In May 2007, I lost a kitten.  Since I live next to an orange grove, I assumed he was lost in the grove.  I took my lab into the grove and he found my kitten.  We all came home and thought we had a happy ending.  A month later, our groomer notified me that our 4 dogs were completely infested with brown dog ticks.  After living in this area for 10 years without even a single tick, it didn’t occur to me that we could ever have a problem with them.  Unfortunately, I learned the hard way.

 

It is now February 2008, and we’ve finally eradicated the monstrous pests and this is what I’ve learned on this VERY trying journey:

 

First & foremost, ticks are very smart and hardy, and have a keen sense of smell.  They can smell the CO2 in your dog’s breath and know when dogs (hosts) are in the area or “on their way” by the smells.  They wait on the tips of tall blades of grass for an animal to walk by then stretch out to reach any part of the dog and latch on.

 

They can also smell poison and insecticides and will hide from the spray.  They can wait under blades of grass, decks, bushes, rocks, etc. until the residual goes away.  In fact, they can go up to 2 years without a blood meal and are very patient pests.

 

Ticks take on 3 forms of life:

1.     Larvae

2.     Nymphs

3.     Adults

It takes a blood meal to transform between these three stages. 

 

Once they transform into adults and get their blood meal, they then look for a place to lay their eggs – Up to 2000 eggs in each hatching.  If ticks make their way into your home – watch out!  They look for crevices in your walls, behind baseboards, window trim, etc. to lay their eggs.  They then drop back to the ground, look for a host to get their next blood meal and start the cycle all over again.  Do the math and you’ll realize how quickly you can have a massive infestation.

 

Ticks will use cats, people & rodents to transport them to a suitable host (dog), but they rarely infest cats & people.  Also, cats are terrific groomers and if they do get a tick will most often bite it off themselves.  If you have mice or rats, get rid of them – ticks like them too!

 

There is a wealth of information on the internet to help you identify which species you have and to help you understand them.  The key to getting rid of them is to understand their life cycle and habits.

 

http://www.idph.state.il.us/envhealth/pccommonticks.htm

http://entomology.ucdavis.edu/faculty/rbkimsey/tickbio.html

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/IG088

 

 

How to Get Rid of Them:

 

IT’S IMPORTANT TO NOTE THE PRODUCT LABELS OF ANY POISON YOU USE TO KEEP YOUR PETS & FAMILY SAFE.  All the poisons we used in our battle allowed our pets to re enter the treated areas after the poison was dry.  Make sure you follow each manufacturer’s instructions for allowing pets into the treated areas.

 

We learned a lot about eradicating ticks.  We’ve spent thousands of dollars on sprays, bombs, treatments for our pets, etc. and we did it all ourselves.  We consulted with several professional exterminators and they all said the same thing… You know where your pets frequent, so you’ll be better equipped to get rid of them yourselves.  The truth is it’s SO difficult to get rid of them all, they can’t guarantee success.  Most of the companies we dealt with were very helpful and eager to share information.

 

Outside:

We began spraying our yard with malathion and realized it was not strong enough to kill the ticks.  We then switched to Cyper TC (from a local feed store) and while it did knock them back, it didn’t kill them completely.  You need to apply these sprays every 5 to 7 days to break the tick’s reproduction cycle.  We have 5 acres, so this was a full time job!  After much more research and some invaluable help from Do My Own Pest Control (domyownpestcontrol.com), we switched to Bifen (also known as Talstar).  After only 3 applications of Bifen, we seem to have finally killed the last of them.  I’ve learned that Bifen has the same active ingredient as Talstar, but is a bit cheaper, and has a longer residual effect than Cyper. 

 

It’s very important to keep your grass short, keep all weeds to a minimum, trim overgrown brush and remove bushy plants from the dog’s path.  Pay special attention to where your dogs lay and travel and treat those areas heavier than the rest of your yard including up to 6 feet outside your perimeter.  They also suggest spraying the outside of your home up to about dog height.  The trick is to leave no stone unturned and spray every inch of space your dogs have access to.  We got on a 7 day schedule where we sprayed our yard every Sunday.  We also washed the dog beds the same day.

 

There is also some information online about diatomaceous earth (diatomaceous-earth.com).  This is in powder form and is similar to the powder filters used in pools.  However, they say the pool filter powder is slightly different than what they sell for pest control and is not safe for your pets…. Pay attention to exactly what you’re getting.  The diatomaceous earth is actually crushed shell – but crushed as fine as baby powder or flour.  It’s redeeming quality is that it has sharp edges, so they say that as a tick walks through the powder it slices or scores their body thereby allowing the poison to get through their hard outer shell.  Check the website to fully understand this product before using it.

