Tic Infestation

Create a space for their natural predators like birds, hens, lizards etc. Manila should have plenty of them, just make them welcome.

willing to try more aggressive methods short of nuking the property!

Wish I was there, Ky.

Once when I had a tic infestation, teasers called me a spaz.

(Tic ≠ tick.)

Netmaker has a good and simple solution: Guinea fowl... GA. We used to keep them on the ranch for two purposes; foodsource, and tick control.

In addition, another biological control has a lot of possibility. A certain species of chalcid wasp selectively lays its eggs in ticks. When the larvae hatch, they consume the host tick, emerge as adults, search for a mate, and then search for more ticks. What a great system!

...and it doesn't hurt their taste in a good Pa'tal * gumbo!

* Guinea hen in Cajun.

Ton,

I don't know if this will work for ticks, but I have had good results on my dog for mange, also an insect. Also good for fleas, so may be worth a try.This recipe I found on the net from Ted in Bangkok, on earthclinic.com

1 bottle 3% peroxide

2 bottles of water

saturate with borax (not boric acid) (i.e. just put too much borax in, allow to dissolve untill until no more will dissolve)

After washing dog normally, allow to drip dry, then apply this mix all over & allow to air dry. If you apply it with dog in a bowl or tub, you can save excess & reuse next time -

Good luck,

Stuart.

I've been plagued with tick infestations for long and continuous periods until I started using "frontline" flea and tick applications. See your vet. about this.

Apply directly to the shoulder blades of the pet, in three days nearly all if not all seem to drop off and then apply every month, once a month.

The house, home and surrounding area seem to clear up after about a month. keep applying regardless if you think you have it cleared altogether. You will be amazed to see them come back if you do not.

The pet and any stray that occasionally come by is the breeding ground. Control the pet and the occasional is very far in few inbetween........Good luck!

I lived a long time in Nth Queensland Australia and had dogs. same problem there.

Best way is Advantix on the dogs every two weeks at max dosage for weight, and plenty of Guinea fowls roaming around. Scorched earth approach does nothing but invite other trouble and offers only a temp solution. You can try burning grasses well before the wet, but the Guinea fowl is by far the best solution for the grounds, provided the dogs don't eat them! Advantix is expensive, but it works. Also, wash your dogs and add a few drops of tea-tree oil to the rinse. Use neat tea-tree oil to kill the tics in the fur. Work on humans beautifully too! Be careful to keep an eye on irritation, but the tics are worst on them anyway. Alsatians are not the ideal dogs in the tropics. You'll find that the native animals and birds cope and carry the tics, especially bats and flying foxes. If you have a flying fox population, you have a massive problem with tics, but my suggestions will certainly help you. If you are allowed, discourage the bats from nesting within 100m of the house, as they rain tics. A few shotgun blasts on a regular base before they leave in the evening will discourage the bats from returning. Remember that tics carry some very nasty bacteria; deadly for humans as well as dogs. Good luck!

Thanks for all the inputs!

Have tried Frontline, it works but not long enough. Seems it kills the current infestation only to get replaced by a new wave of the pesky buggers and I wonder if they're building up a resistance! Heaven forbid I culture Frontline resistant ticks. Advantix I've not found but I'm guessing its like Frontline. I will research. Costly tho.

Now the Guinea fowl and the Borax bath... Can I get Guinea Fowl here? I can already see myself training the two to be friends and setting up a cleaning station like in some reef's! Dogs bring the food to the fowl while getting preened???

I will have to shop around. But for both... geesh looks like I'll turn into farmer Bob and spend hours bathing, feeding, breeding, shooting, incubating, chasing and god knows what else.

I wish I could track the source... I do have stray cats and the occasional fruit bat (not foxes) and yes the local breeds do not seem to be as targeted as my German Shepherds were. In fact there's a jack russel that's not as badly plagued but he's in doors mostly. I like the breed for their intelligence and security aspect as they do seem to be able to distinguish strangers from residents. The breed holds up ok in our climate as they are locally bred and of beautiful stock but since I'm not into show... just a dog lover, it's fine. The long haired variety also survives here but no thanks, I'd have even more worries diggin the damn tics out!

Many thanks and still hoping for a miracle cure all!

Cheers guys

If you use tea-tree oil 5 min before you dig them out, you will not have to dig very much at all: just grab them gently at the base with twezers and unsrew them: that's righ: unscrew anti-clockwise. The tea-tree oil kills them and they often drop off themselves. The infection and swelling is caused by bacteria; the oil is strong enough to sterilise the bite and kill the tic at the same time. Don't even try to dig the buggers out before the tee-tree oil has done the job, 5 min is ususually enough. Buy the oil in bulk also excellent for leaches, although table salt, or dethol will do for leaches.

