PET TRAINING CENTER

Spring Dog Collar

July 30th, 2006 |

Author: admin

Spring Dog Collar
Dog Ticks! We have zillions! Any suggestions to eliminate them – praying mantis, poultry?

We live on a ranch in SD – the only thing I hate about it is the unbelievable amount of dog ticks every spring and summer. GROSS! I can remove a tick a minute (or faster!) from our animals but I’ll never get used to them. We do use a rub-on gel (Advantix I think?) and tick collars for the animals and I guess they help… We keep the ground cover near the house very short. I’m wondering if anyone has had any luck with a particular type of poultry (2 geese didn’t seem to make a dent in our tick population!) or maybe someone has tried praying mantis? Which wild birds would help the most – maybe I could encourage them through plantings and feeding? We have robins & sparrows around now. I would like to be more prepared this spring, if I can. Thank you for any help or suggestions!! ps I’m one of the only two people I know who tics never attach to – they must know how much I hate them! LOL

from what I have heard I would try guinea hens. they are noisy and not very bright, but they eat ticks and other insects and don’t scratch like chickens do.
you would need thousands of praying mantis to do the job, which isn’t practical, and geese are vegetarians for the most part, so they really wouldn’t help much.
as far as landscaping goes, keep your animals out of anywhere there is tall grass, and try to keep the ticks off as best you can.
also, frontline has worked well for us, but you’d have to try it and see. good luck!