# ME v. The Woods



## ama0722 (Nov 28, 2006)

Okay, I am grossed out. I was just talking about how to treat the area outside as our new home backs up to woods. We are in the process of fencing the dog area in the backyard too (as soon as the board approves it). 

Well this morning DH pulls a tick off the back of his head. He doesn't think it bite him but he was only outside in the yard for a few minutes and found it crawling on his head!!! So I am flipping out. I checked the dogs and they seem fine thus far.

SC seems to grow supersized everything! In our old shed there was the largest cockroach I have ever seen- in fact, I bet DH it wasn't one and sure enough, it was... yikes! So I am thinking I am going to need to be very proactive

While I prefer natural treatments and not treating the dogs, I am not sure what to do here. Right before we moved, I put them on revolution again so as of right now they are on that. I am going to talk to the neighbors but the ones who have a dog aren't in the woods like us... Any advice is appreciated!

I will check in later- going to spend time with tickhead and take Dash to Read to Rover!


----------



## Missy (Nov 6, 2006)

Oh Amanda I hear you. and we only have normal size bugs. Here is what I have found with my own research

Leslie, and Kimberly use Nematodes:

http://www.fleabuster.com/Products/Biobusters/nematodes.html

I chose not to use these because I have a yard service that would kill them since they are living in the earth by the roots

I just got this all natural and we are going to try it when the forecast has no rain for 2 days...

http://www.mosquitobarrier.com/

read through the site it talks about ticks too-- it is a slightly more labor intesive process. But I was impressed with the reviews both on their site and amazon. and that it is used in a lot of parks. I also think garlic repels rodents too.

I will let you know after we apply it.


----------



## marb42 (Oct 19, 2008)

Amanda,
We have to deal with the same thing. Our house backs up to a preserve, and we live in Florida, where bugs are EVERYWHERE all the time! I have opted to have everything sprayed and treated by a pest control company because I felt going natural wouldn't cut it in Florida. I hope you figure out something that works. It's terrible your DH already found a tick on him.
Gina


----------



## Posh's Mom (Dec 20, 2007)

Amanda you make me laugh! Sorry, I can't help it.

We are in tick heaven here, and really I think I'm pretty numb to them now. I think I most likely pick two or three "floaters" off Posh everyday. She is on Frontline, so if they bite they'll die and fall off, but if they are just on her fur for a ride, I will find them when I brush her out. My kids have nightly tick checks, my son has this great head of hair that they love to hide in. We burn them or flush them after finding them. Really they're not such a big deal. The chickens love eating them!  It's a real treat. Yep, it's gross to imagine something "feeding" off of us and/or our dogs but it's really how you react. Burn those little suckers! It's kind of fun in a sick way.


----------



## Jill in Mich (Feb 24, 2008)

ama0722 said:


> I will check in later- *going to spend time with tickhead *and take Dash to Read to Rover!


I'm sorry Amanda, but ound:

I think Amy has the perfect solution....you need to get you some chickens!


----------



## Scooter's Family (May 23, 2008)

Tickhead!!! :laugh:

I think he deserves a trip to Dairy Queen tonight!


----------



## Missy (Nov 6, 2006)

tickhead is better than tickbed!!! last year we were trying to fall asleep and DH jumped out of bed and turned on the light--- nope nothing there...30 mintues later...jumps out again....this time there is a big ole dog tick crawling along our pretty white sheets. Needless to say, I kept feeling imaginary things crawling on me the rest of the night. 

I never find a tick on Cash and I look pretty hard since he is black. Jas picks up the floaters as Amy calls them and that is how we think it got in the bed... we do nightly checks after that.


----------



## Amy R. (Jul 1, 2007)

I have no helpful advice, Amanda, but~~hating large bugs and ticks~~I can feel your disgust. We have tons of ticks here in Nor-Cal and lots of deer that carry them, the Lyme disease carriers, but so far I've only ever found 1 dead tick on Biscuit. But I keep my eyes open. Never seen a flea on my dogs either. Well, good luck!!


----------



## trueblue (Jan 22, 2008)

Posh's Mom said:


> It's kind of fun in a sick way.


And that made me laugh! I hate caterpillars (we have those big buckmoth things that sting), so whenever I see them, I find an anthill to poke a hole in and put the caterpillar right in the middle of the mad little ants.

Missy, let me know how that mosquito barrier works or if it smells up the joint like garlic...


----------



## mellowbo (Aug 12, 2007)

And I was worried about coyotes and hawks! Geesh, I would hate those buggy things too. You could just move back here to the city!
What ever happened to the "good old days" when we didn't have these dog concerns? Dogs just played outside and there wasn't any paranoia. I think I remember those days but then again I lived in the city without the wildlife all around.
Give tickhead belly rubs for me!
xxoox


----------



## irnfit (Nov 21, 2006)

I just had my poor little cat at the vet. Seems the other 2 cats go out (she is indoor only) and bring the fleas in to her. She had an ear infection, severe dermatitis due to flea allergy and has lost weight, so probably has tape worms. PS - $600 big ones.

