Takes some time....mainly keeping it mowed down and if possible adopt some guinea hens to help clean them out. Otherwise it's chemical time. Don't know what hasn't been taken off the market these days. There are all sorts of tick repellent....most does little good.

1. Wear shorts so you can see and feel them crawling, if you won't be out long in short grass.

2. Strip down and inspect after being out in the grass or weeds.

3. I like to wet a paper towel with rubbing alcohol and wipe down my legs...I think it helps to get rid of chiggars. Oh yeah, we have those, too. Sorry!

4. If you are really going out in serious tick country... wear long pants, pull socks up over the pant legs...tuck your shirt in. Anything to keep them from getting under your clothes. Strip and shower when you come in, and if possible, have someone check the parts you can't see.

Believe it or not, you can get them under control around the yard. Pastures are pretty hopeless...cattle and deer drop them all over. It's the little tiny seed ticks that will drive you nuts. You can use duct tape to pick them off your legs when you have dozens of them crawling.

DH swears by AVON skin so soft. He sprays it all over his ankles and legs before he goes out and doesn't have near the ticks as he used to before using it. I use it too, when I can remember it.
Donna

All of the above;also sulfur works good . Comes in a powder form and can be applied on clothing. To treat the bites use tea tree oil.

You know, I'm starting to think that if you put any kind of oily thing on heavy enough...really heavy....then any bug that lands on you just gets stuck on your skin and suffocates in it and they're too busy trying to get off of it that they forget they're supposed to bite you....Stupid idea, maybe but I've been lathering up and don't have nearly as many bites as I did before.....Just a thought, and the oil is so much better for your skin, like the Skin So Soft stuff...I even put it on my dog!

I have been spraying thistles and walking for hours through tall grass and weeds, in the woods and near the creek. The first day there were so many crawling up my pants that I had to stop and brush them off every few minutes. I didn't last long that day. Then I used Off and I really did notice that there weren't many crawling on my clothes. They were crawling up my back and I got lots on me because I didn't put it on my skin just my clothes and mostly the front of me. Now I am going to spray my clothes front and back before putting them on and my skin also. Deet may be bad for you but you can get fatal diseases (rabbit fever) from ticks. I have always used Diazenon granules on my yard. I've heard they have been banned but I got some last year. I use a cyclone spreader and wear long pants, socks, and a long sleeved shirt. I take a shower immediately after and hide all dog bowls so no poison gets in their food or water. I don't like the poison but ticks really are too dangerous to ignore. You want to treat your yard before the ticks the size of dust specks come out. They are by far the worst.

OK, Now I'm really getting anxious. I'm moving to my acre in the woods in NE Okla. in April. The ticks are already coming out to play on my skin. I will be living in a tent with my cat, Puff. So far, it's been a fun dream, but the time is getting closer & I'm starting to think about the snakes, ticks, & chiggars. If I put poison on & around the spot where my tent will be, will the poison come up through the floor of the tent? How long should I wait after the poison is distributed, to put the tent up? Any suggestions? I know there are racoons, armadilos, skunks,deer, etc. that Puff & I will have to share our home with, & need any advice on how to live in harmony with the 'critters'. I also intend to plant flowers. Don't laugh! HELP ME!!!

we just moved here last spring and the tick thing has been a revelation!! I agree that keeping the yard well mowed on a very regular basis is one of the best things to do. The timber and pasture...hopeless! I use lots of off spray. Put it on your clothing, around the tops of your shoes, etc. I have heard of sprinkling this stuff that is available at Walmart and tractor supply houses...I think it contains sulfer. Anyone try that??

CHICKENS!!!

dragonroost, you scare me, i'm just a couple years older than you, and i couldnt do it--but if you're determined, you need help. how about building a low platform to set your tent on?like maybe a foot high? and then putting kerosene atound the legs of the platform? it might keep the creepie-crawlies out of your tent.but, then again, everyone should have a dream, and try to live it. the solitude sounds wonderful.best of luck.

ceresone, I've always been a little crazy! Right now, I live in a 1 bedroom apartment with my cat. I've been going to my Dragonroost since the weather turned cool, trying to clear out leaves, etc. It gives me somewhere to go & something physical to do. I've thought about the platform, but don't know how I would get the wood for it to the site. I'm pretty much limited to what's available. There are lots of rocks & I thought about making a platform from those. I've already made a large fire pit with some of the rocks. I like the idea of the kerosene. I figure this is my last chance to have a home of my own. I want to do it before my health won't let me. I am an artist who isn't able to paint anymore & this is my creative outlet. Thanks for your ideas. Please send more as they come to you. LizAnne

LizAnne,

When we first bought our land in southern Oklahoma about 8 years ago we had ticks EVERYWHERE, so I can sympathize with you. Just mowing down the tall grass helps. If you have tall undergrowth in a wooded area, mowing that down with a weed eather or scythe or ANYTHING (even a goat) helps too.

