A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2006 Ticks and Mosquito

I just wanted to see if ticks and skeeters are present in your neck of the woods and if so how bad are they?
Please include what area (don't need to be exact) you are from.

Thanks Mike


Do you have a tick problem?


Do you have a skeeter problem?


On a scale of 0 to 10, with "10" being you won't go outside at times because of the pests, how would you rate your area?

Do either of the pests carry diseases in your area?

Do you plan to spray to control the pest population?

Just a few years ago, we had a bad tick problem, Now since we now have Fire ants, they kill out the ticks, so My tick problem has gone from a 8 to a 0

The Skeeters is a 10, I have started to use Skeeter dunks, that sure seem to work with standing water.

So here it is Skeeters and Fire ants.. Ants being the worse in my book

Here in central Oklahoma it was looking like the ticks were going to be bad this year. I'd say a 2 or 3 for a couple of weeks. I expected things to get very bad, but I've not seen another tick for a week. Mosquitos are at 2 in town, barely a 1 here at the farm. We're very dilligent about dumping standing water. We have lymes, rocky mountain spotted tick fever and west nile in Oklahoma, as well as heart worm in dogs from mosquitos, erlichia from ticks, and bobcat fever in cats from ticks. All very dangerous stuff.

I'm about 45 minutes from Charlotte NC and live by a large lake. I have yet to see a single tick this year. I'd rate it a 0. Mosquitos on the other hand are at a 3 and will increase to a 9 or 10 by midsummer. It will progressively get worse until myself and a few neighbors team up an have the area sprayed. It will then drop to a 1 or 2 for 6 weeks and rise back to about a 6 by late season. Luckily there have not been a large enough outbreak in disease to warrant putting it on the local news.

I need to ask...we are surrounded by hay fields that are currently very tall. I understand that ticks like tall grass but I don't know what to look for or what they look like

Here is a pic of a deer tick, but most ticks look pretty much the same, and you need to know what to look for to tell the difference.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/34/Adult_deer_tick.jpg/200px-Adult_deer_tick.jpg

They range in size from a small spot the size of a fleck of fine ground pepper to about the size of this letter " O " Just because you get a tick on you does not necessarily mean you will contract lymes disease. Only certain ticks carry it and not all of them do at that.

If you go out into the tall grass wear light colored clothing, this way the critters stand out better. Spray DEET or Avon's Skin So Soft on your exposed skin and clothing, this will help keep the ticks from realizing you are a meal ticket

Ortho or one of the major companies came out with a garlic oil based mosquito repellent a few years ago, it's supposed to be effective for 3 weeks or more when sprayed on the yard. This product was reviewed by the local tv news, but I have yet to see it on the shelf. Anyone seen/tried this product?

We're in zone 5, Northern Indiana.
I've seen one tic on one of the dogs already so maybe a 2 and the Mosquitos are worse this year than they were last year. Probably a 6 or more when it starts getting dark outside. We have a pond on the property, and the neighbors accross the street do too so I'm certain that makes the skeeters worse.

I'm in South Central PA and the tick problem is an 8 this year. We are in the woods though and expected to have a problem. The mosquitos have just started being a pest in the evening so I would rate them a 2 or 3.

Joanne

Mosquitoes ... I'd say about a 2 or 3 (mind you, I've got a pretty shady backyard)

Ticks ... 0 I haven't come across any


Dave --> Re: the garlic oil repellent, I think I may have seen the same tv news serial. The name of the company was Garlic Research or something along those lines, based out of California I believe. They have the product available for sale up here in Canada, but I have yet to try it.

Frann

... forgot to add ...

No, I don't plant to spray to control either the mosquitoes or ticks.

Hey Frann...where have you seen that garlic oil repellent...I'd like to try some...I'm in Southern Ontario. No tick problem here...but mosquitos are bad this year...a good 9 in our are for sure.

I have a major skeeter problem. I would rank it as a 10 just because I can't imagine how it could be any worse.

The question was asked "Do you plan to spray to control the pest population?" I would love to! What you would spray?

We are on the west coast of flordia and have a very bad tick problem. We got some mulch from Home Depot and the mulch was from New Orleans and full of ticks. My dog rolled in the mulch and brought them into the house. 8 weeks later and 3 different pest guys, we are almost ready to leave the state. On last Sunday we got 5 boxes of Mule Team Borex and put in into the carpets and on the wood flooring. The ticks seem to die quite nicley. Anyone out there have this house tick problem?
Signed- at my wits end.

dllfb ... 'sorry for the slow response, I've been out of town for a bit sans internet. There is a place in Toronto, called Upper Canada Organic Products, who carries the garliec oil repellent. Here's their site ...

http://www.ucorganicproducts.com/

TICKS- well, haven't seen any BUT my son just finished a month long round of antibiotics because he had Lyme Disease. the doc said they've seen a big increase in the cases they've come across with a positive test result for Lyme. we only knew because his hip had been bothering him for months and we finally had tests done.

MOSQUITOS- very bad this year. i would have to say a 10! i went out to water the other evening and i swear i got about 20 welts from the stuiped buggers! they are literally swarms of them. i don't have any standing water- and i don't see any neighbors having any but we had terrible floods this spring and they said because of it the skeeters would be especially bad because of the standing water left in places. oh well. when we do go out for more than a few minutes i do spray the kids with off.