Monday, May 5, 2025

Ticks: After action report

The idea of putting tick-ridden clothing in a tub and treating with insecticidal dust did not work.

I left it for more than twenty-four hours. Then I took it outside to decant. I found a tick on the white Tee-shirt that was the size of the head of a match.

It was groggy but not dead.

16 comments:

  1. In a way, I'm glad to hear that because I was thinking "My God, is this what I must now resort to".

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  2. We see that a lot with ticks on dogs treated with K9 Advantix.
    Groggy/twitchy is good! a fatally poisoned tick will not feed.

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  3. Deep Woods Off is supposed to be a pretty good tick repellent.

    To treat tick-infested clothing, wouldn't a tub of hot soapy water work?

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  4. Did some research about ticks.

    Seems washing your clothing at 130 degree+ will kill all stages of ticks lifecycle. As will 10 min + of a high temperature dryer.

    Yet even as said by bug-scientists, not so?

    Well recommended home Hot water heaters are set at 120 degrees. Opps.

    And sadly, modern clothes dryers with that dry sensor run COOLER than old school dryers.

    The Speed Queen dryer at the laundrymat will kill ticks as my tree remover folks told me this morning.

    Good to know that old school pre-electricity washing method of boiling your clothing and stirring it with a paddle (stick) works very well. Soap not required as pre-Walmart home made soap and store bought soap was deemed expensive.

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  5. Permethrin for clothes not skin

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  6. How about putting the clothes in a microwave oven? Say for a minute or two.

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  7. Boiling works. Not microwave, that's not good with metal zippers, or certain types of buttons (melts or explodes).

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  8. The following may have been suggested by someone in your earlier post on ticks, if so my apologies for the duplication.

    What we do now is designate a couple pair of pants, work shirts and boots for rough country outdoor use only. Then we treat the clothing and boots (plus snake gaiters) with a product called insect shield (active ingredient permethrin). We follow their application and use instructions. It appears to us their claims are fairly realistic as regards being able to launder without the need to retreat the clothing every washing.

    We use pant leg straps like bicyclists use at the cuffs to reduce the chance undesirable insects can get inside our pants.

    On exposed skin we use Repel 100 (active ingredient 98% deet). A downside of any deet product is it will melt/destroy fly line coatings, and other plastic products.

    We have gone from having dozens of ticks on us and clothing to not finding a single tick hitching a ride in the last few summers since we employed the above products and practices.

    wes
    wtdb

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  9. I bought the spray permethrin for my mother in northern mn some years it appears the tree barks moving lots of ticks she had great results that was l that first posted

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  10. We had ticks in Minnesota and a lot of kids. A visual anytime anyone came in the house, a good visual after the day was over and for the kids a check before bed, no clothes, check the hair (us adults too)..
    We kept a baby food jar with 1/2 inch of rubbing alcohol in so we had a place to put the ticks when we found them.
    Keeping the long grass down was a huge help... I hate ticks.

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  11. Free range chickens, ducks and quail LOVE Ticks. Since I started running them almost no tick issues.

    Keeping grass and brush cut low also helps a lot.

    But belly crawling in the orchard you can deal with ticks or poultry poop.

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  12. Place wet clothes between + and - and a few amps. If it doesn't kill ticks, it might put on a good show.

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  13. Guinea fowl are said to be very efficient tick-eaters, as of course are opossums. Opossums make terrific pets, Joe, you should get at least a dozen !

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  14. Would putting the clothing in an air tight container with some Hot Hands chemical warmers to remove the oxygen work?

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  15. Joe: The long term solution that worked at my 2.25 acre lot with dear running through daily is Thermacell Tick Tubes. Takes two years distributing them in May and September. If you are strategic you do not have to have the same coverage as prescribed on the box. The tubes are like camo TP roll cores. They are stuffed with chemically treated cotton. Rodents take the cotton and line their nests. Ticks hatch and start off on rodents. As they grow they switch to larger creatures. The chemical sterilizes the ticks interputing the local reproductive cycle. I just spent three days weed waking and hacking chinese privit. I normally wind up with tick or two a day. None, nada this year. I will likely continue to distribute tubes strategically but less denslly to stay ahead of it. Roger
    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MYCXFKM?ref=nb_sb_ss_w_as-reorder_k0_1_6&amp=&crid=RI2GYP10UYKP&sprefix=tick%2Bt&th=1

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  16. The Marines I was with said to. Light a fire on one side of the bush, and when they come out stab them with a ice pick, er ah wait, that was their little crabby cousins. Woody

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