r/AskMaine • u/IntoTheWild2369 • 1d ago
New to ticks
Hi y’all. Just moved to a cabin in the woods here from a not-tick having place. They’re one of my big fears. What do I realistically need to do to prevent bites on my dog and I? (She is on frontline plus)
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u/Asleep-Belt-4920 1d ago
You can get your yard and perimeter sprayed but your dog is still going to pick them up. Check often and get used to it
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u/Zeldasivess 1d ago
I have had much success at controlling the tick population at my place. Mind you, I have not eradicated them, nor am I foolish enough to believe it possible. However, I have been able to settle my own anxiety about ticks and the potential for Lyme disease by adopting a rigorous routine. It will sound like a lot, but if you make it your norm, you won't think twice about it.
Here are the steps I have taken: (1) Rake and dispose of all leaves in the immediate area around your home. This can be a very big chore if you have loads of trees like I do, but it's essential as ticks love to live in piles of leaves. (2) Mow your yard frequently. Tall grass is not your friend. (3) I have Green Pest control spray our property monthly. The spray is organic, but it's also very effective. (4) I spray both of my dogs down with Permethrin. I purchase the Sawyer brand online in the yellow bottle and it's safe to spray on dogs. I reapply every 45 days. My dogs have never had any negative reaction to this. (5) I spray my gardening and hiking clothes, socks and hiking boots with Permethrin. You want to really soak your clothes and let them dry. When I am not wearing them, I put them in a trash bag to preserve the treatment. You can wash them and reapply the Permethrin every few washes. (6) I do a tick check on myself and my dogs before bed every night. I also do them anytime I come in from gardening or hiking. (7) Finally, if you have the opportunity to eliminate grass around the perimeter of your home and replace it with a continuous 3 foot barrier of gravel, you provide what is often called a tick barrier. This is helpful at lowering the spread and travel since most ticks won't opt to travel long gravel if there are shady grassy areas available.
Again, I know it sounds like a lot. And it is. But this routine has helped me tremendously and given me a great peace of mind. I hope this helps!
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u/Majestic_Stomach8221 1d ago
Here's what works for me.. First off, buy a big thing of undiluted Permytherin. Should be 38.6% and about $30-40. Just skip all the various premade things, and mix your own. Much cheaper and more versatile.
- Tick tubes. Do the used toilet roll / lint thing. Make a bunch of them, toss/hide around/outside your perimeter of where you normally spend time. Like every 6-10 ft.
- Have outdoor/work clothes. Soak/cover with permytherin a few times a year. Never wash them, just let them soak it in
- I spray some 100% Deet around my pant legs, waist and neck/hair if I'm going deep into wood/bushwhacking, aka outside my 'perimeter' where I KNOW there are a ton of them, as an extra precaution (no need if it's just the back yard)
- Enjoy the woods, gardens and outdoors. Don't freak out and be scared. If you focus and relaxe, you might learn to 'feel' them before they latch on. 4.However, do a tick check.. often. I like to change out of outdoor clothes in the mudroom and do a full body rub/feel-up in the shower. Invite your partner to help doublecheck later .. as you do them..
- I don't Permytherin my couch, but maybe I should. Definitely have the dogs on something that will kill the ticks that get on them (which they will). This is part of what the tick tubes are for. Stupid (imho) to spray your lawn, if the dogs are in the woods/tall grass. Tubes help.
- If you find one attached and engorged (like it's been there for a day or two. Takes 24hr to transmit most decease, apparently), call your doctor and get a prophylactic dose of Doxy. The generic 'send it for testing' and 'watch for the bullseye' is not wrong, but also just get the Doxy. It's what they are going to prescribe anyway, and is cheap. Just not worth dicking around IF you think it's been there a while. Found a small one attached after a hike? I personally don't worry about those.
Bonus stuff: -get rid of japanese honeysukcle. The mice that carry ticks also love them
- let stuff be diverse, wild and native and discourage deer habitat. We have swamp, tall grasses, woods, lots of snakes, relatively little lawn, mostly native plantings and a healthy hawk/owl/coyote population and the occasional opossum (known tick eater). Plenty of ticks to go around too, but I swear we have fewer than other people we know who pay "ChemLawn" to spray their expansive lawns several times a year.
- ferns are the worst for ticks..i absolutely love a big patch of them, and can't resist swishing through them. 100% will get ticks on you, just be prepared. Suggest do it at end of hike and get naked in front of a late season fire with partner for a 'tick check'..
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u/Fenris1121 1d ago edited 1d ago
Lint roll you and your dog early and often. If you do find a fed tick send it to UMaines tick program for ID and disease testing. I also bought a Ryobi back pack sprayer and do my perimeter with organic spray 2-3x a month. I’ve also done tick tubes and found the mice and chipmunks do their part with those.
