Ticks

I have a small acreage in western Washington and I absolutely love everything about it except - I have tons of ticks for about 6 months of the year. The elk bring them in and leave them on the brush. Being very careful after finding the first one, I found 8 more last year, most of them already in my skin. Besides being a health concern - Yuck! Already this year I've seen 4, although they weren't in my skin yet since I've learned how to watch out for them.

In California I got chickens and - voila! - no more ticks. I don't live at this property and there are too many predators to keep chickens if I (and a good dog) aren't there to protect them. Someday, someday.

A friend had a possum living under their deck so we rehomed it to my property some weeks ago but the ticks persist. Anyone have suggestions on how I can reasonably continue working in the brush this summer? It's undeveloped property and there is so much work to be done. I just can't take 6 months off.

We apparently have more ticks than you. You found nine last year? Nine is a lot for me to pick off in a single day, but certainly not unheard of. We don't do anything about them -- just strip down and do a "tick check" when we come in. We'll start our flock of chickens this year and it'll be nice if they eat ticks, but I can't imagine them really keeping up.

Chickens, possum, whatever, if you are in a tick area, you will have ticks.  We often pick 10-20 a day from ourselves and I've picked more than that from one dog at one time, especially when they happen to walk through a bunch of baby ones.  We have both wood ticks and deer ticks here, with deer ticks being the majority now.  As Christopher said, good tick checks at the end of the day are the only real solution as far as I am concerned.  I have anywhere from 12 - 30 or so chickens at any given time and I haven't seen them have any effect on the chick population.  At night, if you walk around my property with a headlamp, you see eyes everywhere from the possums in the trees.  If you have deer, elk, or the like, the tick-eaters will never keep up with the ticks.

You may also want to take a look at the "Buhner protocol".  He is a really renowned expert on Lyme disease, and he has a protocol to follow to prevent getting Lyme disease, and to treat it if you do.  I've had Lyme disease once, it's not pleasant, so taking precautions is a good idea in tick-heavy areas.

From Stephen Buhner's site, found here:  Buhner lyme disease site


"lyme disease prevention
The primary herb for prevention is astragalus. Stephen recommends a minimum of 1,000 mg daily if you live in a lyme endemic area. This will keep the immune markers high that need to be high to prevent infection or, if you are infected, to keep the disease symptoms as minimal as possible."

Possums eat ticks? Maybe that's why we have so little of a tick problem, here. We also have turkeys & sparrows, so maybe it's the birds doing it?

When I lived in the country, we'd have bad tick problems constantly, but around where I've been the last 10 years, we seem to have a lot of mosquitos & spiders, but very few ticks. I think I ran into all of two last year.

We have always used sulphur aka sulfur.  We keep a container in our vehicles at all times with an old washcloth.

When we get where we are going, we use the washcloth to dust our clothing, feet and ankles, and our hands and arms.

Dear hubby and I were talking about this just yesterday.

He reminded me that I used to buy sulfur tablets which he said really worked and then I remember the article in Mother Earth News about mixing molasses and sulfur to take internally to build up a resistance to ticks and chiggers.

Here is a thread about foods to eat to build up a resistance to them:

https://permies.com/t/148358/kitchen/diet-discourage-bug-bites

Well for certain ticks, the best thing you can do is remove any attractions or homes for rodents (particularly mice) and deer. Cutting down the brush, mowing the lawn, raking loose leaves away from the buildings. That sort of thing can help. My understanding is that deer and mice are earlier in the life cycle for ticks and keeping them away will severely reduce the tick population.

One possible control method might be nematodes. There are certain species of nematodes that will attack and kill ticks. What's more, the nematodes will keep eating and reproducing as long as they have a food source, so there's a chance they might provide a long-term control method.

You can buy them off Amazon.

(Be aware that they will attack a long list of other bugs as well. I didn't see any beneficial bugs on the list, only pests, but I can't guarantee anything.)

Read somewhere about a fellow breeding game fowl for predator savviness.  Basically started with the meanest ones he could find, then hatched eggs from the ones that survived. Ended up with a decent flock after a while.

Last year the ticks were everywhere! Here in Virginia I ended going to the doctor to get antibiotics due to a couple that latched on and I didn't notice until they were as big as a lentil. After that, I  spray myself with a grapefruit skin infused alcohol.  I took the peels of a grapefruit, pureed them and dumped them in a bottle of rubbing alcohol.  Not a single tick hanging on after that.

https://www.insider.com/nootkatone-oil-found-in-grapefruit-is-approved-tick-mosquito-repellent-2020-8

Anne Miller wrote:We have always used sulphur aka sulfur.  We keep a container in our vehicles at all times with an old washcloth.

When we get where we are going, we use the washcloth to dust our clothing, feet and ankles, and our hands and arms.

