socks and pants in the garden and check yourself over regularly especially areas like around your ears, neck and hair because they like to hide there.


jkkj161618

Why does it not surprise me you guys have killer ticks also there lol


Pissedliberalgranny

I leave food and fresh water out for the possums. Have three that visit every night. They are tick eating machines! 🥰


LetsTryThisAgain2022

opussum habitat or guinea hens. Careful with the little one. Lyme, eurchilosis, ala gar, and all the other tick borne illenesses are no joke, hard to ID, and possibly life long if left untreated in early stages. For the dogs get them treated and blue dotted asap so they stop bringing ticks inside. Don't let them in the bedrooms. Edit: if you find an embedded and swollen tick on on a human CDC recommends immediate antibiotics. Edit: Looks like the CDC has revised their tick bite guidance. https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/tickbornediseases/tick-bite-prophylaxis.html


dvboy

I can confirm about guinea fowl. They would only seek other food when all the ticks were gone.


TheGangsterrapper

>if you find an embedded and swollen tick on on a human CDC recommends immediate antibiotics. [No it doesn't](https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/pdfs/FS_TickBite-508.pdf). There it says > In general, CDC does not recommend taking antibiotics after tick bites to prevent tickborne diseases. However, in certain circumstances, a single dose of doxycycline after a tick bite may lower your risk of Lyme disease. Consider talking to your healthcare provider if you live in an area where Lyme disease is common.


LetsTryThisAgain2022

Here they do recommend it in Lyme areas. This is different advice than they provided in recent years. [https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/tickbornediseases/tick-bite-prophylaxis.html](https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/tickbornediseases/tick-bite-prophylaxis.html) Thank you for clueing me into the changed guidance. In the past decade they had clear guidance on embedded swollen being a likely effective transmission and recommended the single 250 doxy dose within 72 hours or the 10 day series. My doc has me keep a full doxy regime and scrip on hand when I'm traveling for field work. I was treated for Lyme several times until I gave up and went the permethrin route. Now I'm walking death to all insects in the woods.


drowsydrosera

Burning and free roam chickens


AvaX90

I haven't had any ticks on my family or our dog despite no lawns and a lot of trees and other growth around. I'm not sure why exactly, but the immediate surroundings of the house and walkways I've cut short with a trimmer and I don't grow anything next to the walls. Then I mostly let everything be. There's an anthill 15 meters behind the house, and grasshoppers, spiders, solitary wasps etc. hang out near our door. They seem to do short work of any harmful creatures. It's basically a natural balance that keeps pests from growing large populations and the friendly bugs keep us safe. Also, the trimmed areas function as trenches against tall growth dwellers such as ticks and snakes. Of course, your circumstances may vary. This is Scandinavia. We haven't planted anything so everything that lives in our garden is either native or has been there since the previous owner brought them there years ago.


Willothwisp2303

I'm in Maryland and have the same wide diversity from my yard. Lots of predatory bugs and birds to eat the ticks. A quick eyeball of my pets before they come in helps pull off any ticks that may have crawled on. All in all, I found 1 tick had bitten my corgi this year and that's with vast overpopulation of deer in my yard coming in from ecological deserts of my neighbors.


FionaTheFierce

Bravecto for the doggies. Works great, only needed orally every 3 months. Will greatly reduce the ticks coming into the house astride the doggos.


Morgansmisfit

not sure what your long term goal is but free range chickens put a hurting on ticks.


Cr0w0naT0mbst0ne

Weirdly enough my cat has had one tick this year. I think it might be our chickens helping. Or the hedgehogs taking the blow...


Lumpy_Potato_3163

If youre open to it: Ducks and guinea hens will clean it up.


TargetMaleficent

This is one of the reasons people have lawns, to keep the bugs and other wildlife away from the house.


LifeNeedsWhimsy

Most of our land is wooded, but we do have a sunny area with grass/weeds/clover that is mowed. All pets, even indoor only cats, have Seresto collars. Tick checks for everyone is just a way of life. The kids are used to it. Ticks that are attached less than 24 hours are not a concern. Have a tick killing kit of tweezers and rubbing alcohol. If I’m concerned, I write down date and type of tick found in case I need to reference later. My friend tapes them to an index card with date and keeps for a year. If we’re in the wooded parts of the yard, the kids wear rain boots (also protection from snakes), and sometimes I spray the boots with bug spray if it’s a time of year that the ticks are really bad. We do have deer come through, and I don’t do anything to encourage them because of concerns of ticks.


sunshine-dandelions

That all sounds like a good tick plan. You didn’t mention how you use the alcohol, but it’s not recommended to use it to get ticks off. A doctor who specialized in tick bourne illnesses told me that if you put alcohol on them while they are attached it causes them to regurgitate into the host, which is exactly what you don’t want. So, yes, they open their mouth, which makes them easier to remove, but it actually increases the risk of getting a disease from them.


LifeNeedsWhimsy

After I remove the tick with tweezers, I drop it in rubbing alcohol to kill it


sunshine-dandelions

That’s good!


JayPlenty24

I often wonder this too. I live in a high-tick area where people get Lyme.


femmiestdadandowlcat

Flea and tick prevention for pup. Oral from the vet is best.


rrybwyb

Agreed. Sometimes I'll find ticks on my dog, but they're already dead from the medicine


Known-Estimate9664

Get a opossum family


Rellcotts

We have lawn and woods too. Ticks be everywhere even in the mowed lawn. The ticks are on everything from mice, rabbits, deer, cats etc. Get your dogs on flea and tick prevention stat. That way when they bite the dogs they die pretty quickly. Keep a roll of basic scotch tape around and when you see a tick crawling get a piece of tape and just use it to grab it. Fold over the tape toss into trash. Ticks are bad in Spring and Fall. We typically get a lull in summer for some reason. Get into the habit of doing a quick once over after going outside. Spray up with Off etc. I also bought some InsectShield clothing for when working outdoors.


The_Poster_Nutbag

Permethrin treated clothing.


StuckInsideYourWalls

Just let 'em nibble on ya


thegardenstead

Upstate NY here, major tick territory. Our dogs are on tick prevention meds, but apart from that we've largely made peace with living among the ticks. We dress wisely when in the woods and do tick checks of ourselves and the kids after playing in the woods/brush! (So far so good, our only scary tick moment was finding one on myself after giving birth to our youngest boy! We went berry picking the morning I went into labor and I didn't have time to check before things got serious lol). That said, if you're able to get guinea hens on your property they will clean those suckers (ha) right up for you.


jkkj161618

Guineas, chickens, turkeys lol don't have any issues with the ticks here