How has it been in your area this year in regards to ticks? With the crazy wet garden season it has meant that we have not been able to mow things as low as we have been over the past two or three years in terms of the walking paths and people spots.

We have even taken to mowing a huge part of the big dog yard down to make most of it non-tick habitat friendly, but there is still edges of the dog yard that provides idea pick up places.

Earlier in the year Dear Hubby picked up a nymph tick on his back, it was full in by the time it was found but was successfully removed, still he went the very next day to get the full treatment from the local pharmacy, never had any redness or bullseye pattern.

Boy are the ticks out at this time, they have been pulled of the horses, dog ear even though the dogs are on meds, and even much to my anger full feed females have been found, thankfully i have been able to kill them before laying.

Into a nice killing bath of rubbing alcohol! I have a feeling that we will be finding at least a few more yet before the season is done. Locally the rise of tick born illness and ticks carrying issues is increasing and i expect with our warmer and longer springs/summer/falls we will continue to see even more .

Full credit to these goes the Ottawa public health and as they would not allow me to save these other then in a pdf, forgive the screen shots. The information however is very on target and useful to what i am talking about.

and as if lime is not enough.. sigh!

Given the cost of testing your ticks, it is far to say that many people do not send them in for testing https://geneticks.ca/ I am glad that we do have the ability to send ticks out for testing and i have to admit that if i had one really into me, i would be willing to spend the money to get the results back to know how to move forward but i could not afford to test all the ticks we find here on the farm.

Have you ever sent a tick out for testing? Can you get testing in your province, state and do you have free tick testing anywhere near you?

For us we choose to use Deep Woods Off but i know lots of folks that prefer the treated clothing and most small homesteads an farms do try and use their bird flocks to help keep their populations down, of course our hunting cats and the local skunk/Snakes help reduce the mice populations which in turn helps reduce the ticks as well.

One trick for in the gardens where we tend to spend a good amount of time is wood chip pathways that are at least three feet wide, the ticks do not like the wide open and very dry tops of this and will go around it on the moist green, this means that if you have these types of pathways in the right spots you can help prevent the ticks from traveling into your gardens in the first place and second you can work in your gardens more safely but still always remember to tick check yourself daily!

Which brings me to the tick removal tools, there are many on the market but they are all a version of each other, some are for your key chain, you do need to two sizes one for the smaller ticks and one for the bigger. I personally like this tick kit i picked up a few of them, they have the standard tick removal type slide and pull slow, but also tweezers and magnifying glass and tick collection tubes along with a id card etc.

You can tell that mine are a few years old and have been hauled on trips, camping and so on, its looking a bit worn but that is a good sign, all the tools have held up well to years of use and while you do need redo the wipes and so on replacement wise i have found them to be of good value

Farmgal Tip Hunters and or on farm butchering, if your deer or ? had ticks on them, once they are dead and starting to cool, the ticks on them will release, drop off where that body is and start looking for its next warm blooded host. That very much could mean you, yours or your pets or your truck bed or yard etc as you work on the processing, worth being aware of and keeping a eye on for sweeping up and removal.