 

Inside:

In the first two months of our tick infestation, they got into our house.  We noticed a few crawling up walls looking for a place to hatch their eggs.  At this point, the ticks are large because they are gorged with blood and are usually a grayish color.  These are the females.

 

Females will lay their eggs in your baseboards, the crevices of wood trim  around your windows, doors, floor boards, etc.  I even found one on an extra mattress stored under my bed.  The ultimate key to getting rid of ticks in the house, is vacuuming!  We vacuumed our baseboards and door/window trim every day and made sure to throw the vacuum bag away after every cleaning.  Make sure the vacuum bag is disposed of properly!  Vacuuming these areas of the house is key to getting the females and their eggs out of the house before they can hatch.

 

We also had to initially spray the inside of our home.  We tried bombs, pyrethrins, and malathion and none of them worked.  We used Cyper TC inside and soaked the wooden crevices mentioned above.  We did this treatment every 5 days for 4 applications and that finally worked.  We also limited the areas our dogs were allowed.  For example, they used to have run of the house, but once we found the first tick inside, we only allowed them into the carport & mudroom thereby reducing the interior areas we had to treat.

 

I’ve heard that some people actually had to get rid of their furniture, window treatments, bedding etc. We were lucky enough to find the inside problem and get it treated quickly enough to not have to toss our furnishings.

 

On your pets:

As mentioned before, you shouldn’t have an infestation on your cats; ticks prefer dogs – at least the ticks we dealt with did.  We did find two on one of our overweight cats who couldn’t groom his own back, but in the 9 months we’ve dealt with this, it was our only instance of ticks on the cats.  If you do find ticks on your cats, consult your veterinarian for appropriate products to use on them.  You CANNOT give a cat Advantix.

 

We tried pyrethrins (7-Dust), Frontline and Advantix on our dogs.  None of them worked.  According to our veterinarian, we could apply the Advantix every two weeks, which we did for several months.  Eventually, we were finding ticks in the line of Advantix down their backs!  It was infuriating because of the cost of Advantix.

 

At the end of our tick infestation, we learned about the diatomaceous earth and put that on the dogs.  I can’t say that they no longer have ticks because of the powder; it could be because we finally got rid of them outside.  Either way, it didn’t hurt the dogs and they don’t have any ticks.

 

It’s also important to remove any ticks you find on your pets before they have a chance to drop off and lay their eggs.  Ticks can be hard to see in a pet’s fur, so the key is to use your fingers and run them ALL over the dogs body – you will feel the small bumps and can then look further to see if it’s a tick, or just a mole.  Another option is to have the dog shaved short so that you can see them.

 

When you do find the ticks, it’s best to use a pair of tweezers and grasp the tick as close to the pet’s body as possible and pull out slowly.  The tick’s head is actually buried under the pet’s skin and can be separated from its body if not removed properly.  If this happens, it’s okay, but may cause a slight infection on the pet’s skin at the site.  Use some Neosporin on the small wound and it should clear up the infection.  It will leave a small scab that will eventually fall off.

 

Once you get the tick off, drop it in a small disposable cup filled with Dawn dish detergent or rubbing alcohol – this will kill them in a few minutes.  Once you’re sure they are all dead, put the cup into a zip lock baggie & throw it away.  You can also put a dab of Dawn on a cotton ball and dab the tick before plucking it out, it will release its hold so that you get its head also.  I’ve tried this and it does work. It was once suggested to touch the tip of the tick with a hot match (but not still burning) before removing it, but you run the risk of burning your dog and this method isn’t very effective on the ticks – it makes them grasp their bite even harder.

 

Don’t flush them down the toilet or rinse them down the sink without ensuring you’ve killed them first.  Remember, a tick can live for up to 2 years without a meal. 

 

I got into the habit of doing “tick checks” on my dogs every 3-4 days and especially on the day we sprayed the yard.  I always found a new tick or two on spray-days.  The ticks we had were usually found between the dogs toes, in their armpits, around the base of their tail, outside edges of their ears, on their chest and under their collars.  I learned from months of tick checks where to look on each dog, but continued to check their entire body each time I checked. 

 

Ticks also prefer white dogs.  They say if you lay a white towel down in an infested area and come back awhile later, the towel will have ticks on it.  I’m not sure why this is, but ticks definitely do like white.  I have a black dog, a brown dog, and two white dogs, and the white dogs always had more ticks than the others.

 

Again, you’ll find a wealth of information online – which can be overwhelming.  And don’t give up although it sometimes may seem you’re losing the battle.  Ticks are just very strong & smart and you need to be consistent with your treatments and you will win the battle!