Dear hubby and I were talking about this just yesterday.

He reminded me that I used to buy sulfur tablets which he said really worked and then I remember the article in Mother Earth News about mixing molasses and sulfur to take internally to build up a resistance to ticks and chiggers.

Here is a thread about foods to eat to build up a resistance to them:

https://permies.com/t/148358/kitchen/diet-discourage-bug-bites

Where does one buy sulfer? I don't even know where to look - hardware store? feed store - ?

So a quick update - I didn't realize how happy I should be that I only found 9 last year!!

I've begun eating differently and have my sister (the only one I know who eats grapefruit) saving peels for me.

Since I'm also fighting elk and deer pressure on my infant orchard and read that they don't like garlic either I have decided to learn to grow garlic. Lots and lots of garlic. In the fall I can make garlic braids to sell at the farmer's market. Earn a little money and make the place smell atrocious to the creatures I'd rather stayed in the woods and not my orchard. We'll see how it works.

Thank you very much, everyone, for all the help. I no longer feel helpless and without options, a much better feeling.

Tick problems are a predator problem...

As example I love to mention Guinea Fowls.
Naturally stupid barely finding their way home but when it comes to ticks they are unbeatable...

If you don't mind noise the make for any reason they are for most owners the solution and have proven that they make your area in a short time almost free of ticks..

Many information say that ticks are the top insect on their food list...

Carmen Rose wrote:

Anne Miller wrote:We have always used sulphur aka sulfur.  We keep a container in our vehicles at all times with an old washcloth.

When we get where we are going, we use the washcloth to dust our clothing, feet and ankles, and our hands and arms.

Here is a thread about foods to eat to build up a resistance to them:

https://permies.com/t/148358/kitchen/diet-discourage-bug-bites

Where does one buy sulfer? I don't even know where to look - hardware store? feed store - ?

It possibly may be found at the drug store in the healthcare aisle.

Feeds stores and garden stores will carry it in large quantities.

The last time we purchased it we bought it on eBay though it is also found on Amazon.

The mild winter here in New York has led to a noticeable increase in tick encounters from everyone I have spoken too.

At least for the homestead, there are some suggestions that a wide mulch 'barrier' can be made that deters ticks from entering your yard. This doesn't protect you from ticks hitching a ride but it might be a halfway decent passive defence. Here is a link that talks about it briefly

Something else to add!

I didn't realize that a bush on my property actually might ATTRACT ticks to it. The fact that it is listed as an invasive only solidifies my dedication to removing it.

This is some information from Pennsylvania - https://www.dcnr.pa.gov/GoodNatured/pages/Article.aspx?post=116

I saw a similar article a while back. While I've got no problem removing Japanese barberry... I do think they are being a little click-baity with their title. It's not really the bush itself attracting ticks, its the bush attracting dear and mice, which have ticks. A small distinction, but sometimes important.

I too have heard that a flock of guinea fowl are about the best consumers of ticks out there.  I will say that while turkeys may eat some, they can still overwhelm the birds & feed on them as well.  I've seen wild turkeys with many ticks feeding on them at the base of the wings.  On one hunt, I picked off over 40 as they were crawling up my pant legs.  Deer ticks are the worst here for Lyme disease because they are so tiny, and easily overlooked.  Lone star ticks are actually pretty fast crawlers, and dog ticks are bigger and a bit easier to "tick check" for.  In the mid-west, if you have any outdoor adventures in your upbringing, periodic tick checks are the norm.

Possum's dont really eat ticks, at least not a lot of them. That notion comes from a 2009 study where possums were put in a cage, covered in ticks, and after so many days, researchers counted how many ticks fell off, and assumed the rest were eaten. OF course possums in a box full of ticks will eat ticks, but it's not a large part of their diet. It'd be the same as putting a person in a box full of pickles-you might eat a bunch of pickles if that's what was available, but they probably aren't a large part of your normal diet. For what it's worth, I've trapped a lot of possums, and they're often covered in ticks. One time wifey and I took a hike at a wilderness area in NW Nebraska, and came back with literally hundreds of ticks. It was the stuff of nightmares. We stripped naked in the parking lot and picked off probably 200 ticks off of each of us.

https://www.mossyoak.com/our-obsession/blogs/small-game/do-possums-eat-ticks

Thought I'd give an update on my place and the ticks on it. I haven't seen a tick in nearly a year. I had 6 guineas that ran free, brought 4 young possums from a friend's who had them born under their porch. I still have 2 dogs and a cat that run around so I think they would be showing me more of them if they were still around. to be fair, I've still been treating the dogs and cat with topical stuff just in case they get bit, so they won't spread them again. Any time I go out in the brush I take a B complex vitamin and that seems to make me pretty odious to ticks as well. So there's my update.