I need a solution to address ticks . . .

The answer is actually in your description! Garlic.

Garlic makes your blood taste gross. Therefore, the ticks will not want to eat it. I would suggest taking a garlic supplement or eating a lot of garlicy foods before you go out. And if you smell like garlic, they won’t want to get near you as much. This method even works for dogs.

Definitely make sure that you are tucking in your pants and closing most areas where they can get in. Ticks are nasty little buggers. Don’t let them ruin your fun.

Garlic probably doesn’t work.

Garlic for Tick Control

“Studies do not support claims that garlic is an effective tick repellent, reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in their ‘Tick Management Handbook.” The North Carolina State University-North Carolina A&T State University Cooperative Extension as well as Purdue University confirm this. MedlinePlus, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health, agrees there is weak scientific evidence of garlic’s effectiveness to repel ticks and that further and better-designed studies are needed.”

The only solution (and we are at the epicenter of Lyme disease so we fear the Lyme ticks) is protective clothing and a body search at the end of the day.

Long pants tucked into socks and boots, long sleeves, hoodie with hood up. When you get home, have someone check the back of your neck and hair after you have stripped and tossed the clothes into machine. Make sure you look under your armpits and around groin area.

We are now concerned also about erlichiosis and babesiosis.

@crisw I do eat a lot of garlicy food and when I go hunting or hiking, I find that I have fewer ticks than any of the people I am with. I don’t know if garlic is the reason this happens, but I do know people that have professed to it working.

Unfortunately, there’s no good solution. I’ve had people swear that sprinkling flowers of sulfur on their boot and pants works, but I’ve had no luck with it. Just changing out clothes, showering, and tick checks.

I should add that a friend of mine came rushing up here a few weeks ago. He was frantic, having tried to remove a tick under his chin and left half of it attached still. I went to work with a tweezers and finally got the residual tick but yanked a lot of chin whiskers out too.

OK, let me clarify a bit . . . I wear heavy socks and boots. I wear pants tucked into boots and I wear gaiters over that. I wear a hat, I wear long sleeves. I do thorough tick checks of me and the dog before entering the vehicle. I have tick tweezers on my key ring for use on the dog in the field. The dogs have Frontline. I wash the clothes immediately, I take a shower and do another tick check. I kill (by fire) the ticks I pull off.

Then, say two days or four days later, I suddenly have another tick walking down my arm. Garlic doesn’t work for me. I know military friends who tell me they eat match heads (not proven to the best of my knowledge).

I too live in a heavy tick area . . . and, while I am concerned about the tick as a vector of disease, I am sick and tired of jumping every time my skin crawls. My Dad always used sulfur powder on pants and boots (but it was for chiggers more than ticks).

There has to be something . . .

@Kayak8: When you discover that something, let me know soonest.

Have you tried checking periodically while you’re out? They’re such slow-moving creatures, you might have luck stopping every 20 minutes or so and checking your clothes. The only other thing I can think of is avoiding brushing by tall grasses and other plants where they tend to hang out.

From what I know, Frontline doesn’t repel ticks, but it keeps the ticks from biting your dog because they don’t taste good, and it kills them if they do bite. So, your dogs might have ticks on them which then drop off in your car or in your house.

Similarly, the deet might keep ticks and other insects from wanting to bite you, but ticks grab onto any animal that passes by—they don’t have time to tell if you’re going to taste good or not. They might grab on even if they end up not wanting to eat you after all.

Good luck!

@gailcalled Will do!
@Anemone My dogs and I do search and rescue. We have to go where the cops think the body is regardless of grass height, briars, fence lines, or any other place I would rather not be. With navigation and regular communication with base and watching the dog’s behavior and monitoring the wind, stopping for a tick check along the way hasn’t been practical so far (I am willing to try anything!).

Bring a covey of guinea fowl with you. They eat ticks.

I am going to ask my doctor to write a letter indicating that I need a companion guinea hen and I will carry her with me everywhere!

@Kayak8: Because they are very dim bulbs. I suggest that you take several with you. Perhaps the dog can carry one in each saddle bag.

(My sister had a round dozen, but systematically the foxes and coyotes picked them off with no difficulty. Now there’s only a pile of bones and lots of feathers.)

