Ticks, Control Methods

I have done a search of DG to see if there have been previous discussions about ticks, their carriers (deer, mice), and how to control them and found several threads from past years, but nothing this year following up on any successes, failures, or plans for controlling ticks this year.

Specifically, there was a discussion http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/597388/ about using MaxForce, Dammix, and various other insecticides & repellants to control the tick population. Did any of those systems help? Are the people who've used those systems seeing a difference this year?

Also, has anyone followed the Conn. Agricultural Experimentation Station's recommendations on modifying their landscape to control ticks? It's available from the CDC website. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvbid/lyme/resources/handbook.pdf I'm wondering if anyone has put in a 3' wide barrier of gravel or wood chips between the lawn & woods and whether or not that's really made an impact.

Why all the questions? I live in suburban Northern VA in a neighborbood of 1/4 acre home sites. My side of the street backs to a "tree preservation area" - a 50' swath of trees including oaks, chestnuts, dogwoods, and redbuds. Beyond that small strip of woods is a field - the whole development used to be farmland. Our annual battle with the ticks has begun - I'm doing p.m. tick checks on my 3 boys (and finding ticks at almost every check on each kid, in spite of using a DEET repellant on them), have cleared most of leaf litter & underbrush from our part of the woods, and have spread a granule product on the lawn and garden under the trees. DH wants to hire a landscaper to clear the rest of the brush out, put down a weed barrier & cedar chips over the rest of the wooded area. But if clearing brush & leaf litter and only using a 3' strip of wood chips will help, I'd rather save some $ (and the garden beds I've got between the lawn & woods).

And there's one more thing ... the neighbor 2 houses down from me has been feeding the area deer since last summer. I am sure that we've had more deer (and ticks) in the yard because of him. I know he wants to be nature man and "help" the poor animals, but how can I diplomatically ask him to stop feeding them? A midnight drop of that Tick Control handbook in his mailbox? An article in the HOA newsletter about tick control?

Sorry this is so long ... it's my first post here, though I've been soaking up the wealth of info on DG as a member for a year. Please be kind ...

Mandy

Mandy,
You did a splendid job on this, your first post.
I learned of ticks when I moved to NC in 1977.
My experience is they are most often hiding on the undersides of leaves. In places where no animal appears to have been. So they most likely start on small animals and then climb up vegetation looking for taller host.
Do birds ever have ticks or fleas? I know they have mites.

Okay now to solutions. I'm not sure the weed barrier/ cedar chips will work. I think in your part of the country boys will still need tick checks.
As for the deer feeder, a good article in the HOA paper is definitely the way to go.
Hope you get several folks helping.
Sidney

We lived in Herdon VA for a while and ticks were a huge problem there too, so I know what you are talking about. Once on a hike husband stepped off the trail for a second and his leg looked like the beach of Normandy at the invasion! They are also a problem here in PA as well, and we have a similar sort of landscape challenge with a long tree-line buffering one side, a shorter one at the back and farm-land all round. We spent most of the summer picking ticks off the poor dog, who is at least vaccinated against Lyme, and wears a nice coat of Frontline.

Last fall, we made our own tick tubes and put them out, so far this spring we have seen only one tick. Just a couple of weeks ago I made a fresh batch of tick tubes and put them out. I really really think they are working because I have spent a ton of time in the tree line doing battle with another pest, poison ivy and I have picked up narry a tick, where last year we got a few just out in the yard. I haven't checked the dog yet though, as I have been too busy putting in our garden. I'm not doing the 3' rock border but instead doing a 3' perennial bed which may or may not help. By June we should know for sure if the tubes really are working, but as of now I'd say thumbs up for the tick tubes. But make your own, $70 per 24 for some cardboard, cotton and bug spray is a bit much for me.

Sarazen - how do you make your own tick tubes? Permethrin-soaked cotton balls in used toilet paper or paper towel tubes?

We used toilet paper tubes, cotton balls and Pyola, a pyrethrin based bug killer. I'm sure paper towel rolls cut in half would work just as well, I just didn't have any. I didn't soak cotton because then it gets goopy and gross. I did just a light spray. Next time though, I may use one of the dog's Frontline vials, Fipronil, at one drop per ball. It is much more expensive per tube, but just the other night I saw a cat in the yard presumably hunting the bunnies that nibbled on my coneflower shoots. Cats are sensitive to pyrethrins and in high doses it can kill them. We didn't have a cat so I didn't think about it. Now that I know we have a cat friend in the area, I'll use the other. I'm sure you could use the Permethrin as well, but it also has the issue for cats. I would like to find a source for the Fipronil that was more reasonable than the vets office though...hrm.

We are on 1 acre. In the fall we put out...a good 9 to 11 tubes all in the short tree-line behind our house. This spring I put out 5 more. I need to go shopping for cotton-balls, then I will put out more along the long tree line