I asked the vet about the nematodes, because I put them down and haven't seen a change. Pups still come in with them. The vet said they are a waste of money. So now I might have to find something to spray around the yard that won't kill the plants, dogs, cats or us. And, he switched us from Frontline Plus to Revolution and said we should also do Program. I think the vet wants to go on a nice summer vacation.


----------



## Evye's Mom (Dec 16, 2008)

Dear Mrs. Tickhead: :crazy:

Living in SC, both dogs are on Revolution and I still found a tick on Evye, live and embedded. It was still small and I knew it hadn't been there long but it still bothers me if this thing was going to die and WHEN. They say Over and Out is not only for fire ants for up to 1 year but also tick and flea preventative for about 4 months...I cannot advocate for it though...still have fire ants, found the tick so I surely cannot recommend it.


----------



## Jill in Mich (Feb 24, 2008)

mellowbo said:


> Give tickhead belly rubs for me!
> xxoox


ound:ound:ound:

Now I'm really laughing! Picturing your DH lined up with the dogs, all waiting for their belly rubs!!!


----------



## Pixiesmom (Jul 31, 2008)

I'm FAR from the granola type, but I've been reading up on essential oils and their flea and tick repelling abilities. I have enormous confidence that they would do the job. There's a mom at my daughter's school who uses EO's for lots of stuff, and I used to tease her about it. Well, talk about GROSS, two years ago almost the whole 1st and 2nd grade came down with a horrible infestation of headlice, -my daughter got it. It was my worst nightmare realized, because I'm the OCD queen. After fainting, I came to and started researching and found a remedy using essential oils. It worked amazingly well and killed them immediately. The whole school was calling me for the "recipe". (I still get calls every year for it). So, I'm going to make a spray to mist on her before she goes out. I really think it will work, plus it smells nice. We'll see...


----------



## Tom King (Aug 2, 2006)

We also adjoin several hundred acres of woods. We have two different herds of deer. These are N.C. mixed hardwoods and pines which are prime territory for ticks. The farm dogs do a fair job at keeping the small critters away from where the house is.

I spray our dog yards at least once a week with dish detergent that Pam buys at Sam's that has citrus oils in it. Sun & Earth or something like that is the name-a cheap generic. We have tried the extract oil sprays that you can find online that are concentrated citrus oils but they are really expensive for as often as I spray. I use a hose end sprayer and spray at night after the dogs are in bed. 

The dogs don't graze soon after I do this I guess because of the smell and taste, and they have never seemed to suffer any ill effects like upset stomach or anything else. I spray around the outside of the dog yards with a stronger solution of the same stuff almost always after a rain system has passed through.

We also have free ranging chickens that might help some but they leave the soaped area alone. I keep the grass cut short in and around the outside of the dog yards and the ground blown clean after every cutting with the big blower.

In a buffer zone outside our yard in the woods I spray maybe once a month with liguid Sevin from a pump sprayer. I don't really like using poisons either but as they go this is probably one of the lesser evil ones and is effective against fleas and ticks. We have a couple of guys that work for us on the farm and they keep the leaf cover on the forest floor near us blown back a ways with a 11hp Billygoat blower on wheels. The Billygoat blower is one of the best pieces of equipment I've ever bought for yard work. It cleans an 8' swath in one pass-leaves, sticks, rocks, limbs, small schrubbery, etc.

You can walk through the woods beyond my treated zone and you WILL have ticks crawling on you. We don't have trouble inside our ZONE. Needless to say the dogs don't go for romps in the woods in warm weather.

Fortunately, even though we are surrounded by water on the other sides-none standing, we don't have mosquitos to amount to anything.

The soap seems to work for fleas too. We have really cut back on the amount and frequency of spot-ons that we use.


----------



## Miss Paige (Apr 4, 2008)

And I thought I lived in the tick capitol of the US-I have found ticks on all three "kids" just from being in my back yard. And when we go to our cabin I have to do a heavy tick check on the "kids" and myself-I think the ticks just lay in waiting till we wander by and jump on.

We even had ticks this winter here in the city-go figure.

Pat (humom to)
Miss Paige
Mr Roman
Ms Frannie


----------



## ama0722 (Nov 28, 2006)

Thanks everyone for your advice. Yes, I kind of freaked out about the tick... I won't even tell you how many times I have looked at my mosquito bites thinking I have Lyme or something... And I am scared of every bug today!<BG>

I think unfortunately we are going to do a treatment outside the dog yard (One of my neighbors said the sevin too) and then try a natural treatment in the dog fenced area. I was talking to a neighbor and they have a monthly pest service come and she says it well worth it to keep ticks off her human kids. I have a list of some plants to get as well to help inside the dog yard. I also think I am going to keep them on the revolution at least for the summer months. This scared me to say the least.