However, ticks remained a persistent problem until we got chickens and guineas 2 or 3 years ago. They will rid your property of unwanted insects fairly quickly....but if you are in an area with much wildlife, you need to pen them up in an enclosed building or cage at night or they will become lunch or dinner for owls, foxes, bobcats, coyotes, cougars, etc. (I speak from experience.)

Spraying your pants legs and socks/shoes with insecticide helps....but I try to avoid chemicals whenever possible.
Taking garlic tablets may help....my husband thinks it helps repel ticks but I'm not sure if it really did.

Going the organic route might work for you...spraying the ground with beneficial nematodes, etc.

Try everything until you find what works for you, cause those ticks will never give up and go away on their own!

Dawn

Thanks OkieDawn, Lots of good info out there. Has anyone ever tried vitamin B? I just remembered that my cousin told me it is good for repelling ticks. The garlic sounds good. My daughter had a goat & I've considered that before. Do they help because they keep the grass short? Do they also help with snakes? SO MUCH TO LEARN!!!

I have never heard of goats helping with snakes, and we have lots and lots of snakes (but no goats). I don't mind the grass snakes and chicken snakes BUT we have LOTS of copperheads, cottonmouths, diamondback rattlesnakes and black velvet-tail rattlesnakes (they are HUGE!)

Nothing we have done has made a difference in how many snakes we see around our property EXCEPT CATS AND GUINEAS. I believe the cats keep the rodent population down, thus depriving snakes of one of their main menu items. Guineas are said to consider snakes their enemies and will (supposedly, although I've never actually witnessed it myself) surround a snake and peck it to death. I HAVE SEEN my guineas gather around something in the woods and scream and peck at it but I wasn't brave enough to go that deeply into the woods during snake season to see what they were attacking. Regardless, I hardly saw any poisonous snakes at all last summer and believe my roaming guineas get all the credit.

Some people swear by sulfur or lime or moth balls or a commercial product called Snake-Away. With each of these, you lay out a line of the product around the area you want to keep snake-free and supposedly the snake won't cross it. I've never tried any of these methods though. My son said there's a form of mesh fencing made primarily to keep snakes out of commercial ponds. He saw it on the Internet and thinks it was from a place in Georgia called Ken's. It was either called snake-fencing or snake mesh. Maybe you could surround your tent area with one of these and keep the snakes away from your home at least.

By the way, I can tell you that snakes like to crawl into open tents and curl up for a good nap so ALWAYS keep that tent zipped up!

You're going to love living on your land...well, except for the ticks and the snakes. And we won't even mention the skeeters!

Dawn

Just a thought for you about the rocks. I wouldn't want lots of rocks piled around.......snakes, snakes, snakes! This would be perfect cover for them. I would definitely clear out the space where my tent was of any rocks, brush, tall grass, etc.

You are braver than I ever was doing this! Good luck and enjoy the Ozarks.

GD

A little seven dust sprinkled around will work.You can also dust your animals (dogs,cats,etc.) just keep their eyes shielded when dusting.I usually just use an old t shirt or cloth with the dust placed inside and shake it to dust.

When we first moved here almost nine years ago, the first thing I did was treat the area where we going to garden with Diatomaceous Earth, not the kind for swimming pool filters, but the original. It's totally organic, safe to use, and non-toxic. Controls ticks and fleas. We'd have an outbreak from time to time, mainly the seed ticks and I'd just re-apply the DE. Since I had a bad case of Rocky Mountain Spotted Tick Fever, we've been using the 100% DEET on our clothing when we get outside the garden area and haven't had much of a problem with picking up ticks.

I'm not recommending the site below, but it had good information about the product.

Here is a link that might be useful: Diatomaceous Earth

Last year we spread Bayer Advanced Complete Soil treatment. It worked really good and we have one acre cleared in the middle of the woods. There are dogs and deer and all other kinds of critters around. I try to stay out of the woods when it warms up because I am ALLERGIC to snakes and ticks and chiggers. (not really but I think everyone is) I love to camp but I don't think I would be brave enough to do what you're doing. Good luck to you and I hope you'll be very happy in your new home.

