Snakes & Ticks

[greybeard]

What you need is a good crop of fire ants. They will just about eliminate ticks. We still have a few cattle and dog ticks, but nowhere near as many as we did when I was a boy.

And we also had some very small ticks back then. We called them "seed ticks", but I don't know what the proper name was for them. They were so small they were hard to see with the naked eye, and you wouldn't know you had any until you had dozens or hundreds on you. You'd have to get in the bath with rubbing alcohol (the best I can remember) added to the water to get rid of them. I haven't heard anything about them in probably close to 40 years.

Vinegar in bath water, but I don't really think it helped. We'd was down at night with cloth soaked in rubbing alcohol, but not in the bath water. I could see the little buggers just fine, since they moved in a big cloud right up my legs. We dusted ourselves with sulpur and anything else we could think of when we were fencing this place back in the 60s--didn't help much. Yeah, they disappeared about the same time the fire ants showed up, but I think the end of open range here had something to do with their demise too. The fire ants haven't made much difference to all the big ticks around here tho.

 

[wacocowboy]

I see a tick every once in awhile last one I saw was year before last. glad I don't have many can't stand those thing. had enough of them living in Honduras that place is infested with every kind of tick known to man and then some. Haven't seen any snakes yet kinda odd I got plenty of them mainly chicken snakes a few copper heads, cotton mouths, and corals never seen a rattle snake here and that is fine.

 

[inyati13]

Sky, I have had most of my cattle through the chute this week for Ivomec Plus injection. I saw a tick on a cows back. I lifted it off. It was the common wood tick. It was not yet engorged with blood. The Ivomec will put some kinks in their evil ways!

 

[dun]

What you need is a good crop of fire ants. They will just about eliminate ticks. We still have a few cattle and dog ticks, but nowhere near as many as we did when I was a boy.

And we also had some very small ticks back then. We called them "seed ticks", but I don't know what the proper name was for them. They were so small they were hard to see with the naked eye, and you wouldn't know you had any until you had dozens or hundreds on you. You'd have to get in the bath with rubbing alcohol (the best I can remember) added to the water to get rid of them. I haven't heard anything about them in probably close to 40 years.

Vinegar in bath water, but I don't really think it helped. We'd was down at night with cloth soaked in rubbing alcohol, but not in the bath water. I could see the little buggers just fine, since they moved in a big cloud right up my legs. We dusted ourselves with sulpur and anything else we could think of when we were fencing this place back in the 60s--didn't help much. Yeah, they disappeared about the same time the fire ants showed up, but I think the end of open range here had something to do with their demise too. The fire ants haven't made much difference to all the big ticks around here tho.

Bleach in the bath water works great, also gets rid of chiggers.

 

[3waycross]

Got infested with the seed ticks(and others) in Missouri a few years ago while Turkey hunting.....Came home with a real nice case of Lyme disease from them.

...............now there's the gift that keeps on giving. I am about due for this years reoccurrence.

 

[lavacarancher]

I'll send yawl a bucket of fire ants. That'll take care of the ticks.

 

[greybeard]

Only one?
ya sure you can spare it?

 

[alisonb]

Haven't seen a tick in years. Wife said she saw a dead rattlesnake draped over a barbed wire fence last year. Guess the owner kilt it.

Th only 'kilt' I know of are those things the Scottish guys wear

Bleach in the bath water works great, also gets rid of chiggers.

As kids we had to put paraffin in the bath, seemed to work??

 

[skyhightree1]

Sky, I have had most of my cattle through the chute this week for Ivomec Plus injection. I saw a tick on a cows back. I lifted it off. It was the common wood tick. It was not yet engorged with blood. The Ivomec will put some kinks in their evil ways!

I need to do that soon I havent seen any on the cattle yet though.

 

[ifarm26]

My son, who is 4, saw a black snake yesterday while i was mowing the yard. The snake, about 3 foot, came slithering out of the old smokehouse and headed for the pasture behind the house. My son was sooo excited that he saw it before I did.

 

[skyhightree1]

lol black snakes i leave alone