It's Tick Season again

[Handyman]

And boy are they thick as very this year.

I've pulled several off the dog and I have been covered up literally..! I'd say that I've removed about a dozen this weekend and what makes it so bad is that these are babies, no bigger than a pin head, hard to see, but just as irritating.

I have a spot on my belly that is two weeks old from a tick.
I mean they are bad this yr.

Now here is the main reason for posting....

Does anyone know a old time remedy or a solution to help remove ticks ?

Now I will say that this morning, after picking off about 3 or 4 ticks, I soaked in a tub of warm/hot water and Epsom salt. within 10 minutes I counted about 5 small ticks floating around dead. I'm not sure if was the salt or not, but it would be interesting to hear if this is one way to help rid these little suckers and if there is other solutions a person could use.

I guess its time to get the bug spray out as well as start eating garlic [img]/forums/images/icons/wink.gif[/img]

[egon]

There are special tools for removing ticks. They should slowly be pried out. Other methods of removal may result in the tick regurgitating before it is removed.

That said immersion in water may find some you can't see.

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Pat]

I have talked to folks who add fair quantities of bleach to the bath water for ticks. NOT a recommended practice!

Search the web for tick removal appliances. You really don't want to handle th ticks as they carry disease.

There are lots of "old time" tick removal methods ranging from cigarettes held near the tick, hot pins, Vaseline, fingernail polish and lots of other equally ineffective and STUPID approaches.

Anything that makes the tick sick enough to drop off can make the tick discharge its gut into your blood stream. Grabbing the tick by any other means but the "approved" methods is the equivalent of giving yourself a hypodermic injection of the contents of the tick's gut (where they carry the disease organisms.)

The tick glues its mouth parts to you. You need to get the tick off before that if you can as time increases the odds you will pull the tick apart during removal and leave the head in you.

There are special tweezers and other simple inexpensive devices made especially for removing ticks.

Preventing the tick from attaching is way better. Wally World sells 0.5% Permethrin spray in aerosol cans for treating your outer clothing (cotton or high cotton content.) It is very effective at preventing ticks from attaching to you.

I treat all my overalls, flight suits, jeans, coveralls, and outer shirts plus my socks. About 6-7 years ago we used to get ticks on us but we never have had a tick while wearing treated clothes. I buy Permethrin by the gallon (use for fly rubs on cattle and other ag stuff.) I get it in 10% strength and dilute it down to 0.5% (one half of one percent, same as Wally World) and spray our clothes with a pump up sprayer. I have paid $40-$60 for a gallon. This is about $1800 (yes nearly two thousand) dollars worth of Permethrin at Wally World prices.

Permethrin has low toxicity when used as directed. The DoD has cloth treated prior to making into BDU (battle dress uniforms, aka fatigues or cammies.) Permethrin is a synthetic copy of a natural plant substance. It is the active ingredient in the shampoo used to get lice off of little kids heads.

One treatment with 0.5% water solution of Permethrin lasts through 50 hot detergent washings or a year.

It works really well. For 98-99% protection yo need to use micro encapsulated cream based DEET, a time release form of DEET that lasts nicely but puts less DEET into the user.

A bonus is that mosquitoes won't bite you through treated cloth and it also stops chiggers.

Pat

[Handyman]

Thanx Pat... leave it up to you to come up with a "solution".... to my question.. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Ah, I see I forgot to make clear the use of the time release DEET.

It is for exposed flesh: ears, neck, hands, etc. and is really more for mosquitoes than ticks but it will deter ticks as well.

Technically the Permethrin is NOT an insect repellent, it is actually an insecticide. It messes up the ticks sensor systems. Typically a tick gets on you and crawls in an upward direction looking for a prime piece of real estate to burrow in. Ticks will not make it a foot crawling across treated clothing before becoming confused and wandering randomly, stopping, and just fall off and die.

Iy is useless to apply Permethrin to your skin for a lont term solution as your body chemistry will destroy it pretty quick. However, when bound to cotton fibers it remains potent through up to 50 hot detergent washings or about a year whichever comes first.

Wherever I set up to spray clothes in the spring, my overspray kills a jillion bugs.

A close cousin of Permethrin is Cypermethrin. I buy it as a water soluble powder under the trade name DEMON. It is good for roaches, scorpions, spiders and similar critters. It doesn't stink and is essentially invisible after the water solution dries. It is safe for kids and pets after it dries. Typi9cal application is around baseboards and under sinks and such. Ok on carpets and fabric.

In the olden days pest control outfits would put you on a monthly maint schedule but now they go for 3-4 month intervals. They are using Cypermethrin.