I google searched "guinea fowl chicks philippines for sale" and got LOTS of hits. Should be easy to acquire, and I suspect they do well in your climate. Get yourself several dozen (they are inexpensive) and let them free range (no pen)... there are a few that will die, a few will be taken by foxes and such, and you will want to eat a few yourself.

As far as the source: unless you can rid the entire archipelago of ticks, they will always return. All you can do is control your little piece of the islands.

Try BioSpot it's organic smells like oranges and protects against fleas, ticks and mosquitoes. I used it for years with my dogs in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Comes in a three to 6 month supply three months is about $9.00 US.

See a local VET. After 2 shots of vaccine this will solve all your miseries. This happened to me once.

I had same problem with my dog (see my avtar). It was tough job for me to get rid of tics, they used to suck her blood. My vet gave Indian herbal medicine which was quite effective which was to to be applied every week and dog has to remain isolated for one hour.Please refer to your vet for such medicine or you may search on google.

Ticks and lyme disease are not to be taken lightly. We live in a rural area of North Carolina in the Appalachian Mountain. I think you must take action on several fronts to protect you and your animals. The guinea foul have helped here. If you let them free range they will poop on your porch. Predators will get a few. They can be somewhat noisy. All and all they do help.

We like the cedar wood oil based products found at www.cedarscience.com Their formulations are non toxic, organic and eco-friendly. They were invented for the US Army in a federally funded program as a replacement for the harmful chemical formulation. Nothing is as effective for animals as a no rinse shampoo DIP. Formula 6005 (Pet, Horse & Livestock) concentrate is a good choice. This chemical free solution will absorb into the animals hair follicles and wick to the hide giving it moisture and tick repellency as well as deterring other pests. It leaves their coat looking good. 6005 is safe to use in the garden, fruit trees etc. Since it is a concentrate it can be mixed as a personal spray for mosquitoes, gnats, chiggers, ticks etc. On quart will make up to 100 gallons making it very economical. It is safe to use indoors as it is non staining. You might even strike up some sort of distributorship for your neck of the woods.

Guinea fowl are a good idea, except there may be a problem with free-ranging in Central America. An associate raises Guinea fowl on his private island, and has a problem with vampire bats. Of course, the bats generally don't take enough blood to kill the birds, but they generally attack the feet of roosting birds, and the birds will bleed to death from the wounds. Georgie addresses this issue by only allowing his Guinea fowl to roam during the day- and they seem to understand the safety issues of the nightly lockup.

For those who may consider this issue over vampire bats rather strange (which I did the first time I heard it), here is a passage from Wikipedia:

"...both the hairy-legged vampire bat and white-winged vampire bat feed on the blood of birds...."

These species are only found in Central and South America. This should not be a problem in the Philippines...

May put a damper on using Guinea fowl for tick control...

Point well taken about the bats.

Down here we have foxes, coyotes, Coy-dogs ( hybrid coyotes), possums and the occasional owl. The Pa'tals sleep in the trees at night, so they get conditioned really fast to their surroundings. A good guesstimate is that 3 out of 10 will not make it to winter.

However, they breed fast and you can buy them by the egg crate full as young chicks. They make excellent intruder alarms.....just a shy bit off from a good gaggle of geese, but very excellent watch hens none the less.

We here in Costa Rica near the pacific ocean have the same problem with tics every dry season. That is from december to april.

On my dog I counted over 150 tics one day and every day I picked off about the same amount of tics and my house was full of them. They walked on the walls and went also on the second floor. They are so small you cant even see them. You need glasses to see them.

The vet visited our house and prepared a poison to spray everywere under the floor on the walls and in every small hole because the tics live in every hole they find.

The poison was made of CYNOFF and CIPERMETRINA together and it was the only thing that helped.

Before of that I tried a lot of other things but the tics survived always.

I hope it helps

Here is something to try... I have been told that ticks are attracted to CO2. As the pet or human or whatever animal passes by, it gives off small amounts of CO2 from the skin which attracts the ticks. Get dry ice at the local store (take cooler with you if store not located very close to home) and place it in your yard under a small tub or other good sized container which is used to hold the vapors for a while. After five to ten minutes or so, check under the tub. I have been told that this has been tried with the results of hundreds or even thousands of the pests being drawn into the area under the tub where they can be killed by the use of spraying, burning by propane torch, or whatever method you desire.

I have not tried this, but if the attraction to CO2 is accurate, then this method should prove to be a quick way to eradicate the population of ticks to the point that it is manageable.