Posted on 05/13/2022 6:37:46 AM PDT by metmom
Where I live I can get ten ticks on me just walking out on the porch for a few minutes. Never worried about it. Twenty plus years and tens of thousands of bites later, never had a sick day. Same for the four dogs I’ve had during this time. We’ve all tested positive for Lyme, but none of us were ever sick from it. To me this is like the current use of antiseptic cleaning products vs. let kids eat dirt. You have an immune system for a reason. God made it. It works. It needs to be challenged to work at it’s best.
Racist.
OK, what about Chiggers?
Yep. At one time we had 4 all white dogs, 2 all white cats. And two white vehicles. 2 of our dogs were White German Shepherds who belonged to the American White Shepherd association . One day we decided to make a front license plate with AWS on it. Let that sink in for a bit. The plate didn’t last a full day without one of my friends raising a fist saying…
Being married to an Eskimo woman didn’t let me of the hook either!
That’s no guarantee either. They have been found in people’s suburban lawns.
Besides, it’s not just woods. Fields can be just as bad and when you live rural, it’s basically unavoidable.
I have an Insect shield shirt and put a tick I found on me on it.
It does not kill them, but they do not like it. That tick was staggering around like a drunk.
We found some insect granules at Home Depot that you can put in a lawn spreader and did the lawn part of our property with that. It lasts a few months.
I hear you.
Don’t read it if you don’t like it.
Ticks carry some of the nastiest diseases that are very debilitating and tick season is on us.
People need to know what options there are to protect themselves from ticks and other insects. If that includes recommending a brand, then so be it. People are smart enough to figure out they can buy other brands as well. It’s the active ingredient that matters.
If you don’t have to deal with ticks bully for you.
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Isn't that bad for earthworms/nightcrawlers, the beneficial critters?
Uhm.. maybe the woods is safest. According to the link posted by T.B. Yoits:
"....In case you didn’t know, the way a tick finds a person or an animal to climb on to is the tick climbs to the top of a blade of grass and sits there, ready to grab on to what ever is the next live thing to brush by. "
https://familyfarmlivestock.com/4-backyard-birds-that-love-to-eat-ticks/
Do not sit on grass wearing short shorts!
Decades ago, I used to leave dry cat food in the mudroom for my cats. One night I glanced there and noticed a stray cat eating...then noticed there was something wrong with the tail. T'was a possum!
Never saw it again. :(
There are nematodes that will kill and eat ticks, along with a slew of other pests. I can’t spell the exact name, but you can get them from Amazon, mix with water, and spray any area you don’t want ticks. The best part is that the nematodes will continue multiplying as long as they have a food source.
I have a snake phobia, and I just moved to Arkansas with a big ravine with trees and copperheads next to my backyard.
My daughter saw a snake on our walkway last week, but it was black.
I just don’t want my dog or me to get bit!
Not sure about the earthworms, but yes, the insecticide is not insect specific.
We only used it in a limited area around the house where we wanted to control the ticks and ants.
The beneficials can have the other 21 acres.
I love possums. Wish I could get some in my yard. They are good protection against snakes too!
I have some coming from Arbico Organics.
I also ordered other beneficial insects from them to help control things naturally.
We must have 5em around our area as we have everything else, and I see the occasional road killed one but since they re nocturnal, I have never personally seen one.
We do have lots of stumps and downed trees though that make great possum habitat. Our property was logged at one time and there are lots of stumps and rotting tree trunks laying around. It’s very messy and makes walking on the property difficult as we’re always tripping on stuff.
We’re trying to clear some trails through so eventually we’ll get rid of them.
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