I omitted Frontline from my initial post accidentally, we have been using this for a couple years now, initially it worked very well and we would find ticks on the floor, some dead and some which had perhaps bailed off the dog, dead one's which were partially engorged but still in/on the dog. The effectiveness has waned over the last year and I find, during my twice daily close inspections, ticks in various states of engorgement regularly. Being yellow (the dog) the ticks are very easy to spot and usually they come out on top of the fur within a few moments of his laying down and I can walk over and simply pick them off and put them in my alcohol filled tick-jar; the only way to truly grasp the sheer number of ticks I find on him. He got lime disease two years ago, it was amazing in that it dropped him in three days; he went from his normal extremely active self, to me carrying him to the car for a trip to the vet in 72 hours flat. I presume that any mammal can contract lime disease? I am wondering, with their prevalence here, how much of an issue we will have with the goats, donkey, pony we are preparing for, and ticks/lime. I know right now I spend ten minutes in the AM and ten minutes in the PM with the dog giving a good petting/scratching/brushing in search of ticks and if the case will be the same with the other animals I fear I could be spending an inordinate amount of time searching them for ticks. Might cause me to reconsider.

I am referred to as "the tick magnet" in my household. It is not uncommon for me to walk across the lawn, spend 10 minutes in the veggie garden, and come in with a tick. I've gotten so I can spot a wood tick sitting on the top of a plant, waving its little legs and waiting to grab hold. I'm going to repeat what I said in the post from last fall that Claire linked. I live on an old farm with a mix of field, brushy growing-up field, and woods. I use bug dope with DEET, though I put it only on my clothing and I don't always use it. I own several pairs of the pyrethrin impregnated socks and I tuck my pant legs into them. (Along with my bug net during black fly season I usually look pretty dorky when I am out in the garden.) I don't really worry about ticks because during the height of the season I might find 6 or 8 on me over the course of a day, but I do take them seriously. Instead of worrying, I do a complete visual and touch check whenever I come into the house in the spring and fall. Clothes get stripped off and examined along with my body. I again do a complete visual and fingertip check at bedtime every night (until it gets too cold for the ticks to be active) standing nekkid in front of a mirror so that I can see places like under my arms and the middle of my back, etc. in case I missed any the first time around. I also comb my hair with a comb having close-set teeth and do a careful touch examination of my entire scalp. Clothing I take off doesn't go into the bedroom. I view that nightly 15 minutes as the dues I pay for being able to get out beyond the lawn areas at my house. When we first moved here I used to freak out about getting a tick, but there are so many (mostly wood ticks, though there are some deer ticks) that I just don't have the energy to get worked up about them. I'd rather put the energy in to doing careful checks afterwards since it takes a day or more for a tick to get seated and spread disease. I do this check religiously, every single night, even if I have not worked in the garden. It's part of my bedtime routine, like brushing my teeth. It is my understanding (and fits in with my observations here) that rodents are a large part of the cause of the "deer" (more accurately referred to as "black-legged") tick problem, so the tick tubes, which target the application of permethrin specifically to rodents, make good sense. I haven't used them, however, and studies vary in their evaluation of effectiveness. Last season was the first we had appreciable numbers of black-legged ticks, so we are just starting serious consideration of management for them. I haven't previously seen reference to nematodes as good for controlling ticks, so I did some reading. It seems like around here they aren't too effective since nematodes live in the soil, and when are ticks are in or on the ground, it's too cold for the nematodes to be effective. They are also more effective on adults that the nymphs that often spread disease. However, I did come across a fungus that it supposed to be better in this part of the country, Metarhizium anisopliae, that has met with EPA approval for tick control. Unfortunately, it appears to still be in the product development stages. As others have mentioned, keeping areas with brush or long grass mowed will help reduce shelter areas for ticks, and reducing areas like stone walls where rodents hide will help as well.

Yes , definitely those two will have problems. Apparently i remember her telling me the night she was leaving that she signed some sort of contract stating that if there was a fight like this again then its straight divorce...i thought about later andi'm still laughing! I went for marriage counciling for a few months. My husband refused cause he had issues about councilors since his previous marriage failed and he looks at them as a last resort. I personally like saving something at the beginning...no point in waiting till the end...there might not be anything to save at times! Anyways...i realized that i had alot of negative peopel coming around. I remember when a particular friend came around , after she left we would get into a major fight...and then we'ld think back why we fought..and it would be over something stupid. Then of course we realize it was her! She would come over and dig info all the negative stuff and it just oozed from her....i started to cut her out of our lives. Then low and behold she was caught drinking and driving. she left our place sober and was arrested that same night. Keeps changing her story...she's out of our lives. We've dumped others and my husband and i finally spoke about everythign last night from A to Z. we realized that we need to keep positive people around us. Not people who can't handle their problems. We all have problems...its just how we handle it. So yes, our time is spent with more positive people. My friend was the last string left hanging...:) i was so relieved this morning. She was not on the couch sleeping...didn't have see her at night. Got my routin back...my husband said the same thing as he walked out of the bathroom naked from a shower. I started to laugh, i told him we are not tkaing anymore stray dogs. They can go home to their moms! Cheers to relaxing!!!! and i'm glad for all your thoughts. I am just amazed how some people can marry and just live like that! wow!

I feel for you bpath. They can be such little stinks. Some of by cats never scratched a thing, but into adorable Siamese tore into everything. I tried catnip on scratch posts, catnip on cardboard -- you name it. I see a couple of solutions. Along the artsy lines, you could take some strands of yarn and attach them to a sort of header to hold them together and then I fix that to the areas that are already gobstoppers (I spoke the word gouged up, but out came gob stoppers – whatever they are). Then the cats can just enjoy the rest of their days playing with already cut sections of yarn and he could be a conversation piece. Yes, another conversation piece. Or you can take something like plaster of Paris or wax and form a sort of shell over that area - like a cast, but in color. You can paint it or add different colors of wax or clay. I just saw one of these amaryllis bulbs in a clay-like "pot" molded over the bulb. It looked great. I bet something like that could actually look kind of cool along the edge of your couch -- like a molded pottery patch. Then there is another solution.