Nancy

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!! I'm going to make copies of all this good information so I can refer back to it. I went to a lumber yard yesterday to get some ideas of materials & prices & found what I think I will use as a platform for my tent & Gypsy Wagon. They are concrete piers with cutouts on the top to hold 4x4s & 2x6s. They are called Dek-Block piers. In case anyone is interested, the web site is www.FREEDECKPLANS.com. I haven't gone there yet, but will definately take a look. Have decided, on the advice of ceresone, that I will not give up my apartment this summer. I will spend most of my time working on my place, but want to have a cool, snake, tick, & chiggar free zone to come back to. I just get impatient to get there! PEACE, LOVE, JOY, FRIENDS, & GARDENS to ALL OF YOU!

We live in north arkansas, and in the middle of the woods. We used to have ticks like crazy, especially seed ticks. I remember one year the seed ticks were so bad! You could literally take 2 steps out into the yard and step back onto the porch and you had seed ticks. We always put down the diazinon crap. Finally we got some chickens, and now we have no ticks, and we have eggs. Wherever you let the chickens range, you won't have ticks. They are fun to have too. Ducks will eat tick also. Guineas are also known for it, they are also known for being obnoxious though. I've never had any of those. The chickens help quite a bit with the dogs, but the dogs will go out in the woods where the chickens don't range to and so they still get ticks. I use frontline on them.

Keep those birds, that are black and grey and white, i forget the name, some type of chickens, they love ticks in all phases, think they are candy.
Will keep your placae clean for sure
KK

Well, it was bound to happen! Got a BAD tick bite & am headed to the doctor. By the time I realized it was time to 'spray', it was too late. So be careful out there in TICK LAND.

When I go Turkey hunting in the spring,I go buy two flea and tick collars for dogs and put them around my ankles on the outside of my pants.

If you could haul even a small camper in there, it would be nicer than a tent, especially when it rains. I use the frontline type oil on my cat, you can buy it at Walmart without a prescription. You can plant pyrethrum (Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium) around the tent platform, it is insecticidal but considered safe for people and cats. It will look like daisys but kill bugs that get near it. The link below has Canadian sources, but I think I got mine at Johnnys Selected Seeds. Let us know if you are OK after the big bad bug bite!

Here is a link that might be useful: home production of pyrethrum

hello to all i would like to use a home remedy to keep ducks away. In my new home we had a really bad bug problem i think from the pond out back but the bugs kept coming in the house so my husband brought some ant food that kills them, my son went to put it out around the house but did not know that it only went in the grass, so he put it out on the patio and the ducks ate it litte knowing it was ant killing food and now for the past 5 days or so they have been hear every morning and afternoon trying to get fed they tore up my screen and the wont leave what can i do or who can i call?

I have a friend that swears by Diatonatious Earth. Before I bought it I did some on-line reasearch on it. Diatonatious Earth is actually tiny seashells. The shells are so jaged that it tears up the ticks, fleas, and other tiny critters that walk across it, and they die...supposidly. It is safe for Animals and people to eat or drink if it gets in their food. You just can't breath it. So last summer I put on a mask, and put it all over our carpets, and the aminals that live in our house. The flea population went down dramatically. We also put it in our yard. The salesman told us that if you have a huge yard, put it on the ground in piles around the edge of your yard, before you mow. Then mow, sraying it toward the center...wear the mask. It apparently dosen't take but a fine dusting to cut the critters to pieces.
Has anyone else tried DE on their yard? We just bought a house in the country, and I'm wondering if it works as well as I've been told. Diann

Do Peacocks eat ticks too?
If they do, they would look beautiful strutting their stuff, and cleaning up my tick problem, at the same time!
Just a thought.

Diann,

We had a neighbor who had free-range peacocks roaming around with his guineas.

They probably do eat ticks too, but they are much louder (obnoxiously so) than the guineas and are pretty messy birds. Our neighbor's birds didn't make it through the first summer....were killed by a predator of some sort, probably a coyote, bobcat, cougar or panther, as we are near the Red River and have all of those predators around.

Peacocks are beautiful, and I'd like to have some roaming around on our acreage, but I don't think they'd survive with all our wildlife. So, for tick control, we rely on DE, which seems to help, and on guineas, who are ALSO quite loud and obnoxious at times, but keep the ticks and grasshoppers way, way down!

Dawn

I love the sounds of peacocks and guineas but some neighbors might not. I wonder if a person were to release 25 ringneck pheasants onto their land if they'd clean up the ticks as well as their noisy relatives?

