Ticks
- Thread starter MMuller
- Start date
Mahnken
Well-Known Member
I got an automatic door for the coop for that'll open and close with the sun. I'm hoping they're smart enough to come back home at night. They've been in the coop for a couple weeks now, and I'll probably only let a couple out at a time for a week or two so that they don't go far because they want to get back to their buddies. Hoping this all helps them recognize the coop as home and I don't have to try and get them in every night.
a.s.
Mr. Chainring
There is a steep, overgrown section of trail at my local spot that you have to hike-a-bike for 20 yrds. I saw at least a dozen ticks on the end of the grass and shrubs just hanging out. I was completely skeezed and checked myself 20 times after walking through there. This is the worst season in memory.
OddTrickStar
Well-Known Member
People always ask me if I‘m worried about bears while riding in the woods.
“Nah, just lonely ticks”
Reading over this thread has me considering starting to use permethrin. Always been careful but that stuff is getting more appealing. Ticks are so nasty. When my brother and I were kids in the ‘70’s/ ‘80’s he contracted Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever from a tick bite. Really dangerous fever, ice water bath to control it. I generally try to ride without contacting any brush or grass but I’ve still had a bite treated with antibiotics. Figured it was a spider bite at the time but in hindsight it was probably a tick, waistband area around back.
“Nah, just lonely ticks”
Reading over this thread has me considering starting to use permethrin. Always been careful but that stuff is getting more appealing. Ticks are so nasty. When my brother and I were kids in the ‘70’s/ ‘80’s he contracted Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever from a tick bite. Really dangerous fever, ice water bath to control it. I generally try to ride without contacting any brush or grass but I’ve still had a bite treated with antibiotics. Figured it was a spider bite at the time but in hindsight it was probably a tick, waistband area around back.
JDurk
Well-Known Member
Guinea hens and wildfire, yes. The opossum doing something to control ticks has been myth busted.
Opossums and Ticks: An Old Myth Debunked
Previous lab studies suggested that an opossum can devour 5,000 ticks per week and save the world from Lyme disease ‒ but that's not true.
horsesport.com
SAM
Well-Known Member
They're electric! 
"Most people try, or at least hope, to avoid ticks. The tiny arachnids spread a variety of harmful diseases as they expand their range to new areas. But two scientists recently set out on a counterintuitive mission to collect as many bloodsucking ticks as possible.
“We had quite a few nice afternoons of frolicking around forests with bedsheets,” Sam England, a biologist at the Natural History Museum in Berlin, said. “Just dragging them, picking up the ticks.” He and Katie L. Lihou, friends and doctoral students at the University of Bristol in England at the time, were attempting to combine their research topics into a single collaborative project. Dr. Lihou is a veterinary parasitologist who studies ticks, and Dr. England is an ecologist who studies electricity and electroreception.
The resulting paper (https://info.cell.com/e3t/Ctc/I1+11...ZW36KBRc8b8h2zW94gpN73F6XX0W6SdVrD2-xpXj31rv1), published Friday in the journal Current Biology, provides a new reason to worry about ticks.
The scientists demonstrate that the static electric fields naturally produced by animals (including humans) can physically yank the ungainly creatures onto their hosts. By electrically extending their reach, ticks may be able to grab hold of hosts more easily. While the finding may add to ticks’ terrifying attributes, this knowledge could also be used to improve antistatic tick defenses."
"Most people try, or at least hope, to avoid ticks. The tiny arachnids spread a variety of harmful diseases as they expand their range to new areas. But two scientists recently set out on a counterintuitive mission to collect as many bloodsucking ticks as possible.
“We had quite a few nice afternoons of frolicking around forests with bedsheets,” Sam England, a biologist at the Natural History Museum in Berlin, said. “Just dragging them, picking up the ticks.” He and Katie L. Lihou, friends and doctoral students at the University of Bristol in England at the time, were attempting to combine their research topics into a single collaborative project. Dr. Lihou is a veterinary parasitologist who studies ticks, and Dr. England is an ecologist who studies electricity and electroreception.
The resulting paper (https://info.cell.com/e3t/Ctc/I1+11...ZW36KBRc8b8h2zW94gpN73F6XX0W6SdVrD2-xpXj31rv1), published Friday in the journal Current Biology, provides a new reason to worry about ticks.
The scientists demonstrate that the static electric fields naturally produced by animals (including humans) can physically yank the ungainly creatures onto their hosts. By electrically extending their reach, ticks may be able to grab hold of hosts more easily. While the finding may add to ticks’ terrifying attributes, this knowledge could also be used to improve antistatic tick defenses."
They're electric!
...