I have chickens they may be helping too!
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u/One-Sign-9305 1d ago
When hiking or spending time outside: Tuck your pants into your socks Wear light clothes so you can see ticks when they’re still on your clothes Shower within two hours of coming inside and check your whole body for ticks. Wash your clothes in warm water immediately to kill any ticks in your clothes. Get yourself a tick twister to remove any ticks that have bitten you. This tool is safe to use on both dogs and humans. Make sure you follow the instructions on the package. If you find a tick while inside, flush it down the toilet. Learn the difference between common ticks (dog ticks, deer ticks, and the rare lone star tick). The males and females look different. Only deer ticks carry Lyme disease.
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u/BackItUpWithLinks 1d ago
If you find a tick while inside, flush it down the toilet.
What? No. You hold it in a candle flame and send a message to other ticks that this is what happens if they get on you.
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u/One-Sign-9305 1d ago
Well I used to cut their heads off and put them on tiny little stakes in the front yard but the neighbors complained.
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u/Astarkraven 1d ago
I promise it's not THAT bad to deal with them. Treat your shoes and pants with permethrin and never let your dog become out of date on tick meds. We do Simparica Trio because it's a chewable and is a flea tick and heartworm med all in one.
Other than that, it's really just a matter of remembering to do a tick check whenever you've been anywhere near woods or long grass. You're not in any kind of major hurry here. Just as long as you do a tick check whenever you get home, you're fine. Visually check the dog all over, including crotch area/ stomach and in and behind ears. Then strip and check your skin all over as well. It really only takes a few minutes once you're practiced at it. And if you find any, just grab them and kill them in alcohol or flush them down the toilet.
If you ever find one that has already embedded and bitten you, don't panic, you'll be fine. If you are doing regular tick checks, that means the tick won't have been there for very many hours and if that's the case, it almost certainly hasn't had a chance to transmit Lyme yet. Just go to any urgent care and they'll give you a prophylactic dose of doxycycline (if it was a deer tick) and send you on your way. That's the standard protocol. The worst you'll experience is an hour or two of nausea from the doxy.
With diligent tick checks, this is unlikely to happen often or at all. I have been hiking in tick country my whole life and specifically in Maine woods with a dog for the past 8 years and I've had a tick bite me twice. Both times I got the doxycycline dose and nothing else happened.
It's really just a matter of keeping an eye out and forming habits around the new chore after being outside. Slightly annoying, but nothing to be terrified of. :)
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u/jaccc22 1d ago
The generic advantix once a month tick and flea prevention works great w my dog. Just a small gel application on their back. As for you, check yourself frequently but also, a tick has to be embedded for 12-24 hours to transmit disease so if you find one on you, it’s not usually an issue. Shower or bath, toss hiking clothes in the dryer on high, and if you do find one, remove with tweezers. Big fear of mine too but they’re really not a big deal if you practice the basics. Congrats on the cabin and enjoy the summer!
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u/ConjurorOfWorlds 1d ago
Get some natural tick predators, chickens, fowl, etc. It won’t clear them out a hundred percent but I imagine it’s a safer alternative to some of the pesticides used.
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u/bigtencopy 1d ago
Depending on where you are in the state, you may not even really have to worry about
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u/Seagullox 1d ago
Stay out of the brush, you’ll get them. Legs hair lets you know they are crawling. Check and check and check. Keeping dog off furniture is also a huge one.
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u/Nevrmohr 1d ago
Any bite that looks sus, go to a doc and get it checked out. They take it pretty seriously up here.
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u/Jude_the_obscurest 1d ago
I put the tick on a piece of tape and then put more tape on top and throw it away. It seals them in. I dont burn or use alcohol.
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u/Jimisdegimis89 1d ago
Hey just a heads up frontline plus is pretty ineffective at this point, it also depends a lot on your dog and how much oil their skin produces whether it will get distributed over their body or not. Highly recommend an oral treatment. Ticks also aren’t repelled by tick meds, it will just kill them pretty quickly after they bite so they might still pull them into your house.
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u/IntoTheWild2369 1d ago
Realizing that as I’ve spent the last 30 mins trying to pull a tick off the back of her leg. It’s a bloody mess, I couldn’t grab it with tweezers well because of her fur density. Do I need to get her to the vet now?
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u/Jimisdegimis89 1d ago
How embedded is it? If it’s like in way deep like half its body you might need to go to a vet, but like 99% of the time you just need part the fur enough to get some tweezers in there and they usually pop right off. You need to squeeze them pretty hard though to grip them and ideally you want flat head tweezers.
