Part 2: The Plan to Fight Off Fleas and Ticks
Since writing Part 1 just a week ago, I’ve found 3 ticks on the dogs; one sitting on Luke’s head, one crawling up Cricket’s leg at bedtime…ugh…and even worse, one biting Cricket’s neck. The war is officially on! It’s not going to be an easy battle doing this all naturally, but I am determined to try.
We will be attacking on two fronts….treating the dogs directly, and cleaning up our yard to get rid of the habitat that fleas and ticks thrive on. When we battled the fleas last fall, I did a lot of research and basically found out that our yard has probably pretty much become a haven for them. The dogs spend a lot of time out in our yard, either playing or just hanging out on nice days.
First level of attack:
Both Sheba and Luke will be getting vaccinated for Lyme Disease this month. Cricket has had reactions to vaccines, so we will not get it for her. As I wrote last week, dogs only have a 5% chance of developing Lyme when exposed, so for us it is worth the risk for Cricket. We’ve had too many worries with vaccinating her in the past so we only do what is absolutely necessary for her.
Next we will treat the dogs with products that do not contain chemicals or pesticides. After extensive research I decided on the two things seen below. Another product I was interested in was a flea/tick tag that hangs on the dogs’ collar (click here to read more), but we had to pass on that this year, because Luke chews on his own tags as well as everyone else’s, so we thought that was probably a bad idea for now. We’ll save that for possible future use.
The squeeze on is all natural and safe, and should repel fleas, ticks and mosquitoes. It gets applied between their shoulder blades the same way Frontline and many others are.
The garlic/brewer’s yeast tablets also repel fleas and ticks with the added benefit of maintaining a stronger immune system and healthy skin and coat. Everything I’ve read states that a healthier dog is less susceptible to parasites. The only issue with these tablets is that some dogs can become sensitive to the brewer’s yeast, causing itching, so we need to watch for that. I’m sure many of you have heard, as I had, that garlic can be bad for dogs, but the company assures us that the amounts in these tablets are safe for dogs (and cats).
In addition to these things each dog gets checked for ticks daily, and when we go for walks we avoid wooded areas and tall grass. I try to keep them on clear trails as much as possible. Our beagle Kobi was great for always wanting to walk in the brush, and I’d always be telling him to “quit trolling for ticks”!
There are a couple things I’m leaving on the table here, along with the flea tags: apple cider vinegar added to their water has been said to repel insects (we also used it for flea prevention and treatment last year and I believe it did help), but I need to make sure that is safe for cats too, because they all share the water in this household. Diet: it has been said that dogs fed a raw diet, or even possibly a grain free diet are less susceptible to these pests. I doubt I’d ever feed raw, but grain free is a possibility if needed.
Second level of attack:
Clean up our yard! When we had our house built 20 years ago, we had a large area cleaned out where the house and yard would be. Once we fenced in the yard for the dogs, we didn’t do as much with the rest of the yard (we own just under 2 acres). Therefore, over the years, the woods have been creeping up on us. I believe the ticks have been creeping up as well. Just last year I told my husband, when everything turned green for the summer, that I was starting to feel claustrophobic in our yard. I couldn’t even see out of my greenhouse, things had grown up so much. He did clear a big area around my greenhouse and outside the fence to the left of our deck. Look at some before and after photos of our yard:
Below our yard were fields before the woods. That garden was about where the corner of the fence is now:
My vegetable gardens are still in the same place, but the woods have grown up around there too (though some of that did get cleared out last fall to bring in more sunshine to the garden area).
As well as the woods creeping in and bringing the ticks with them, we’ve let leaves pile up in some areas along the fence, as well as some brush piles, and those could be harboring fleas as well as ticks. So we need to clean up the yard, clean under the deck where junk has accumulated over the years, and clean out under the trees (the dirt in shady areas can also harbor fleas). The recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control is to put a 3 foot wide barrier of wood chips or gravel between lawns and wooded areas. So our plan is to put that barrier outside the fence.
Along with cleaning up the yard, we will be applying beneficial nematodes to all shady areas in the yard, as well as along the fence line. Beneficial nematodes are tiny worms that kill over 200 kinds of insects (but not the good ones like lady bugs or earthworms). They are completely safe for humans, animals, and plants. We ordered some from our local garden center and they are being delivered to us (they are alive so can’t sit on a store shelf). You can also order them online, but we actually got the best price locally.
