[cowpony]

Yesterday Galen was acting unusually headshy. I assumed he was just in a squirmy mood and thought no more of it. Then, last night, I was brushing Galen's top-not and found three ticks embedded in his scalp. Ugh! Spring and fall, when the weather is chilly and damp, are always really bad for ticks in my area. I guess the few brief rainstorms and the drop to autumn temperatures, has woken up the fall crop. Yuck.

He has very thick hair, so I had to carefully part the strands to see the ticks. Then, of course, as soon as I got out my tick remover Galen started squirming and biting at the tick remover, and I would lose track of the tick. It was very frustrating for both of us. Finally I just dosed him with a tube of Frontline left over from Pogo and went to bed. (Galen has just barely reached the bottom weight range for Pogo's dose.)

This morning I checked again and found a couple more ticks. At least these ones were no longer waving their little legs at me. I was easily able to extract them with the tick remover. Galen seemed less bothered by me working on them this morning, too.

 

[PeggyTheParti]

Ack! Not a job for the squeamish.

 

[Kunuz]

Yesterday Galen was acting unusually headshy. I assumed he was just in a squirmy mood and thought no more of it. Then, last night, I was brushing Galen's top-not and found three ticks embedded in his scalp. Ugh! Spring and fall, when the weather is chilly and damp, are always really bad for ticks in my area. I guess the few brief rainstorms and the drop to autumn temperatures, has woken up the fall crop. Yuck.

He has very thick hair, so I had to carefully part the strands to see the ticks. Then, of course, as soon as I got out my tick remover Galen started squirming and biting at the tick remover, and I would lose track of the tick. It was very frustrating for both of us. Finally I just dosed him with a tube of Frontline left over from Pogo and went to bed. (Galen has just barely reached the bottom weight range for Pogo's dose.)

This morning I checked again and found a couple more ticks. At least these ones were no longer waving their little legs at me. I was easily able to extract them with the tick remover. Galen seemed less bothered by me working on them this morning, too.

Omg I couldn’t take the ticks out myself, I freak out at everything lol good job though and glad Galen is not going crazy anymore over the ticks.

 

[FloofyPoodle]

Ewwww! I’ve found that if you rub them with an alcohol pad, they fall out a lot easier, to the point that you can literally pick them off with your fingers.

 

[Liz]

Yuck. Glad you found them, though!

 

[Olive Love]

Icky and gross! Not for the faint of heart!

 

[Fenris-wolf]

Ewwwww! I am not sure I would have been able to do that. I'm glad you found them.

 

[Michigan Gal]

Get some essential oil of lavender or peppermint. Dilute it. Dab on Galen's top knot, inner thighs, wherever ticks are most likely to visit.

 

[fjm]

Loathsome things - we had one really bad year when they were everywhere, but none since, thank heavens. I do always keep a twister to hand, just in case...

 

[lily cd re]

Oh I hate ticks because they love ME even more than the dogs (how have year round protection on board). Thankfully we don't have them in our yard (thank you chickens) but I worry about them when I go out and about in tall grass areas enough that I have taken to wearing permethrin impregnated gaiters to protect myself.

 

[lily cd re]

Oh I hate ticks because they love ME even more than the dogs (who have year round protection on board). Thankfully we don't have them in our yard (thank you chickens) but I worry about them when I go out and about in tall grass areas enough that I have taken to wearing permethrin impregnated gaiters to protect myself.

 

[susan Davis]

Were any of the ticks "engorged" or full of blood? These are the females. The smaller males look much different. Tiny compared to an engorged female. IF you had an engorged female, PLEASE look for ticks where he sleeps, lies down, etc. I had an Irish Setter that brought them into the house (swam in a lagoon behind the Museum of Science & Industry in Chgo) It took me 3 YEARS to rid our old (100yrs)house of them! They hid in the base boards and the babies would hatch after the "treatment" from the professionals. I finally lied and had them come back in the 4 week "guarantee period" and that got them. This poor dog had 80 pulled off of her in one session! (This was when I was 15-16 years old) Long before the collars and such came out.

 

[cowpony]

Were any of the ticks "engorged" or full of blood? These are the females. The smaller males look much different. Tiny compared to an engorged female. IF you had an engorged female, PLEASE look for ticks where he sleeps, lies down, etc. I had an Irish Setter that brought them into the house (swam in a lagoon behind the Museum of Science & Industry in Chgo) It took me 3 YEARS to rid our old (100yrs)house of them! They hid in the base boards and the babies would hatch after the "treatment" from the professionals. I finally lied and had them come back in the 4 week "guarantee period" and that got them. This poor dog had 80 pulled off of her in one session! (This was when I was 15-16 years old) Long before the collars and such came out.

The ones I've pulled off were various sizes. I'm in Lyme disease territory, so we keep an eye out for ticks taking up residence inside. Having them reproducing in your house must have been horrifying.

My husband heard a fox out back tonight. I hope it sticks around and does some verminating. We have a bumper crop of chipmunks this year. I expect the rodent spike this year will lead to a tick spike next year.

 

[Tierna]

We had a particularly bad tick season the last two years as well {thanks to deer and raccoons coming into our yard}. Generally I don't like to use chemicals of any kind especially pesticides. But this past summer we ended up having to spray our yard with permethrin. I will say it worked very well and took care of all the ticks we haven't had a problem since. And luckily we only had to apply the pesticide once and it worked all summer.
I usually don't mind {most} bugs but ticks are another story, they are disgusting and I can't stand them. Just . . . yuck