Strombergs and McMurrey hatcheries sell day old pheasant chicks in boxes of 25. I am told that all you have to do is raise them for ten to fourteen weeks and then turn them loose. Cast some corn out for them everyday and replenish their numbers every other year with another box of chicks and I bet they clear out ticks as good as chickens. (While being prettier, more interesting and quieter).

As a teenager I had a half dozen peafowl and three silver pheasants loose on our property. The pheasants wandered off after a few months but I bet if I had started with 25 I'd have had some persist all year long. Ticks weren't a problem on my folks small piece of land but they are on my newly aquired 30 acres. So I will be trying this again next year for the first time in 20 years.

To quote the sage advice of the Springfield, MO band, "Big Smith":

"If we didn't have those bugs attachin', we'd never know the joy of scratchin'" :)

My job requires me to be miles in the wildnerness all day, nearly every day, all summer long. So, I just CAN'T use the poisons because I'd constantly be bathing in them. We just duct tape the bottom of our pant legs to our hiking boots, tuck in our shirts, and keep a roll of duct tape handy for seed ticks. Otherwise, we just enjoy the glorious feeling that comes from scratching those bites! Makes us know that it's truly summertime! Generally, we have between 1 and 1000 ticks on us by the time we get home, but we're happy and tired and know we're ALIVE! I know, I know, this isn't really helpful advice to most. But really, aside from the slim chance of a disease, there's really a lot of psychology involved in the desire to be rid of the "pests". Also, FWIW, I've heard that a tick must be attached 6-12 hours before a disease can be transmitted, presumably because the tick must be filled with some blood to have it sqeezed/regurgitated back into your body during removal. So, if you just keep up with picking them off....

My neighbor has guineas and they make the rounds at my house nearly every day and i don't have ticks around the house. I am always coming across snakes tho. I had a dog till 4 yrs ago that killed snakes all the time. I sure miss him in more ways than one. I use round up on my dogs.
If i go out in the woods i use deep woods off.
vickie

Goodness, this is a old post revived--but always a timely subject in the country!--and--I think the ticks will win!
Any updates on dragonroost?

Are you sure it is roundup that you use on your dog? I hope it is Frontline that you meant to say. The disease risk is not slight. My father in law almost died of tularemia ( rabbit fever) and my friend had arthritis like symptoms from lyme disease for years. It was cured finally by her dentist giving antibiotics for a chronic bad tooth problem.

Well, it looks like this year will be another bad one for ticks. Maybe it's like this each year since we only moved here in 2006. Everyone said the severe tick problem was due to the mild winter that year, but I don't think that's the case this year.

I think botnerd's right. It has to be attached for a long time.
We keep our perimeter clean of brush, leaves etc. If I don't let hub rake (cause I think it's pretty) I pay for it. He rakes and burns and it keeps my area in summer pretty decent.
Cats are for the snakes and the chickens did a good job too but the foxes cleaned them out.
We don't use pesticides. It would kinda defeat the purpose of moving to the woods, for us.

Hello. I've never posted here but wanted to let you know about a home remedy that apparently works for keeping ticks away.

I go camping for a week every June and ticks were terrible last year for everyone except one man in our group. He tried drinking vinegar, about a tablespoon in a cup of water, every day starting about a week before the trip and during the week of camping too. He was the only person in the group that wasn't troubled by ticks and other bugs. I think I may try it this year.

I live in central Oklahoma and back in the '80's raised game birds for a living. i had (6) different breeds of quail, (10) different breeds of pheasant including both Ringneck and Blonde pheasant. For everyones education in this part of the country neither will survive in the wild as the amount of Chiggers we will kill them (this is being stated from experiance and also from the State Wildlife Dept>) the best thing for ticks in this area is either intecide's or Guineas and they are great watch dogs, also do very well without being penned as they will roost in the trees.

Goodness... so many postings I have to chime in. After trying to avoid chemicals, we use Off... deep woods, or sweat resistant. We spray shoes, socks, pants bottoms (or feet if no shoes and socks), hair, neck, arms and or shirt cuffs. When we neglect to spray, we almost always get ticks. Remember ticks like to drop on their prey. For us, tall bushes are worse than grass. As mentioned above, if working in tall grass, brush, or forest areas, tuck everything into everything and then spray Off. As nasty as Off is, it also keeps the sceeters away. For the pooch, we follow a strict program with Frontline and Heartguard. Our dog Bob hasn't had a single tick or flea.