We have our work cut out for us! We need to be diligent about keeping the lawn mowed this year; when you live in the country and your yard is really only for the dogs, you don’t worry about how the lawn looks (ours is full of holes dug by Sheba and now Luke anyway), since it’s not really seen that much. We are overdue to clean up the yard for ourselves anyway.
So this weekend both Luke and Cricket get baths, and then we apply the squeeze on treatment (this treatment needs to be reapplied after baths or heavy swimming). I don’t like to throw a bunch of new stuff at them at once, in case something doesn’t agree with them, so we’ll start the tablets a week or two after that. We’ve already started some raking and cleaning up in the yard (we just need more cooperation from Mother Nature).
Wouldn’t it be easier to just throw some Frontline or another chemical treatment on them and forget about it all? That is a last resort for us (though I’m sure my hubby wouldn’t mind that). I am trying to live a greener life in many ways (I garden organically and trust me that’s more work too) and that extends to my pets as well. I’ll be letting you know if we win the battle this way, or at least put up a good fight!
We are joining 2 Brown Dawgs Blog and Heart Like a Dog for their Thursday Barks and Bytes blog hop (with a little play on the word bytes, as in “bug bytes” – ha ha). Please visit them and others through the links below!
I would love to find a natural flea/tick product for my dogs. So far, we have yet to discover any ticks. *knocks on wood*
I’ll knock on wood for you too….you can’t be too safe! I hope I’ll have good things to report on the things we’re trying.
I sure hope that it works. I would much rather not use chemicals on my boys. I would love to find something that repelled mosquitoes really well. I’m looking forward to how the natural drops work!
Keep your fingers crossed for us, and I’ll let you know how we make out. Mosquitoes are another whole issue, and they have their own scary diseases they carry too. I hope the drops will also work against them, though that might be harder to judge with the dogs.
Thanks for joining the hop. I hope your new routine works. Up at our cabin we have gnats galore but no ticks. People who have been there for years have never seen a tick…but oh those gnats and back flies! We usually have to worry about ticks at hunt tests. Some of our pals went to Indiana a couple of weeks ago for a test and I guess the ticks were horrible! I don’t worry about Lyme’s so much, but the other scary diseases that ticks carry do scare me a lot. I can also say that eating grain free won’t keep ticks away. We feed grain free and no…lol.
OK, good to know about the grain free then, thanks, though I do wish that could have been an answer! Oh, we get the black flies here too…they don’t bother the dogs much but they sure bother my hubby, and I usually react to their bites and itch for weeks. I need to dig out my recipe for repellent for them too! I hate them, and mosquitoes, but they still don’t gross me out as much as the ticks do!
The brown dogs really attract the gnats and black flies! Poor things. I wish I could find an easy to apply and effective repellant for those.
I think the dark colored dogs attract those more. I think they bothered our black lab mix Maggie quite a bit, if I remember correctly. Oh, and the deer flies too! I have no idea how to keep them away. I found some kind of spray a few years ago at an all natural store that could be used on both people and dogs….I’ll have to see if I can find that again, and I’ll let you know if it works…I think it did help for me anyway.
That’s an ambitious, but do-able, plan! And I know it’ll be wonderful when you’re done. I too am interested in the natural flea/tick repellant. We do have flees here and Sage managed to bring one in last year (Frontline wasn’t working any more) and infected both indoor cats.
Oh no, we were so lucky when both girls got them that the cats and our other dog never did. There just never seems to be a guarantee even if you’re using what is supposed to be a good product for it.
I’ll let you know how we make out!
I’ll be bookmarking this. We don’t get ticks too often because it’s so dry, but there are a few times each year I can count on finding a few.
Hopefully you don’t find any, so you don’t need to come back! I’m glad if I could provide some useful information, let’s just hope it works!
I’m really curious to know if the natural repellent works for you. Please do a follow up to let us know if it keeps the ticks down.
I rarely find ticks on Honey. One of the best things about living in the city. But I check her very carefully when we go camping and hiking. So many humans I know have gotten lyme disease that it feels like it’s only a matter of time.
Good to hear from you, Pamela! I will definitely do a follow up on how we make out.
I’ve seen way too much Lyme in humans as well, and they’ve all had a very rough time of it. We try to be diligent about checking ourselves as well as the dogs when we’ve been out in the woods or working in the yard/gardens.
We hope you win the war!
Thanks, we need all the support we can get!!
We would love to not use the frontline, but so far it is the best thing we have found. There are so many ticks, we can’t risk trying something that doesn’t work. It will be interesting to hear how this plan works for you and the summer unfolds.
I hope I will have good news to report! I think everyone should do what they are comfortable with….but don’t think that I don’t worry that what I’m doing might be the wrong thing.