What kind of search and rescue? What kind of dog? It’s a noble undertaking.

@gailcalled Search and rescue for living humans and human remains. I have two dogs (a labradoodle who is my certified dog and a German Shepherd who is a trainee).

The garlic does work; it’s the sulphur smell.

In addition, the US military has tested extracts of yarrow and found it at least as effective as deet in repelling bugs. In my experience, it works on ticks.

Thanks @incendiary_dan Where might one find extracts of yarrow? If it were later in the season, I have yarrow in my yard, but alas it does not help me now!

I have yarrow growing in high summer also. How do you extract the extract from the plant?

I just make them myself. Otherwise, I don’t know where to get it. You might be able to find yarrow leaves and flowers to make your own extract. I know some places sell the roots, but I don’t know if it’s as good for the extracts.

To make a tincture of yarrow, which is what I use for bug spray, fill a glass jar loosely most of the way with dried leaves and/or flowers, and then fill it with vodka. Let it sit for a few weeks in a spot away from sunlight. Keeps the bugs off of me just fine that way.

Also, that tincture is good for cuts and burns. I usually spray some onto any wounds I get. An old name for yarrow is sanguinary, because it’s a pretty damn good stiptic. Roman legions used to spread the seeds wherever they camped.

@incendiary_dan: Do you drink it or apply topically?

Topically. Just like bug spray.

Too bad.

And today I did spot about 6” of fresh new foliage out. That means I can hang and dry the leaves now.

This makes me think I will just spray it on clothing rather than skin . . .

“Extract is an extract of the yarrow plant, Achillea millefolium, supplied in polypropylene glycol”

Isn’t that anti-freeze? No wonder it caused problems.

Worst that can happen with spraying a yarrow tincture on your skin is the alcohol drying you out.

@incendiary_dan

Search as I might, I cannot find any military studies on yarrow- do you have a link?

I did find this which was not reassuring- and this study used an extract in water. This study did find it somewhat effective against mosquitoes, though.

This study on tick repellents did use an alcohol extract, but yarrow didn’t work very well. This was interesting, though- “The most pronounced effects were observed for the oils of citronella, cloves and lily of the valley. They possessed repelling activities of the same magnitude as the reference repellent DEET” So that might be some valuable info- but clove oil is pretty toxic.

@crisw Not immediately available. I got that info from another source, so I’ll see about tracking down the original source.

For the first link, I don’t see how the reaction of lettuce cells to yarrow can be used for anything other than telling how lettuce cells react; I vaguely remember them not being plants that cooperate, and I know many plants exude phytochemicals into their environments to discourage certain others. Really doesn’t say anything about how human cells react.

I just also noticed that in the middle of the paragraph from the link @Kayak8 found it says “alcoholic extracts of dried leaves and stalks of A. millefolium did not produce a phototoxic response”.

I discovered something last night (after our day in the woods yesterday). I keep being awakened by this skin crawling feeling (some are ticks and some are just me freaking out). Last night, without really thinking, I reached for the lint roller on my bedside table (wore black slacks to work on Friday). I ran the thing over where I felt my skin crawling (including my back which is hard to reach). Rather than knocking them off me (where I then have to hunt them down in the dark), the lint roller picked up each tick (the ones that were really there). I didn’t have to touch them and it held them firm and flat while I pierced their little hearts with a pin. This strategy obviously doesn’t work if they are imbedded (none were), but I feel strangely happy that I came up with SOMETHING!

@Kayak8 That is an awesome trick!

@Kayak8: How many showed up on the lint roller? And were they the tiny Lyme ticks? If so, you must have the skills of a surgeon.

@gailcalled I got 5 over the course of the night. They were all dog ticks. The thing about the lint roller is that it gets them before their heads are imbedded and it would get the tiny ones as well. I would not stick them through the heart—I would just let them remain stuck on the tape as I folded it closed over them.

The other thing we used to do at GS Camp that I am starting to do . . . if they are loose ticks, they just die, but if they have been imbedded, I remove them, put them between two pieces of tape and mark the date and victim on the outside of the tape along with body location from which it was removed. That way, if there is a problem later, confirming a diagnosis is easier.