Does any one know had to get rid of ticks. Herbal (homemade) recipies...etc Thanks

-- Stephen D. Hill (ukph@edsamail.com.ph), April 13, 2001

Answers

Ticks... from where? The yard, pets, the house??? It all depends on what you are talking about, hun!

Pennyroyal with sage should keep them from the pets, make a strong tea from it and bathe them with it... Get it down to the skin and rub it in. Dry them off after as best you can. Also, feeding garlic (only one of mine will eat a clove of it, but there are pills, or you could put a little garlic powder in the food.

For the house, find someone who smokes. Use ash and tobacco, dish soap, a little cayenne and a little garlic powder. Put all but the dish soap in a pot of water and bring to a boil to make a very strong tea. Put into a sprayer with a little soap, and spray around the foundation of the house. It has to dry to be safe for kids and animals, but is not deadly even when still wet. That should keep most creepy crawlies out of the house, including ants, earwigs and roaches in addition to ticks.

For the yard, there really isn't anything you can really do that is practical. The 'foundation tea' will kill off some plants, so that wouldn't be safe. But, keep the weeds, grass, etc. mowed short close to where the kids and pets play, and that will help a great deal. Also make sure there is somewhere for the dogs to take a dust bath... just like chickens - it will keep most bugs off.

If you find any on the kids or the pets, pinch them off and put them into a jar of gasoline or kerosene. (My daughter used to think it was cute to pull them off and drop them on the floor... NOT GOOD!!!! - even outside. Just drown the little critters...)

-- Sue Diederich (willow666@rocketmail.com), April 13, 2001.

I look foward to see other peoples suggestions. Right now I pull 3 to 5 ticks off my dog a day and it is not even tick season yet. Yikes! BTW, he has that stuff you put on their backs once a month on him.

-- Storybook Farm (mumaw@socket.com), April 13, 2001.

If your place allows, try gunieas. Two summers ago I was pulling 40 ticks a day off my dog. 5 a day off me. I got guineas and it dropped last summer to 12 ticks every other day from my dog. Hopefully fewer ticks this year!

-- BB (mhjaj@mailcity.com), April 13, 2001.

Free range chickens will also eat ticks. When we lived in Canyon, our neighbor was always complaining about ticks and we never saw any, presumably because we had hens on patrol every day.

-- mary, texas (marylgarcia@aol.com), April 13, 2001.

I was just researching somewhere to buy half a ton or so of DE to use as a horse dewormer this summer, and one site was proposing that DE was also good in controlling ticks. They advocated putting it in a dust wallow for birds (ostriches, in this case) and allowing them to self administer it against skin pests, and I have heard it being used on carpets against flea infestations, so possiblly using some applicator with a narrow tip, like a ketchup bottle, and dispensing it at the base of the dog's hair and working it in by hand would help.

They say that it won't penetrate or cut the skin on people, so I'd assume the same for dogs, and if they lick it off and ingest it, it's totally non-poisonous and may also help in controlling internal parasites. I know I've given it to my old dog in her food, and she hasn't had worms in years.

-- julie f. (rumplefrogskin@excite.com), April 13, 2001.

I've been using food grade diatomaceous earth for a long time. I feed it to all my livestock and housepets. It deworms them and I haven't seen a flea on the dogs since I've been using it. Haven't seen ticks, either, but I free range my poultry, and they eat anything that crawls. They may also be eating the fleas. DE can be hand fed or free fed. You can't overdose, but if you don't feed enough, it won't do the job. For hand feeding, different species get different amounts.

Parasites and insects do not become immune to DE 'cause it's not a poison. It slits the insects skin and dehydrates them.

I sprinkle DE in my poultry pens so there's no odor. I also periodically leave piles of DE around for the birds to dust bathe. They've never had mites. And of course, I mix the DE into their feed.

FILTER grade DE is heated/treated for swimming pools. It won't kill insects, but could kill your critters.

Food grade DE is available in feed stores and organic garden centers. You don't have to purchase tons of it. It's available in 8 ounce shaker cans and various sizes up to 50 pounds. My feed store carries various sizes up to 8 pounds and orders the 50 pound bags for me. It's great for the fire ant hills; works in a short time to kill those miserable critters.

I had tried two different products the vet had for fleas/ticks (the kind you dribble on their withers/neck) and neither worked! Some folks do have success with it, tho.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), April 13, 2001.

Our pet store sells a tablet that is garlic and brewers yeast that works well to keep off ticks and fleas. They bite but don't stay on. We also sell something called "Ticked Off" that looks like a spoon with a pie wedge taken out. It works really well at removing ticks already attached. I used it on myself and the tick came off. Head and all. I had Guineas but they made too much noise for me. I always put "Skin So Soft" by Avon on before going into the woods. It works to keep off ticks and other biting insects.

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), April 13, 2001.

2 years ago we were over run with ticks here. Got 5 guinea hens (am down to 3 now), and have only seen 1 tick since then. No mice in the house this past winter either!

-- Eric in TN (eric_m_stone@yahoo.com), April 17, 2001.