I never saw a tick in LA  Yes, I said this to Jim too! He then reminded me we would never afford a house or a yard like this in LA 

P.S. Chickens aren't allowed here (I looked- well originally for goats, I saw the cutest pygmy goat!)


----------



## BeverlyA (Oct 29, 2006)

Tickhead!!!ound:ound:ound:

Well we too are loaded with ticks, and I would much rather have the BIG ticks you can see and get rid of than those teenie tiny little basticks that look like freckles until they give you West Nile.

I spoke with an entomologist last week at a safety meeting and he said unfortunately there just isn't any "natural" product with a long lasting or far reaching benefit. This was when we were talking about treating the yard or a portion of the yard.

If I was you, I would find out what people in your area are using successfully on their dogs this season and use that.
If you do want to try something natural directly on the dogs and yourself, try Absorbine Supershield Green All Natural Horse Spray. It works against Black flies, ticks and mosquitoes and can be sprayed directly on skin, clothing, etc.

That yard is spectacular! I'd gladly put up with the little blood suckers for that! :hungry:

Beverly


----------



## RikiDaisyDixie (Apr 15, 2008)

*Ticks are in LA*

Amanda I grew up in Virginia where our pets had ticks all the time. I lived in Missouri and never had a tick. Two months ago, a group of us from work went Mountain Biking in the Malibu area. Two of us got bitten by a tick.

I pulled two ticks off of me on the way home, and then driving home after getting back I felt this incredible pain in my chest. I thought I was winded by the bike ride. It was a tick, the bite is incredibly painful. I had to have a doctor dig it out and she didn't really know what to do, they are so infrequent here.

Those who live in the PV area tell me that their dogs get ticks all the time on walks. So we stay on the strand or on the sidewalks right now.

When we were kids we used to use alcohol or blown out matches...our poor pets.

Just be glad you know what to do...and that you found it. The really dangerous ones are the tiny tiny ones you barely see though.


----------



## luv3havs (Jul 27, 2007)

Amanda,
Your yard and woods are gorgeous!


----------



## Evye's Mom (Dec 16, 2008)

Gorgeous Amanda...the back yard is HUGE...and beautiful.


----------



## Scooter's Family (May 23, 2008)

Are you going to fence in the entire yard???

Did you let Jim sleep in the same bed with you last night? :nono:


----------



## ama0722 (Nov 28, 2006)

If you look at the picture, you can see where the fence is kind of laying down... that is our layout- we did it temporary to get the dogs to stay in one place while we took them out. You can kind of see there is a pretty big decline into the woods and then the woods goes up from there and that is where I am sure there is wildlife with who knows what. So far I have only seen squirrels but I haven't spent any time on the deck yet. We have a storage shed back in the woods and the dogs love taking things there with me but as of now, I am not letting them. I am going to call around and get a service to come out and do where the woods meets the yard. I really feel this is probably the best for us and the dogs on the onset and then get some plants going that will help and some DE shipped. 

We got a phone call last night that it is approved so we are working on it today. Let's see if I am still married to tickhead after this project- lol! I would love to get it finished by this weekend.

Yes-I checked him for ticks and let him in the bed


----------



## Scooter's Family (May 23, 2008)

Are you doing the fence yourself???


----------



## ama0722 (Nov 28, 2006)

Ann- yes, this isn't as bad as the other fence though- it has parts that come apart and spikes with it. So it isn't nearly the work of the other fence. I am having coffee and taking a break right now but we already put a few pieces in. We are going from each side of the house to the back as we have a lot more wiggle room in the middle. I will try and get some pics/when/ if we get done!


----------



## Scooter's Family (May 23, 2008)

The yard is beautiful, the fence is too so I'm sure it's going to look great when it's done.


----------



## BeverlyA (Oct 29, 2006)

Hi Amanda,

I really want to stress...I'm not sure what kind of ticks you have there, probably more than one, but the ones that I'm familiar with around the Midwest, the ones that are really dangerous are TINY, like the size of a period on a typed page tiny. If you haven't seen one before you might not even realize it's a tick. They aren't like those huge blood suckers that swell up like a grape when they get a good hold of you.

And again, that yard is incredible. 
Beverly


----------



## Lunastar (Feb 9, 2009)

Missy said:


> Oh Amanda I hear you. and we only have normal size bugs. Here is what I have found with my own research
> 
> Leslie, and Kimberly use Nematodes:
> 
> ...