We had a flea infestation about ten years ago and learned to fight them one flea at a time every day. So far it has worked.
Good for you! We were lucky our bout with them last year didn’t turn into a nightmare. One dog and both cats weren’t bothered by them, so they at least never infested the house. The girls got frequent wipe downs with apple cider vinegar and that seemed to keep them at bay (and that year we were grateful when the cold weather came!)
Hailey had a tick several years ago. I do worry because we live in a wooded area and spend time in our woods. Will have to think about what we are going to do to help keep them (and us) healthy.
I think that just checking the dogs often and knowing how to properly remove a tick is probably sufficient if you don’t have a lot. I wish they had never moved into our area, that’s for sure!
I haven’t put flea treatment on the dogs in a coon’s age. It makes me nervous. I plan on finding the Only Natural people next week at Blog Paws and talking to them about the brewers yeast. That looks like good stuff. Thanks for the heads up!
You’re welcome! I’m sure you’ll have a great conversation with the Only Natural people. They have a lot of great products and options for a lot of things I think.
Thankfully, fleas have never been a problem here (knock on wood), but ticks… we do have the ticks. We’ve done the yard thing, but do need to do a spring cleaning of the perimeter. I’m going to be curious how that squeeze on works for you.
I am half witted today. Meant to tell you to stop by my blog today to pick up an award 🙂
We never had fleas either until last year, and I’m not sure why they all of the sudden showed up, except that maybe it’s because I think it’s the first year we didn’t use Frontline at all.
I love the outdoors, and the woods, so I never imagined being surrounded by them would end up being a problem!
I will keep you posted on the squeeze on.
Sounds like a VERY good plan of attack……it may be easier to just put something on the dogs but I’m with you about what that should/could be and what that actually MEANS for them health-wise too……we didn’t have a bad tick season last year – hardly saw any – and our woods starts behind our house. We don’t go into the woods nor does Sammy. We just try to be “aware” and do good self-inspections. It’s a HUGE problem though for many – as I said, good luck with your “plan of attack” !!
Pam
Thank you, Pam! I have heard that ticks aren’t such an issue with cats too, because cats groom themselves so well, they would find them before we would! We keep the cats indoors though Samantha sneaks out every so often, but we have never found one on her. So at least that’s one good thing!
Even thinking about ticks and fleas makes me itchy!
Our climate doesn’t really promote those insect populations here, but we did have a tick incident with Alma last spring after she and the Husband went for an early backcountry camping trip in the mountains. So gross! If we go through it again, I’ll have to keep an eye out for some of the products you mention (though I think we’ll go preventative with any early camping trips from now on).
Oh, I know, whenever I find a tick on the dogs, I spend the next few hours convinced I feel something crawling on me!
We used to camp also and even though it was at campgrounds, there was always tons of ticks there. Back in those days we used Frontline or something like that and the ticks wouldn’t stay on the dogs, so we’d find them crawling in our bedding instead….ugh!
I’ve been checking back for the second part of this post. 🙂 Great job.
I use BugOff Garlic tablets which I buy in bulk and a natural spray that is applied daily. I hadn’t found one of those topical treatments so thank you very much for that!! I also brush the dogs when we get back from our wood walks and sometimes hose them off as well. I still find ticks at times, but usually not like some people do.
We also have our yard sprayed by a green company, so that should help keep them down in our yard. We are also on a quest to clean up the yard as well.
Also, we feed raw which I think helps out a lot. I’m curious to know how all this works for you.
AND thank you for joining the blog hop!!
It sounds like you have a great plan in place, Jodi, and it is working well for you. Hopefully if you try the topical treatment it will work as well and may be a little easier than daily spraying (I will keep you posted on how it works for us).
I wonder if the company that sprays for you uses the beneficial nematodes. We almost hired someone last year too but we actually had our flea problem later in the summer so it didn’t seem worth it at that point.
We still found ticks even using Frontline, so if the natural stuff works at least as well as that, I’ll be happy.
Thank you for your wonderful info!!! I have never heard of that insect repellent for dogs!!! What a great idea!!! We have already had a flea problem which we treated a few weeks ago. *sigh* no ticks thankfully though. I hate those little buggers!!! Thanks for sharing your plan of attack! I enjoyed it! And learned as well!
ღ husky hugz ღ frum our pack at Love is being owned by a husky!
You’re welcome! I’m so glad you enjoyed it and found the information helpful. It doesn’t seem fair that we’ve just barely been getting decent weather, but we already have to deal with the bugs!