Thoughts on Bugzo by horsetech?!
Daily application of Absorbine black seems to be working this year – I’ve pulled just a few ticks of my herd of three. They’re on a dirt paddock but surrounded by deep woods, and will soon be out on pasture where there exposure will be exponentially higher.
I live in tick heaven, so, my methods to keep everyone tick free include:
Wearing tall Bog boots that I spray with deet for most outdoor trips. Stripping off my clothes in the mudroom, stuffing them in the washer & doing a load of “tick clothes” daily. We change outfits after every time outside other than walking to the car, pretty much. Dogs are on NextGuard, which kills the ticks that bite them. Dogs get brushed on the back porch before coming inside – every single time – with a Furminator shedder tool – it lifts the ticks out of their coat. Daily showers & careful tick checks of all humans.
We still get bitten, and it’s scary, but, I feel like it’s worth it to have a LOT of management practices in place.
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- While we do have Deer ticks, the larger tick population is Lone Star ticks. We recently did the first bishogging of the pasture and that got them stirred up a bit.
Based he’d on what I’m reading on this thread, we have a minimum of tick problems and we sit on 24 acres, surrounded by woods and beef cattle pastures.
- I am so mad at Frontline, I refuse to try their new Frontline Gold. I have both my in/out dogs on Advantix II.
FWIW, please know that most of these tick preventatives do NOT kill ticks on contact. The tick has to bite the animal, then it dies. I pulled a dead tick from inside one dog’s ear last week.
- There was an AP news blurp on my local station talking about an upsurge of the tick disease “Powassan”. Seems it has been around for a long time but it is now becoming fairly active.
https://www.cdc.gov/powassan/symptoms.html
- I have one dog, one horse, one cat and my husband who are the tick magnets. I swear the ticks seem to line up waiting for them to come outside.
The other dog, three cats, the other horse and myself don’t seem to be near as tasty to the little Soandso’s.
- I don’t know why our tick population is low; it always has been as long as we keep the yards and pastures cut, even though we have plenty of pine and cedar.
We have a BIG variety of song birds that are ground eaters, including Grackles and Doves. Maybe some of them go searching for ground bugs after they empty the bird feeder.
- The best thing at works for us, if we are going into enemy tick territory is to spray heavily with Deep Woods Off.
I soak oak the bottoms of the horses tails with MTG because ticks don’t like sulfur. I also wipe a ring of it around their ankles and u dear their jowels. It seems to help but again, we don’t have the serious issues many of you have.
keep your yards and pastures cut down, if your neighbor has chickens, let them visit a few times a week. Even regular laying chickens will eat ticks. We were virtually tick free for a few years, when our closest neighbor had wandering chickens — hated to see them move so we did:)
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If you use fly predators, I think the DE would be bad for them. What is the vinegar supposed to do?
FWIW (probably not much! :lol:) I read that air dried garlic was less likely to cause heinz body anemia. Springtime does the air dried (vs freeze dried.) I have NO IDEA if that’s true, or if the difference is really meaningful, but the garlic from Springtime was well priced compared to other options and it seemed reasonable to stack the deck as favorably as possible.
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Please be careful using insecticides on species for which they are not approved, esp. cats. They can have neurological effects. Even the marigold “natural” stuff is a no-no for felines. Be careful with what you use on the lawn, etc. Ask vet for details.
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@luvmyhackney, any particular brand? We’re in Fairfax and the ticks here are AWFUL! (No thanks to the county’s “hands-off” deer population control. :rolleyes: )
I have the fly predators at the farmette. And very little by way of tick exposure for the horses (the dog, on the other hand, goes places they don’t). I was thinking about Bugzo for the boarded horses. I have always held off due to fear about garlic side effects-- but having already treated “fever of unknown origin that could be anaplamosis” ONCE this year, and taken dozens of ticks off the boarded horses-- I am wondering if the risks aren’t outweighed by benefits IF the Buzgo is effective. Flies are worse at the boarding barn too, but it’s the ticks I am really concerned about.
