I found a tick! How do I stop an invasion?

To be honest i know very little about this, but my immediate reaction is retreat them and ensure you’ve been really thorough. Better safe than sorry, even if only for the peace of mind.

I HATE ticks!

This website may offer a little insight: http://www.med.umich.edu/1libr/aha/aha_tickbite_crs.htm

Frontline doesn’t kill ticks immediately, they have to suck the blood from the treated animal and ingest the poison, then they die. If you found one on your leg it probably got on you when you were outside. Don’t freak yet, one tick does not an infestation make!

Assume that they are, indeed, everywhere. I no longer wear shorts when I stray off the paths or when I garden. Tuck long pants into socks, wear a man’s cotton long-sleeved shirt. When you come back in, inspect every part of your body.

A lyme tick, and especially its larvae are very small. They do not all carry the disease vectors and should be a problem unless they have imbedded themselves on your person and engorged themselves with your blood. Takes about 24 hours; they look like a weird little black fluid-filled sac attached to you (under chin, armpits, pubic area, hair are all possibilities).

Get a kit; ID card, tiny pointed tweezers, alcohol wipes and learn how to remove them so that no feelers remain under your skin. Save the tick in alcohol. Keep an eye out for bull’s eye rash.

I use frontline on all of my animals, 2 dogs and 4 cats, my cat’s live outside so just before it rains I sow a granual (use to be diazinon) that’s illegal now but they have the alternative at Lowes or HomeDepot or Walmart, sow that all over your yard even up against the house and under porches. The rain will soak the chemical and the ground will obsorb it killing the little buggers. keep the animals off the treated area untill after it rains or youve had a chance to soak your lawn with water.

I got 6 ticks on Friday and my mom just pulled them out with tweezers. JUst make sure the head is out. Also, make sure that in the area that you had the tick, you don’t see a bullseye shape.

If they are on another animal they are highly unlikely to drop off it and crawl anywhere else, or onto you. It’s more likely that you picked it up yourself. Also, ticks are sensitive to color – avoid black and brown, go for green, white and red. Dont sit on dead logs

Don’t hang around under tall trees or lallygag thru high grass, either.

Here’s what the bull’s eye rash looks like: it does not appear for several weeks after tick bite and does not show up on everyone who contracts the disease.

I use Frontline every 30 days on my indoor/outdoor cat also.

Also, frontline seems to work for some dogs and not others. The best stuff is this spray made for horses and dogs. It keeps all ticks off, except for one I found that was already dead. This stuff is common and has different brands. You can get it at Farm & Barn or Sportsmans Warehouse, places like that.

For most all dogs except collies and collie mixes, the best tick treatment I have found is Ivermectin. It is a cattle dip but many many people use it on dogs. I inject mine once a month but it can also be given orally on a piece of bread and disguised with anchovy paste or peanut butter. It also cures mange, internal parasites except tape worms and is a heart worm preventive. No good for fleas though.

During the wet here, the dogs used to pick up ticks by the thousands, literally. Since I have started treating them with Ivermec, the dogs don’t seem to get nearly as many and if I miss one they die quickly.

Vets don’t seem to suggest it because it is a cattle med, but it works well for dogs, I don’t know about cats.