TICKS!!! I can't STAND them! How do you keep them off of YOU?  

I pretty much knew all that. You know where I was when I found the last tick crawling on me? I was sitting in this chair in my office at my computer. My little dog hadn't even been in my lap yet!

Usually, I find them in my hair, ready to dig in. I suppose that's because one of my dogs always sleeps wrapped around my head on my pillow with me. But, I've also taken one off my leg and belly. I've been very fortunate so far this year... none have bitten me. None bit me last year, either. It was the year before, before we moved here when I found one embedded in my shoulder. That WAS a deer tick, too! Luckily, it hadn't been 24 hours between the time it bit me and the time I found it. Unfortunately, my husband didn't grab it by the head with the tweezers and the head stayed under my skin. That's when I went to my doctor and he removed it and put me on antibiotics, just in case.

I surely don't need Lyme Disease on top of everything else! I've been tested for it and that test was negative, thank God!

Here, in the mountains, the deer roam all over the place. I love watching them meander up our private road, but I hate seeing them in our yard because they love to eat my flowers and almost destroyed a peach tree I planted... only one lonely branch survived.

I spray the grassy areas with insecticide to control the tick and flea population near the house, but the cats roam farther away. The funny thing is, I haven't seen any ticks on the cats, only on the dogs and they only go out to the deck. I guess the ticks get on the cats, find they don't like them because of the Frontline, and move over to the dogs before realizing that they, too, have Frontline on them.

It's a shame they don't make Frontline for humans! There used to be a vaccine against Lyme Disease but I have no idea what happened to that. I haven't heard about it in years. Maybe it was causing too many side-effects or something. Worth looking into, I suppose. Other than that, I guess I'll have to spray my bed and chairs with DEET!

I figured as much. You're a very wise, level-headed person, and more than likely would take the usual precautions. Thank goodness you weren't bitten this time, and yes you're right, that's ALL you need right now on top of everything else!

Chances are, you're correct too about the cats roaming much farther. As far as the Frontline goes, we here use pretty much the same thing. It's called Advantage.
Maybe you've heard of it? It's an excellent product...works fantastically fast...and comes in a variety of different strengths for both cats and dogs, depending on their body size.

I'll bet you see your share of deer in those beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, not to mention, overlooking Shenandoah Valley. It must be a breathtaking sight to see this time of year? But, nature being nature as they say, animals will be themselves and very often do get these little beggers transferred between each other. As owners, we can only do so much.

As to spraying your bed with DEET? Heh, I don't know about that? Swallowing it probably wouldn't do you much good either. (?) At least I wouldn't advise drinking it anyway. (tastes really yucky, believe me.)

Come to think of it, neither have I heard of any Lyme Disease cases in a very long time...but antibiotics are still available, as you say.

Hey...maybe YOU should see the vet? (-smile- just kidding-)
Take care of yourself.
;-)


cdrxo

Oh, that's horrible, AK! I hope you're feeling better! That's one of my biggest fears... Lyme Disease. I watched a program about dogs and one story was about a dog that became lethargic and paralyzed. It was found to have ticks on it, and began recovering once the ticks were removed. I guess that's what you're talking about with your dog, huh?

These tiny bugs sure are NASTY!!! I do what I can to keep them off our property, too. Every year, I spray the grassy areas with insecticide to keep the tick and flea population down and always use Deep Woods Off when I go outside to do any gardening. I've also strung fishing line across any areas of our property where the deer could just walk on in. So far, it seems to be helping.

I think maybe we're in for a bad flea season this year because this is the first time since May 2007 that I've even seen a flea! But, the lawn spray should help control them here.

Whatever happened to that vaccine against Lyme Disease? There used to be one but I haven't heard about it in years.

My dog was so ill she could barely stand, wouldn't eat, had her head cocked at a weird angle and she kind of went in circles when she did stand. She was found to have Lyme and Ehrlichia and needed IV antibiotics followed by a course of antibiotics at home. There are actually a lot of very serious infections you can get form ticks besides lyme, such as the above mentioned ehrlichia, barbiosis, rocky mountain spotted fever and others. The ravages of these diseases from ticks left her with permanent damage to her joints and some of her vertebrae are now fused together.

I once got a septic infection from a tick bite, it made me very sick (blood poisoning) and required antibiotics to treat.

Lyme disease often initially presents with flu like symptoms but may not have symptoms at all right away. It attacks the nervous system and the brain and if untreated can cripple and even kill. The lyme test is not 100% accurate either, false negatives are a huge problem.

I'm not sure what happened with the vaccine, I think it was only for dogs, not people, but my dog was already infected so the vaccine wouldn't help. Also, I am not sure if it is still around. Here's another nasty thing about lyme disease - even after treatment and "cure" it may still lurk in the body inactive for YEARS and then out of the blue one day get the host sick all over again even without another bite!