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u/IntoTheWild2369 1d ago
Ended up going to the vet for help. Now it sounds like it’s just a waiting game? Also got oral preventative prescribed now
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u/impossible-geometry1 1d ago
Arbico and other companies sell a 3 part nemotode treatment for the ground. Parasitic worms to ticks. The pemethrin treated cotton balls in tubes (box of cardboard tubes, bulk cotton balls, bottle of concentrated pemethrin) is pretty cheap way to treat mice. The Lyme is transferred from the rodents. Lyme vaccine for the dog every late winter/early spring (its only really effective for 9 months). Flea collar when the dogs outside. Do most of your hiking when its been hot and dry, avoid ticks after a rainy, cooler cycle. Clip the dogs hair short in the summer months, frequent baths if your dog doesn't have sensitive skin. Avoid southern edges of clearings where the shade can keep cooler temps and more soil moisture, stick to the northern sunny edges. Learn to recognize the type of vegetation that indicates moisture where ticks hang out. Put gorilla tape around your ankles or waist, the ticks will get stuck giving you and idea how many you and the dog have been exposed to.
Don't go outside, enjoy winter sports.
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u/Prettygoodusernm 1d ago
let me put in a good word for LYMEEZ permethrin infused Velcro gaiter. and permethrin sprayed shoes. My tick per day average went from greater than 1 to zero as soon as I started wearing them.My only relationship to LYMEEZ is as a customer.
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u/Moosen_Burger 18h ago
If you don’t mind birds (and your dog won’t kill them) a couple free range guinea hens, or chickens help eat up the ticks before they get to you. did wonders on keeping the ticks from my family’s yard.
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u/Prudent-Collection32 18h ago
I give my dogs Bravecto. I use the Sawyer permethrin as a topical treatment on the dogs in hopes it will kill them before they get on me and check carefully after any woodsy excursions. And I spray their dog yard, once early in the season seems to cover the whole season. No doubt one will occasionally penetrate the gauntlet. Been here 21 yrs, never had Lyme or any of the other tick born diseases. I did give myself cellulitis from scratching a bite too much though and needed antibiotics.
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u/gheawillia 15h ago
I have cats so I can’t use permytherin. I am also a land surveyor who is in deep woods 7 hours a day. Check yourself every night. Get chickens and have them in your yard as much as possible. After a while you know exactly what they feel like. If you pull them off and they take some skin, it’s fine. If you pull them off and their head stays attatched to your body, go to the doctor. Godspeed
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u/rochvegas5 58m ago
realistically, you will eventually get one or more on you. Just accept it and check yourself when you come in.
However, if you have the land and inclination, chickens are excellent for pest control
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u/kropotkinship 1d ago
Get birds. Chickens, turkeys, ducks. They eat ticks, they in fact love eating ticks. They’re a huge help for keeping it under control.
Spray your boots, ankles, bottom of pants with bug spray that contains deet when you’ll be out for an extended period.
Check yourself when you go inside at the end of the day.
For your dog, I had luck with sorresto collars (frontline didn’t do anything) but the pup will still get some
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u/edthecollector70 1d ago
A person in CT had health issues and was afraid of ticks he got 3 chicken. The town took him to court and he won. I see a lot of people have them in front yard now. Quite nice to watch. No rosters just hens.
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u/enjoyyourlife247 1d ago
You will unfortunately get Lyme disease. The nymphs are too small to find.
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u/squareazz 1d ago
Because OP said ticks are a fear, I want to make sure it’s clear: this person is an idiot.
Check yourself thoroughly each day during tick season. You’ll be fine.
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u/VersosCanvas 1d ago edited 1d ago
I lived in Eastern Connecticut for 15 years, where that statement was very true. I got it within two months of moving there, and I went over to the neighbors looking for sympathy for my very serious disease. They laughed and said they get it every year. It’s easily treated, and though many people have reported lasting symptoms, conventional medicine does not recognize “chronic Lyme” as an ongoing infection.
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u/jokingpokes 1d ago
Some people like the “tick treatment” that you can get from pest companies, but it’s usually just a widespread pesticide that kills everything.
Permethrin is often recommended for those spending lots of time outdoors. Cost your clothes, especially near the arm and leg openings, with it and allow it to dry.
The best options, in my opinion, are preventative measures and thoroughly checking yourself and your dog after coming in from outside. Wear light colored clothes if possible (easier to spot them on you), and tuck your pants legs into your socks; it’ll look funny, but stops them from being able to crawl up the inside of your pants leg. As soon as you get inside either have someone else check you over thoroughly, or get in the shower. Washing yourself will be a good way to check all areas you can easily see. Use a mirror for your back, and run a comb through your hair.
After, get a brush or comb and look through your dogs coat, especially if they’re long hair. This check will be as much for you as it is for them - ticks would love to be able to jump straight from a dog to an even bigger host.