So far so good here. We do get our yard sprayed for ticks because there are so many deer and mice around here.
The mare is boarded out; because of the rainy weather we have not been able to trail ride much. I use Freedom 45 spot-on and Bite-Free fly spray on her. Her paddock has trees, but basically no grass (grass doesn’t grow well in it, and what does grow, she nibbles down to nothing every day!) At the old barn, this was enough, but I’m considering adding DEET when we go trail riding, and treating my riding clothes with permethrin.
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What company did you use to spray your yard? Are there any warnings about dogs being in the yard after spraying?
Only 3 on each?
Sounds like a good tick year.
I check my two horses pretty much every day and I usually find at least 20 to 30 each day between the two of them. They tend to like Shotgun a little better than Red; not sure why.
Of course, you didn’t say how you keep your horses (stalls, paddock, pasture, etc).
My guys are on pasture 24/7 so that is going to make them more prone to the little buggers. On several occasions now, I’d had 5 or 6 ticks crawling up my leg on the outside of my jeans after catching my horses in the pasture. And discovered one the next morning bitten into my neck that I missed the night before.
Dang I HATE tick season!
Oh heck yes. I spray my horses down with OFF Deep Woods every day when we are done riding. I also spray their ears because it does a good job of keeping those pesky ear mites/bugs away. The horses don’t like that too much but they are getting used to it.
I also apply Frontline spray every 2 weeks, as instructed by my vet. (Above poster said every 2 to 3 days? I have not heard of it being applied that often.)
With all that work, I actually think I am keeping the ticks under pretty good control this year.
A couple years ago, I forgot to check poor Shotgun’s man parts … I literally sat there on a stool and pulled off about 50 huge ticks. Poor guy. 
I felt like a bad mom for forgetting to check there!
We’ve used the Freedom45 “spot on” treatment for flies and ticks for several years with good results. It’s not perfect but it is quite effective.
G.
I can’t use the Freedom 45 on my pony unfortunately, that has served me well in the past. He looses his hair.
The cat tick collars I’ve used so far are the Hartz cheap brand I could get at Harris Teeter by the barn, which I didn’t think was going to work so I ordered Seresto cat collars and when the Hartz become ineffective I’ll change to the Seresto collars. So far the Hartz ones have working, 3 weeks now. I do spray with Tri-tec and keep MTG in the base of the tail and mane, weekly. He lives in a fly sheet so he won’t burn with MTG, being out 24/7. So not really sure what product is helping but no ticks. I board in Leesburg if that makes a difference. I had sticker shock with the Seresto cat collars, but then I looked up how much lyme treatment was.
I am curious…i just chopped ponies mane for summer…found NO ticks…my dogs are not yet on trifecsiius and ZERO ticks…we have 10 acres of woods…but all pastures and perimeter areas are mowed…safe face midges 1 day then gone…am I in a twilight zone…last year we went with no fleas until almost September…so no flea mess needed…
We used TruGreen. You just have to be very firm with them, repeatedly, about not wanting anything else they offer. In general, we’re not a fan of industrial pesticides, and all the fertilizers, repellents, fungicides etc. I use in the garden are organic, but the consequences of tick-borne illnesses are severe enough that we make an exception in this case. (I have had Lyme disease twice, and promptly treated, it has caused no ill effects BUT I have several friends who have not been so lucky.) I would imagine that the same precautions that apply to children also apply to dogs, usually a 48 hour waiting period before you let them into a sprayed area,
Thx for the info. I use nothing in my garden and almost nothing in the yard but the tick situation this yr makes me reconsider that philsophy.
Yes, ticks are terrible this year. I run my dogs through brush daily and have been picking them off like crazy even though they are all on Advantix II. It used to work but now I’m pulling live ticks out of them with no sign of dying. I went out and bought Seresto collars for them all yesterday. Have not noticed as much with my horses but they are on mowed grass and don’t sleep in my bed…so probably they are being bitten too.
Maybe time to get chickens to share their pasture; I’ve been thinking about it for years.