Please, be very careful around those damned bugs. The tick borne diseases can be devastating and not enough is known to treat them all effectively.

Okay, I'm creeped out for good now! I got blood poisoning from a spider bite once. THAT was no fun!!! I didn't even think about that with ticks, though! Geez!

I know what I'm doing today... cleaning this house from top to bottom! When I woke up, I found a dead tick at the bottom of the bed, where my cat sleeps. Apparently, that tick was too stupid to realize the cat has Frontline on it until it had established itself a cozy little home! Well, at least it was dead.

I'm also going to buy stock in Deep Woods OFF. I, alone, will raise the value of the stock!

If you treat your animals, the problem will eventually resolve itself as the bugs slowly die off, but the cleaning will really make a big difference too, while you're waiting for them to all poison themselves on your pets.
You're gonna be fine, as long as you keep the pets treated and after you clean & vacuum, you should be OK for the rest of the season, I'm sure the Off people will appreciate YOUR economic stimulus! LOL

Whenever I find a tick crawling on me, I'm a spazz for hours afterward! Every single little thing I feel I'm POSITIVE is another tick! It isn't, but my brain wants to think that way.

Oh, man! Now you've put bigger, nastier bugs into my head! Mutant ninja cyborg bugs!!! I guess there's not much we can do but clean the house often and keep DEET sprayed on my clothing. Of course, that won't help me when I'm in bed! They get on my dogs, don't bite them because of the Frontline, but then they get on me!

AAARRRGH!!!!!

ROFLMAO that was a right good belly laugh
Yes the mind can play tricks on us for ages afterwards, I remember when the kids caught headlice at school.. yuck! and every little piece of fluff I imagined was more lice eggs, the kids would run away from me screaming saying I was nuts
thanx for the laugh hunni and the discussion

I actually do the same thing, for DAYS after I find one of those things on me, even my own hair brushing on my skin has me dancing around like a frantic idiot looking to see if it's a tick! I'll actually wake from a dead sleep practically jumping out of my own skin thinking I've got them on me after I've found one.

LOL hiya Kitty

Yep anything that brushes lightly against the skin, I often sit here at my pc and the mouse cable is always tickling... I don't know how many times I've looked! I really need to put it into the back of the PC.. another one of those 'get round to it' jobs

I was doing that last night! My hair is really long now, almost down to my waist. While I was watching TV last night, I kept feeling the granddaddy of all ticks crawling on one arm, then the other, then my back, near my waist, then on my face, back to my arm, then... Of course, it was my hair!!!

I'm getting a haircut!!!

Well, bathing your puppy might help, but the best thing to do is remove the ticks right away. If you have some pointy tweezers, get as close to the tick's head as possible (as close to the dog's skin) and pull quickly. You've gotta keep a tight grip on those tweezers, too, because ticks are REALLY stubborn about letting go!

Usually, you'll see a bit of the dog's skin come off with the tick. When you do, you can be sure you got the head as well as the body.

Hey, I'll DRINK the stuff if I thought it would help!

I do have some Skin-So-Soft around here somewhere... it's definitely going to be added to my daily beauty regime!!!

I use Deep Woods OFF when I go outside. I started using it to keep the flies off of me (we have a cattle farm across the road... they seem to attract monster flies!), but now I use it to keep ticks off of me. Ewwwwwww.

I heard that, if you eat a lot of garlic, bugs won't like you. I don't know about ticks, though. Of course, if you eat enough garlic, your FRIENDS won't like you, either, but you'll never have to worry about vampires!

Marti,
You are too funny!! The garlic might work! Besides who needs friends? I know that some perfumes attract certain insects so aside from the skin so soft, I'd avoid any sweet smelly stuff including hand lotion while outside. Also, try to avoid walking under trees and their branches. Ticks love to hang out there and get you as you walk under.
leenie

I've seen commercials for that Advantage. Apparently, from what they say, it's better than Frontline. But, don't all competitors say they're better than all the others? I'll try it, though, because I seem to remember the commercial saying that it REPELS ticks and fleas, not just kills them once they bite. Thanks for the reminder!!!

Yep, you'll be hearing from me. I was going to write to you last night but, with my husband being the way he is, I went to bed early. I spent the day yesterday with my youngest son, trying to get him some help since he's been unable to find a job and I was pretty exhausted by the time I got home.

Advantage not only repels (once it has been applied) but DOES kill all fleas and ticks for up to 1 month, then you have to repeat the application. Four applications come per package. Once you've used all of them, your animals will be protected for the rest of the year. Just make sure that you wash your hands well afterwards, or better yet, use a pair of surgical gloves when applying.