I'm in Florida where the bugs are huge and plentiful. I hate them all! We are having a bad year with fleas. My vet said everyone is complaining and the topicals don't seem to be doing the job alone this year. We called in fleabusters. They came on the 7th, he told me it would take 3 to 5 weeks to eliminate the fleas. I have seen a huge difference and it has been four weeks. I noticed after two. You can order the nematodes online and do it yourself. They use a salt that dehydrates the eggs and larva inside. Edibile diatemaceous earth would work inside if you are a do it yourselfer. Fleabusters guarantees their treatment for a full year.

Thanks I'm off to check out this mosquito stuff. Those things are about to carry me away.


----------



## Lunastar (Feb 9, 2009)

Pixiesmom said:


> I'm FAR from the granola type, but I've been reading up on essential oils and their flea and tick repelling abilities. I have enormous confidence that they would do the job. There's a mom at my daughter's school who uses EO's for lots of stuff, and I used to tease her about it. Well, talk about GROSS, two years ago almost the whole 1st and 2nd grade came down with a horrible infestation of headlice, -my daughter got it. It was my worst nightmare realized, because I'm the OCD queen. After fainting, I came to and started researching and found a remedy using essential oils. It worked amazingly well and killed them immediately. The whole school was calling me for the "recipe". (I still get calls every year for it). So, I'm going to make a spray to mist on her before she goes out. I really think it will work, plus it smells nice. We'll see...


Can you post your recipe or PM. The grands have so far been lice free(knock on wood) but with summer coming I would love to have some ready in advance.


----------



## Brady's mom (Dec 1, 2006)

Amanda, your yard looks beautiful! I back to wood also and ticks are a real problem in the woods. I haven't had too much trouble in the fence yard area, although I just spotted a herd of deer in the fenced area this morning. I knew it wouldn't keep them out. Strangely, this year we have not had as many ticks as years past, but it is probably just a matter of time. I know my breeder has her yard sprayed for fleas and ticks. My DH thinks this is a sham, but if we have any problems, I will be giving them a call.


----------



## Kathie (Jul 31, 2008)

Amanda, I love your yard! BTW, those really huge looking outside roaches are called palmetto bugs down here - that's what my SIL told me and it does sound nicer than
roach.....lol


----------



## Pixiesmom (Jul 31, 2008)

Lunastar said:


> Can you post your recipe or PM. The grands have so far been lice free(knock on wood) but with summer coming I would love to have some ready in advance.


I'll PM you it tomorrow~!

I wanted to mention to any fellow Floridians that your county should spray for mosquitos for free. 
I've had them out several times (letting them know via email that they were getting bad in my yard).
They came out in a few days and it made a HUGE difference. I told Pixie's breeder who lives 5 miles away and also lives next to conservation. She was thrilled at the results.


----------



## mellowbo (Aug 12, 2007)

Amanda, I don't know if you would be interested in these:
www.tickkey.com/
Carole


----------



## Scooter's Family (May 23, 2008)

Amanda-Those bugs are huge, we called them Palmetto bugs when we lived in Florida and roaches when we lived in Texas. My sister has a funny story. She went into her kitchen and turned the light on to see one of those huge guys on the floor. She lived in an apt. and the bugs were a problem so she had a can of Raid on the counter. Grabbing the can and preparing to spray, the bug turned around and ran towards her! She jumped back to run away, hit her foot on the wall and broke her foot! Imagine telling that story at the ER. "I was chased by a roach!" So be careful if you have to run from one of those buggers!


----------



## Lunastar (Feb 9, 2009)

Palmetto bugs my fanny! It does sound better but you know if it quacks like duck....

Thanks Beth I appreciate it. Yes Hubby is calling mosquito control in the am. They will come with the sprayer truck and do the neighborhood. Although last year the guy came out to check my yard. Like I was the only one in the state with a mosquito problem. Did find out the Bermilliads are a breeding ground for them so those are all gone now. Not sure how often we will get them out here to spray with the budget cuts.


----------



## marjrc (Jan 13, 2007)

O.k., I am SO grossed out, it's not even funny!! Amy, you are weird. Lovely, but oh so weird!!!! 

I HATE bugs, all bugs, especially creepy crawly bugs. I don't want any on my Havs, on my kids or on ME! If I have to fumigate the joint, I will ! UGH! There is no way in h*** I'd ever find a tick/flea on Ricky with all his dark hair. He has enough hair for two and it's long now. I only brush them every 2,3 days, so .. .... oh no.... I can't even think about it! And me who was always so envious of all that space many of you have. The woods, the trees, the deer. 

Forget it! Give me a balcony with a view!! :amen:


----------



## Scooter's Family (May 23, 2008)

I agree with you Marj! That's why camping is not for me, I don't want bug spray, I want room service!


----------

