Ticks

Yesterday I pulled a tick off my daughter just in the nick of time. My neighbor has also found 2 on his dog in the past week. I was curious if the rumor was true that there will be a tick perimeter treatment offered similar to the milky spore treatments? Also, my house is right next to "protected wetland and some other common area with trees & bushes. Will a perimeter treatment be effective? Thanks much!!

 

I don't know the answer to your question, but I am going to post a tick related issue. They have Lyme disease vaccinations for dogs (don't know about cats). Our next door neighbors dog in our old house (6 blocks from where we live now) caught Lyme disease and it was awful-he had almost like arthritis symptoms. And the dog next door to where we live now caught Lyme disease last summer. We've had our dog vaccinated a few years ago and updated every year, and probably pull 1-2 ticks per week off of him. Just a note on that...

 

I have not heard anything about offering perimeter tick treatments.

Now about the tick found on your daughter. If you were able to readily see it, it is probably not a deer tick. Deer ticks are about the size of the letter M in the word DIME on a 10 cent piece.
Dog ticks are a bit larger, about the size of the ME in DIME.

Here's a page that will give you some ideas of the size of ticks, and what they look like: http://www.ent.iastate.edu/imagegal/ticks/

Here's a page that will answer some of your questions, and give you ideas on how to control ticks: http://www.uky.edu/Agriculture/Entomology/entfacts/struct/ef618.htm

The best way is to insure that the grass around your home is cut short (normally 3 inches for fescue), and when out and about, keep your kids away from any tall grass along the walking paths.

Now you can't do much about the common area and wetlands behind your home, all you can do is keep your kids out of that area, which is a good idea anyway.

A barrier treatment will work only until the insecticide is washed away by rain or lawn watering. However, these and reqular lawn mowing will keep ticks from your yard.




Neil Z.
Resident since 1999

 

From the info I found online yesterday, and in showing it to my husband last night (I have it in a ziploc ) , it appears to be a deer tick in the nymph stage. Yes, it is very tiny and I probably wouldn't have seen it otherwise but my daughter was washing her hands and she felt it crawling on her arm - luckily she came and told me and I was able to remove it.

Our grass is kept short and she is not allowed to go into the "woods". Guess we'll just be extra vigilant in checking her daily for ticks.

Thanks for the info.

 

Growing up Ticks were just something that we got used to. If you play in or near the woods you will get ticks. We used to find them on our dog constantly. Did not matter if we used the flee and tick shampoo. You just kinda learn to check yourself over when you've been in the area. We used to brush our dog when we brought her in. This generally got most of the ticks. Sometimes they like the ears and under the legs. Ticks tend to like dark moist areas from what I understand.

They get really nasty when they have filled up and are about to fall off. We just use a match and burn them. The big thing is to get them before they get their head under the skin.

 

As someone who's dealt with Lyme disease, I've learned a thing or two about ticks. As Lostsould stated, the old adage was to worry about the head getting under the skin, but when Lyme disease is a concern, the immediate goal is to remove the tick as soon as possible by plucking off the body. The old tricks of using a match or covering in vaseline to get the tick to release could hasten the transfer of the Lyme disease.

The nymph deer ticks travel by host, usually mice at this stage. They do not seek out hosts but attach by chance encounters. So as Neilz stated, keeping your yard clean and removing leaves, old firewood, places mice like, is the best defense.

 

We found the same type of tick in the same stage on our stairs last weekend. Those things are just gross. The dog will definitely be vaccinated!

 

My husband pulled a small deer tick off of him earlier this week, then got an inflammation at the site of the bite. He happened to be at the doctor yesterday and mentioned the bite to him. The doctor told him that a Lyme disease carrying tick had to be attached for more than 36 hours to release the disease. Don't know if that's true or not, but thought I'd pass it on.

 

Oh, he also said that what transmits the Lyme disease is the tick eating until it is completely full, then regurgitating (nice, huh).

 

FYI one of the links listed earlier on ticks specified 24 hours- not 36. Don't know who is right- but wanted to put it out there.

 

24 or 36 hours? I'd just as soon get them off of me in 24 seconds or less! In this area of the country where ticks and their hosts are prevalent and winters are not cold enough long enough to damage them one must get into the habit of doing "tick checks" EVERY evening.

Teach your children to check themselves in the tick , behind ears and in hair)when they bathe or put on jammies. If they continue to live in VA. this is a good live skill to have.

The Center for Disease Control has tons of information on Ticks and tick borne diseases.

Go here: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/lyme/index.htm there are severalo more links off of that page