I'd made it thirty-three years, eighteen of those on a farm, and had never seen a tick until a month ago. Since then we've pulled about six off the dog. Disgusting creatures, those, though leeches still trump them for sheer grossness. I'm afraid we have a small colony set up in the house now; we're vacuuming everything and washing the couch cover and the dog blankets, and if that doesn't help we'll have to bomb the house. Tomorrow I'll also take Zoe to the vet for some anti-tick stuff.
The birds are eating my strawberries, and indelicately at that. I was saving the first really ripe one for myself; left to pick up my car from the mechanic, and by the time I returned it was gone. Later, I found three half-eaten strawberries on the sidewalk.
I went out to check on the fish, and set a hand down to steady myself. It landed on something squishy. Looking down, I beheld a slug the size of my index finger, mottled black and brown, feasting on a bird turd.
Paul and I went out to enjoy the night air on the back porch. Within five minutes a sickly white opossum was staring at us with its beady glowing eyes.
Posted by JaneWe've used the topical anti critter treatments (like Advantage) for years now with apparent success. My vet recommends against the Lyme disease vaccine (relatively common problem from deer ticks in this neck of the woods). His recommendation for those who do a lot in really tick prone areas is to use an appropriate topical and add a Preventic collar when going into the bad areas.
You probably don't have a tick colony set up. That would be unusual for ticks. You all probably just brought a few in and some dropped off. If Zoe's been somewhere to pick them up, so has anyone with her. They can come in on clothing, drop and later be picked up. I've found them in bed that way. (Oh yeah, creep factor there!)
Zoe's the likely target if they're one of the ticks that prefer dogs as one of their hosts. Ticks can be pretty specific in their preferences-some have three different preferred hosts as they move through their lifecycle.
Fleas _will_ infest your house. Bombing isn't going to do as much for here either. If you do end up doing something like this--DO NOT BOMB. Get a spray. Bombs don't reach the areas that fleas are most likely to hide in, like under furniture. If you want to do a whole house treatment for some reason, you want a spray that affects at least two stages. Usually that's an adulticide with an insect growth regulator.
You then take the household spray, and get it under things as well as on things.
I've found that the less intrusive method for anything short of a full out war (lived in a colonial era farm house with a dirt basement and experienced that) the topicals like Advantage work pretty quickly.
The fleas jump on to feed, get a dose and die. There are significant kill offs in 48-72 hours without putting a toxin throughout the house. This will also help prevent more from being brought in.
Treat the cats with a topical too in case of fleas. If the cats are brave enough to groom Zoe at this point, make sure you get one for her that is also cat safe. Not all formulations are.
You can also get a number of the topicals behind the counter at PSP and the like. I find that it is not cheaper than my vet, YMMV. Email me if you want specifics about any brand I might have experience with.
Posted by: Karen at June 3, 2007 12:00 AM