The good thing is that YOU will be protected too, once it's on the animals.
It's a bit pricey, but well worth it in the long run. I've always been satisfied with this product, and have nothing but good things to say about it. It works!

cd

Since you're like the second or third person who's mentioned Advantage, I'll definitely give that a try. When it first came out, I used it on my cats because it was a pretty bad year for fleas. It didn't work nearly as well as Frontline, though.

But, I know that Advantage has made some advances in their formula and will definitely be talking to the vet about it. I expect to see ticks outside, living in the mountains with LOTS of woods, but I've just seen way too many of them in my house, especially in my bed! Of course, my cat sleeps at my feet and my dogs stay plastered up against me all night so any ticks that may be on them naturally climb on over to me since I don't have Frontline or anything else on me that they might not like.

I'm getting the creeps just thinking about those things!

Tea tree oil, huh? Well, as long as they let go immediately I'll try it! I've heard that, if ticks are irritated once they're in your skin, they release whatever toxin it is that can cause Lyme Disease. I like to get them off FAST! If tea tree oil works that way, sure, I'm willing to give it a try. Thanks for the heads-up about it!


I had fleas throughout my house only once. I had only one cat and it was a veritable nightmare! I had to bomb my house with bug bombs to get rid of them.

Those flea traps with the light and sticky pad really work, but only on fleas. I made one myself using one of those sticky mouse traps, a cardboard box (I cut the sides out of it only leaving about 1" where the corners are) and one of those tiny lights that come in some ceramic Christmas and Halloween figurines. You turn the light on at night and danged if those fleas don't head right for it! They jump on the sticky pad and get stuck. Works great!

my sister swore by that tea tree oil, said it worked almost immediately. i've not tried it yet but i plan on buying a bottle of the stuff to have on hand just in case. i've heard about that light on at night and the sticky paper but what i did was got a 9x13 pan, filled it full of water with dawn dish soap in it, sat it on the floor, turned the light on and left. in the morning, i had tons of fleas that had 'gone to the light' fell into the water and drown. served the little jerks right! LOL!

I'm honored that you chose my discussion to respond to, justinus! Thank you!

I did not know that fleas and ticks don't like papaya leaves! I wish I could grow papayas here, but it gets too cold in the winter for them. Actually, I do have some papapa seeds that I kept from the last time I bought a papaya, maybe I could at least grow them over the summer and get some leaves from them! I'll give that a try! Thank you for that information!

I went through a bad year with fleas once when I owned 3 dogs. I had to bathe them 3 times a week. That's 9 baths every week. I was so tired!!! I use that stuff you put on the dogs' and cats' back (up near their neck) and it works great for them, but it doesn't help me from getting bitten. I wish they made something for humans that kept all bugs off of us!

Yes, as if we dont have another job except bathing your dogs, I dont know I thought that a kind of flea will not able life well at cold region, especially it has not hair and fat which will protect and cover them from cold, not like we are in tropic region where the air will always warm around 25 to 32 celcius grade, a good place for micro organism. (Or perhaps like we are the human species there will only difference in skin, lighter and usually bigger ..hehehe.. but also with higher quality, more advanced compared to we are who life in hot region, because we loose our much energy every time, as we are sweating all the time and we are only bussy to compensate our energy or stop our sweat, the same as you were bussy make your dog clean)..ok, I choosed your topic because it place at the top and I love my pet also! see you my new friend.

Good for you, Chevee... keep up the walking! I wish I had that kind of perseverence. I guess I could, if I didn't have some really bad days when I can barely move. I'd love to walk every day to get my cholesterol down but I can't. So, I've started eating either Cheerios or oatmeal every day. Both are supposed to help lower cholesterol.

Yeah, all my animals love being outside. The cats can roam anywhere they want. We have a small "doggie door" leading to the deck, and my son built a gate at the stairs on the deck leading down to the yard so the dogs can't get down whenever they want because our property doesn't have a fence all around it yet. It's funny, it's my littlest dog that has learned to go down those steps but the bigger one is still frightened by them! My little five-pounder is afraid of NOTHING! LOL

Still, the dogs get ticks on them. They don't attach themselves because of the Frontline, but they do get on them until they see me coming. Then, they scurry on over to me! Ewwwwww!!! I hate them!!! Fleas I can handle... it's those ticks I can't stand!

Things are going. I'm not sure if they're going well or not yet. I gave my husband the ultimatum. I was going to wait until I heard from Social Security, but couldn't. I told him, divorce or counseling. It's his choice. After a day of mulling it over, he told me to set up an appointment for counseling. I asked him if he was going to go to this or would he cancel this like he's cancelled every other doctor's appointment I've ever made for him and he said he'd go. So, we'll see. I'm not holding my breath, though. His track record is very poor.