The scientists demonstrate that the static electric fields naturally produced by animals (including humans) can physically yank the ungainly creatures onto their hosts. By electrically extending their reach, ticks may be able to grab hold of hosts more easily. While the finding may add to ticks’ terrifying attributes, this knowledge could also be used to improve antistatic tick defenses."
Gunna wipe myself with a dryer sheet!
a.s.
Mr. Chainring
Hiked my local spot this evening and saw HUNDREDS of ticks hanging out on the grass along the trail. They were literally everywhere. Luckily I was covered in 100% deet but had to pull a dozen off my poor dog. I got so freaked out that I bailed off the trails and took the road back to my car. I’ve never experienced that before. 😫
zmartene
Well-Known Member
This is why I (as a veterinarian) recommend year-round tick prevention for my patients.Everyone tells me they've never seen ticks on their dog. I believe you. But you'd be shocked at the number of "purse dogs" that test positive for Lyme, Anaplama, Ehrlichia, RMSF... Tell me how you're finding this little guy, even in a short-coated dog. A male tick is tiny, and the juvenile nymph stage is smaller yet - and can transmit all the relevant diseases.
I won't venture into offering human medical advice but I DEET myself up before I ride, even in the Winter.
I can recommend that you make sure your dog gets a regular flea/tick preventative - a monthly oral one is best. (Bring your dog to me and I'll talk for an hour about it with you). And vaccinate them for Lyme - it's an extra layer of protection.
/soapbox
Mahnken
Well-Known Member
my dog gets the simpatico trio every month. I really never see ticks on him, but the neighbor's dogs pick them up daily.
zmartene
Well-Known Member
Simparica Trio is what I give my dog. Can't recommend it highly enough
SAM
Well-Known Member
Yes, what I give my dogs too. No ticks. Timing is such that, if they bite, they die and fall off before disease is transmitted.
MMuller
Well-Known Member
Vectra was recommended. After each monthly application my dog def seemed uncomfortable. Day after 3rd month suffered his 1st gran mal seizure. Company hotline insisted their product couldn't cause. Our dog had 2 more over the next 8 months, even though we stopped any tick treatment. Thankfully it's been over a year without any seizures and we go over our dog top to bottom and remove any ticks. Beware what you use. I did notice now commercials warn about seizures. There is nothing worse than holding on to your dog while they're experiencing this.
JerseyPete
Well-Known Member
Years ago one vet told us that most meds will harm the dog over time, and that time frame is usually longer than the life expectancy of the dog.
In other words, it kills or repels ticks and if your dog lives long enough it will take them as well if something else doesn't.
I don't know if that is still the case.
In other words, it kills or repels ticks and if your dog lives long enough it will take them as well if something else doesn't.
I don't know if that is still the case.
Karate Monkey
Well-Known Member
How are they doing? The farm behind us used to have a coop of Guinea Hens, and they were the insect destroyer brigade. Just moving along, backyard to backyard, munching on bugs.
They deffo had an internal schedule, we always saw (heard) them around 2:00 in the afternoon. It was fun watching the feral cats sitting in the grass, wondering, "can I take one of them".
You wouldn't, not until it's engorged/embedded. They make shedding/tick combs that are super effective. Outside of a handful of cats/dogs, the overwhelming majority LOVE being groomed with them.
Mahnken
Well-Known Member
I'm down to 6 after starting with 8. One was picked off by a hawk within two hours the very first time it was free roaming. The other 7 were in the coop when it happened. I watched it from the kitchen window a few hundred feet away. By the time I got out of the house and started heading down there, I saw the hawk fly out of the tree into the woods. Couldn't tell if he was carrying anything. So he either took him, or the guinea got away hurt and died in the woods somewhere. Number 7 just went missing during the day, no idea what happened to him. There was 7 when they left the coop in the morning, and 6 when they went in for the night. I left the small coop door open that night hoping he'd show up, but all that did was let the guineas out early the next day to wake me up at 445am.
Other than that, they're pretty great. I really get a kick out of them. They're annoyingly loud and just roam around making noise and eating bugs all day. I don't think they've really realized they can fly yet, and they haven't quite figured out fences. It's like they just don't see them. The other night I had to chase them around my neighbors maze of a fence system because they couldn't figure out how to get out on their own. Took a half hour to get them into their coop at 9pm. I'd be willing to bet number 7 is probably just stuck behind a fence somewhere still trying to get out. Not sure what I'm gonna do when we go on vacation. The coop door opens and closes with the sun, but half the time they are too dumb to get in there before the sun goes down. So I have to go out there and let them in. I don't want to make my neighbor worry about that every night, so I might just keep the door open whenever we're on vacation so they don't get stuck outside over night.
Sometimes they follow me around. Won't let me touch them, but I guess they like me enough to hang around with me. Or they just want me to put more food in their feeder.