Ive been having massive groundhog , deer, mice, rabbit, chipmunk infestations in my yard along with racoons, etc. Its a freaking forest here, I swear.

The "man" decided to bring home a 22 as I kept complaining "suckers are dropping ticks in my yard, I know they are". Ive been saying this for two summers. He said he was going to prove they werent.

Well, he nailed a groundhog, and 15 minnutes later came back in and said "wanna see some ticks"

This thing was INFESTED. In the eyes, ears, you name it. I seen nymphs, middle sized ones and ones that had just fed. he tried to pull some out, but the heads came off in a few

Me- I just wanted to see them. So here I sit, me and tick in jar looking at each other. This is the reality of this freaking disease. One of them came off pretty easy, was engorged so it is still alive. I plan to have it tested just cause I want peace of mind, then again- I probably wont get that.

I did Seven in my yard, I did massive amounts of garlic, but it doesnt matter. My home is lined with one section of woods the rest is open and in the direct sun.

Idiot seems to think it is no big deal that this animal had MASSIVE ticks on it, its funny to him. he said to me a few minutes ago "me and the tick are watching TV, he likes this show"

Not funny. I guess over the weekend, I should dedicate my time to shooting as many creatures in my yard as I can. I have them everywhere-animals that is.

I cant save these stpid animals from lyme, but they are bringing this crap into my yard. After he picked up the animal, I seen a tick slowly wiggling alon gon the grass underneath him... so I mean these are dropping off the animals.

Besides shooting everything I see in my yard, how the he8l do I keep these things out of my yard? Electric fences? Poison?

I just dont want any animals in muh yard. Kind of unrealistic, but this groundhog was a BABY and fully infested. Probably saved it a life time of mysery with lyme.

And what pees me off more than that, ( that scares me ) but what makes me angry is this TWIT living here seeing what I went through , and laughing and making jokes. I told him to stick the tick on his arm and let it bite him and he went over and started opening up the jar and talking to the da*m thing.

They just dont get it.

Sorry..but just picturing you with a rifle and a mission is quite an image !

Those little molesters..they don't think twice about sinking their mouthparts into the most intimate of places..and don't even take you out to dinner first! How rude..

My neighbor and I..we live on the same mountain in deep Northeastern woodlands..have good luck with garilc:

http://mosquitobarrier.com/

Spraying starting from the house, and going in a radius outward. To push ticks outward, do a few feet round the house..wait a while..do a few more feet..and so on. So they go AWAY intead of TOWARD your place. You can use an inexpensive hand sprayer, plus stick one from Sears on your mower. It repels ticks, kills mosquitoes, and repels mammals, we don't see many at all anymore.. (but the turkey still come..they eat ticks)

The animals can be infested, so long as they don't hang out in your yard.

It's supposed to be better to have a full ecosystem..with predators to kill mice and small mammals..but..we still had allot of ticks.

However..much less with the garlic. But..you said you have used garlic and it didn't work? Hmm..

Another thing to consider is fencing..to try and keep everything out..but mice are then still a problem..and with no predators to eat them with fencing.

It's a dilema.

It's like you have to look at your own ecosystem and strategize based on that.

Maybe fencing with Sevin on rolls of TP so the mice will take it to theit nests and de-tick themselves.

You can figure things to at least lower the load, and lowering the mice population can do a great deal to lower Bb infected ticks. (I also read that removal of acorns lowers mice poulation) Most of the other mammals do not carry the infection. So..you could still see ticks, but lower the Bb rate.
www.bitebarrier.com has a safe repellant and I have been trying rose geranium oil mixed with a carrier oil or cream with some success, I think. I have read that is a good repellant as well.
www.stopticks.org is a group focusing on tick control out here..

Wish I had more to offer..I have bat houses and Purple Martin bird houses for mosquitoe eating helpers. We had nearly no mosquities this year!!!!

Take care, and make sure your pal cuddling on the couch with ticks stays out of the direct line of fire! LOL!

Mo

Someone here recently posted something about using latex gloves when picking ticks off your pets or yourself.
Don't crush them between your fingers, since they can still infect you if they are infected with the spirochetes.

If you plan to get them tested, the instructions at the Igenex site say they will test a group of ticks (all at one time) for the same fee as a single tick.

So you can send a dozen ticks, and if any of them are infected, you'll get a positive test result.

I wish that your guy wouldn't handle them. I think he's putting himself at risk.

Just a thought.
Carol

was I took a whole bunch of garlic in the bulbs, through them all over my yard and then mowed them over. I thought that would help a bit. I must say, I dont have many mosquitoes in my yard!

Some of these groundhogs have what Jon is calling mange? He said its nasty and disease? I have no clue, I have to look it up.

He did use hollow points, which is good I suppose? I dont touch guns, he was in the Navy and has awards for some type of shooting? Like sharp shooting or something, so thats good in a way. Listen to me, Im going psychotic ( even more) lol

I have a problem with him killing deer and rabbits though, I just try to scare them off, besides for the female doe that got VERY upset at me and started doing this thing with her hoof like scraping it back and forth at me.

Its a freaking forest here. I have pear and apple trees in my yard, along with berry trees and that makes for huge attractions of animals, especially deer.

Im also in the crossing of the deer, if this makes any sense. They have to enter my yard from the west wing , cross through my yard , and out onto the road ( plenty of dead deer in front of my house), to get to the full woods across the road.

Last year, there was a string of about seven of these deer that walked about 12 feet in front of me and my son like it was no big deal.

We thought electric fencing, but Im scared to death my son would electricute himself on it. I guess I could shut it off while we are out there, I know nothing about these fences.

The groundhogs though have got to go, I have more holes in my yard than I do grass and Ive fallen plenty of times. If ya wanted to see something funny, should have seen me the day

I was pulling the lawnmower backwards, tramped in a hole that I didnt know was there, and HELD ONTO the lawnmower for dear life as I went down. I could have ended up mowing one of my kids if they had been close enough! GEESH!

We also have HUGE mice infestation in my home, HUGE. My cat kills an average of three mice per day and there is one location in my kitchen in which I have caught over 8 mice in two day span.

yet, jon doesnt think that is a problem. He says mice dont have ticks!

Im off to look at links and figure out what I can do to my yard other than having an odd sniper hanging out my window for hours on end

the house up the road is open ( same landlord) and the tenants told me they have NO mice problems, and they have a fully finished basement that I went in and NO mold. Unlike here... might have to just move!

Im going to research.

Thanks all

Well guess what? He came down with lyme symptoms in July. About three weeks prior he had cleaned up wood and debris after flooding on our shore line. Did he wear any Deet, hell no.

As his symptoms came on, I tried to convince myself that it couldn't be happening to him. After 2 weeks and a dozen symptoms I took charge. Marched his butt to PCP and got him on abx. He has been completely symptom free for over 3 weeks.

When he was so sick he said to me, "how you have done this for 5 years, there is no way I could live like this"

Even after spraying our yard at the lake, just two days prior, my sister found a deer tick crawling on her arm.

Am I paranoid? You better believe it.

Thats exactly it, I think with me. I am paranoid, but I think rightfully! NO one else thinks Im paranoid "rightfully".

Til they get bit!

I only found two ticks this year and both times I was deadheading flowers by the finch feeder. Needless to say the finch feeder is gone and have not found another tick. We were very infested prior to last year.