Ever since the last hurricane (Wilma) I have been experiencing a tick problem in my home. Apparently the storm blew in ticks from the horse communities to our west. I live in south east Florida on about an acre of land. My 10mos old GSD (Coach) and my 3yr old Golden Ret. (Noley) have been besieged for the first time ever by ticks. They have both been treated with Frontline, shampoo, and a flea and tick collar. The house and yard have been treated twice by a professional exterminator, two applications a week apart, second application was 11 days ago. We are still finding ticks on us and on our dogs. Do I need to give the pesticide more time to work, do I need to call the exterminator again, do I need to limit the dogs exercise time to just our yard and not through the neighborhood, or is there something else Ya'll can reccommend.
Thanks
Terry

Hi Terry
Have you put anything on your dogs to repel/kill the ticks? Out here in South Dakota the ticks can get bad. I put Frontline on my dogs which is not going to repel the ticks from being on your dog but it kills them as soon as they "attach"
I have had wonderous success with this and I have tried the natural way and it just did not work for me. I do not worry about my yard as that seemed futile, ticks are hard to kill in your yard. Frontline is also waterproof and lasts for 30 days. The stuff you can buy at the "pet" stores works also but is not waterproof and even though it says 30 days, I found it only lasts about 19.

Hi again,
I hit the wrong button, sorry.
You can "google" tick repellent and it will come up with alot of options also. Hope this is helpful.
Merry Christmas
Carol Boche

You can get Guinea Hens to control the ticks and fleas. I've known people to use them and they are effective.

 Quote:

You can get Guinea Hens to control the ticks and fleas. I've known people to use them and they are effective.

Those are really cool lookin <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I have them and they help, they are also LOUD and somewhat dirty (I do clean after them twice per week)
I also lose them to coyotes and owls.

I am already using Frontline and have had the yard treated, my main problem is getting rid of them in the house. We are in the middle of a huge addition to our home and I want to end the problem before we finish construction. Although I think the Hen idea is cool and would really irritate some of my obnoxious neighbors it is not feasible at this time. Our 1 acre yard is not fenced....yet. My wife is a teacher and usually hatches eggs in her classroom so getting the hens would not normally be a problem, but we brought some home and I think the raccoons and foxes must have gotten them. I live in West Palm Beach not too far from the coast, but we do still have critters who like to rummage thru the trash and help themselves to anything that they can eat. I have seen walking catfish, raccoons, snakes, turtles, foxes etc in my yard at various times so I do not think the Hen idea will work. But I am still interested in any advice y'all can offer.
Thanks
Terry

I apologize Terry. I missed the sentence where you said you were treating your dogs already. My bad.

Not problem sweetie. I apreciate you trying to help with my dilemma. have a good Christmas and I hope it is not too cold up there in South Dakota.
Terry

In order to keep them out of the house you have to get them out of the yard. With the hens, they need special care till they are a certain age. A fence wouldn't confine them anyway, they'd just fly right over if they felt like it. My uncle had them and they always stayed in his yard, usually on the garage roof or in the trees when they weren't eating bugs. The neighbors might appreciate having their yards managed for ticks by your hens though <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Predators will get a percentage of them, it's inevitable. Babies have to be kept guarded. Personally, I wouldn't get them because I wouldn't want to clean up after them, so I don't blame you.

I live in a tick infested area. The main thing to do is keep your grass cut low, any underbrush; get a DR mower and eliminate it, leaving nowhere for ticks to live. Keep any wooded sections in your yard groomed.

I use Adams Flea and Tick bath once per month, followed by spraying Adams Flea and Tick spray on the dogs. I take them to highly infested tick areas and my male has only had two ticks since I've had him, my female has had 0. I've tried all those pricey ingestible formulas and have had no success with them for fleas and I think when my male had his two ticks it was during the experimenting with the ingestible treatments. Adams is cheap and effective. Good luck <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Ticks in the house is freaky!! I wouldn't be able to sleep, lol.