These little bastards are out in force. Inexpensive suggestions to eliminating them?
#grownostr #ticks #homesteading
Discussion
Best thing I've found. I work in the woods of Arkansas and I don't get ticks.
https://www.insectshield.com/pages/insect-shield-your-clothes
1) Deet spray on yourself / family I know people worry about chemicals but be sane about risks from insect borne diseases vs applications.
2) Around the home where you spend most of the time and children. Zone 1 in permaculture parlance, I would keep grass cut short and consider something to exclude deer, fence or hedges. They cannot travel very far from where they drop from their host animals.
3) not cheap if your on a homestead, but attempt to exclude deer from your entire property with a specific fence or hedge or combination.
4) Do tick checks whenever you come in from being beyond your exclusion zone. There is a reason monkeys do it. The disease harms from the ticks are correlated to the length of time they were believed to have been on the person.
5) may be a use-case for bone sauce.
6) make sure you are eliminating their hosting on your animals.
Now Iām all itchy thinking about it. Good luck.
The lonestar tick is terrible
Guinea fowl.
What eric and Joe said, also I have used this product with good results...
Check this out! https://a.co/d/095ZjSb
Use lemongrass soap in your hair and body in the shower.
Spray your yard with rosemary and neem oil suspended in water with bronners liquid soap as an emulsifier
Grow lemongrass too?
Planting oregano could also help. I may have heard that lemongrass plants will repell insects, but its been a long time.
You could try planting Chrysanthemum which is where pyrethrin comes from. Pyrethrin is what they come and spray all around your house to keep bugs out. The vapor infiltrates my house for year and makes my skin and eyes burn worse than cat dander, I don't recommend spraying the raw chemical but the plant should be much less intrusive.
Thanks!
I'm in southern Missouri and the ticks and chiggers are everywhere on my property.
So far everyone here has given good advice. I hear that planting lemongrass and mint deters them.
Possums apparently kill thousands of them during their grooming process.
What I've been doing is wearing the least amount of clothing as possible so I can easily wipe them off if I feel them on me.
Get into the habit of regular wipe downs and spot checks.
A good bug spray helps a lot. I bought some permethrin. It works great but I don't like to use it because it also kills good insects.
I'd love to eradicate them