Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Ticks!


Last night, I felt an itch on my back. I felt a little tiny bump and thought it might be a little seed tick like we found on Kansas the other day. But it wasn't. This morning, this is what I pulled off my back. Yuck!!! It's not one of the regular ticks I see a lot but one of the ticks I see on dogs that get huge. And it was on my back! So disgusting. I had made a plantain salve last year so put some of that on the spot. It helps with itching and healing. I need to make some more because I use it a lot. I also found a recipe for a tick repellent that I will be spraying on me and Kansas when we go outside. I hate ticks!

I do believe this is going to be a bad tick year. I have found ticks on Sandy the goat too. She gets them around her face and on her ears. And I guess the dogs are full of them and they are in the house.

Anyone else seen ticks or had them on them already? What do you do to get them off? We usually put Vasalene (?) on them to suffocate them then pull them out. The little tiny seed tick on Kansas was on her leg where the crease is at the top of the leg. And they get behind an ear or knee. Be careful and check for ticks!

7 comments:

Betty Ann said...

Oh yes ticks are bad this year!! I do a full body naked tick check in front of a full length mirror before bed every night. The tiny ones especially like to crawl up my leg inside my jeans until they hit the panty line in my crotch!!

Kristin said...

We've got em bad. I try not to walk anywhere the chickens don't go.

Kris said...

My eyes are so bad, I thought you said party line! Yep, they like it right there. When I first moved up here 35 years ago, our property was full of those itty bitty seed ticks. They'd get all over us. And they HURT! They'd leave awful red itchy whelps where ever they'd been.

Y'all be careful.

An At Home Daughter said...

We had never had ticks in all the years we have lived here (27), till two years ago. My niece and I were walking around in the pasture next to ours that the neighbor lets us use. The grass was very tall. When we came in my Niece had a tick crawling on her arm. I freaked! I checked myself and there was one on my back at my waistband. My niece had them in her hair. It turns out they are also dog ticks. I had my Dad mow the neighbors pasture because it was overgrown. That helped alot. Now around the beginning of may theres loads of them. I have never seen one on our goats (and I've looked), but the livestock guardian pups were picking up several a day. So my Mom put the Armour drops on them. Its very hard to find them on the dogs with their thick coats. Before the drops, we were using a cotton ball soaked in tea tree oil to get the ticks to let go. Then my Mom discovered she could put some wasp spray on a q-tip and apply it to the tick and it would instantly kill it.

Ugh! They gross me out.

Kimberly

An At Home Daughter said...

I forgot to say that we had coyotes move into our area a couple years ago, so we know they are to blame for the ticks. They like the neighbors pasture because its overgrown, and has a HUGE berry bush they can hide in. I can't wait till the goats can go over there and eat that bush back.

Kimberly

Betty Ann said...

LOL!! Never had a party line in my crotch!!

Linda said...

Ticks galore around here. However, even though they crawl on the goats, they never attach. I walk the goats in knee high grass and weeds and so far no ticks have found me tasty... of course that good fortune could come to an end at any time!

Sulfur is suppose to be disliked by ticks and I personally take MSM everyday which helps joints, but is also a form of sulfur. As for the goats, perhaps it is because their is sulfur in their minerals. Although I am leaving the minerals out for them to use free choice lately (I used to hand feed it to them), I don't think they are eating them... perhaps my pasture has plenty of sulfur. Who knows...