Pat

[Thomas]

Ticks are getting worse each week up here in the northeast [img]/forums/images/icons/ooo.gif[/img] maybe do to another mild winter???

[Pat]

A friend and his grown son(bigger grey beard than mine) had a baler problem while helping me bale a pasture. While effecting repairs I noticed a big tick walking across the son's forehead. I picked it up and put in on the leg of my jeans. It made it about 4-5 inches and got disoriented went random for an inch or so and then fell off.

0.5% Permethrin spray like they sell at Wally World really works.

The difference is I buy it by the gal in 10% and mix it down myself. It is also good for fly wipes for the stock. I figured out what it would cost at Wally World prices to buy enough aerosol cans to equal a gal of 10%. It is about $1800. I pay $40-$60 for the gal. Maybe they don't make Permethrin spray in China.

Pat

[pappy19]

If the tick is already attached, try Vicks dubed on it. Usually in a minute or so, it wants out.

[egon]

As previously stated Ticks should be removed carefully.

A site on the subject and also some tools for tick removal.

http://www.placervillevet.com/tick_remove.htm

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Pat]

pappy19, If it were not a matter of serious disease I would not RAIN ON YOUR PARADE but...

NEVER do anything to an attached tick to "encourage" it to leave!!!

There are various inexpensive and effective tick removal tools for removing attached ticks WITHOUT increasing the risk of getting a disease from the tick.

Anything you do to a tick that causes it to get sick and detach is likely to cause the tick to basically throw up its gut contents into your bloodstream. The disease agents are on and in the tick. In the tick they are in the gut. When the tick attaches to you it sticks its head into a blood supply and then secretes an adhesive material that literally glues its head to you.

If you grab the tick with your fingers to pull it off you are squeezing the contents of its gut into your bloodstream. If it happens to be one on the many ticks carrying Lyme disease, tick fever, or any of a number of other dangerous diseases you just gave yourself an injection of the disease agents directly into your blood stream. NOT a really smart thing to do.

There are lots of erroneous tick removal methods passed around and they are going to get some folks sick or DEAD.

Among the DO NOT DO THIS methods are: hot pin, cigarette, Vaseline, Vicks , fingernail polish, or anything else that will make the tick ill. If it is feeling bad enough to drop off it may regurgitate its gut contents into your blood stream.

If you don't have a proper tick removal appliance you can use a small tweezer (hopefully aided with a magnifying glass) to grasp the tick where its neck would be if they had a neck. Grasp it gently and slowly rotate and lift. Don't get in a hurry. If the tick just attached it will not be glued down and is easy to get off this way. If it has been attached for several hours it will be glued to you and you will need to take time to "unscrew" it from you and still even being careful you may leave the head behind.

The good news is that disease agents are usually not passed into your bloodstream in the first couple hours but the longer the tick is attached the higher the odds are that if the tick is infected, you are infected. If a bite site turns into a red bull's eye go to a doctor. Even without the bull's eye you may be infected. Typical indications are flu like symptoms. Google to get more info.

Try to never handle a tick but if you do you should wash your hands as they also carry the disease agents ON their bodies as well as in the gut.

Google on tick removal and you will see lots of ways to get an inexpensive tick removal tool.

Ticks on me really gross me out so I spray my clothes with 0.5% Permethrin (cotton outer wear, pants, long sleeve shirts, and socks.) You can buy the spray at Wally World (on the shelf with insect repellents.) It is for use on cotton clothes. I buy my Permethrin in bulk and for $40-$60 per gal It will make $1800 at Wally World prices when diluted to the same strength. Permethrin is the stuff in shampoo for lice on kids and in cattle rubs and in the cloth military cammies and fatigues are made from.

One treatment with 1/2 of one percent Permethrin sprayed on your cotton clothing till it is well dampened but not running off will last through 50 hot detergent washings or for a year whichever comes first. The Permethrin bonds tightly to the cotton fibers and has low toxicity for people but really messes with ticks, chiggers, and mosquitoes. Mosquitoes will not bite through the treated cloth. I have never seen a tick make it as far as a foot crawling on treated cloth. They get confused wander a bit and stop or fall off to die. Permethrin is fatal for ticks.

Again, Pappy19 I wouldn't jump on your post if it were not IMPORTANT to not give out BAD info when health is involved.

If anyone wants to get a second opinion, check with CDC (Center for Disease Control, Atlanta Georgia or the AMA, American Medical Association or any of a number of informed official sources.

Not all ticks are infected with life threatening diseases but many are. One study I read showed that in a field test, 40% of the ticks collected in New Jersey carried Lyme's disease. Yet another reason I don't like New Jersey besides the smell and such.

Pat