Tick treatments, anything natural that is effective? - Page 1

Have been using, with disdain, Advantix II on my dogs. Wish I could find a natural (non chemical) solution to the tick problem that really works. Anything natural out there that can be relied upon. Lots of BS on the Internet. Thanks.

Recently purchased the spray and used it on my dog's ears to keep some small gnat type bugs away. Worked for them but I don't have a flea/tick problem so can't comment on that. Might be worth a try.  I am going to use it on my horses to see if it works for flies/mosquitoes.

 

http://shop.mercola.com/catalog/flea-tick,548,9,0.htm

Some ideas below from Dr. Becker who is selling natural stuff but generally speaks the truth about all the alternatives.  My approach is treat when the pest is present ( no 12 month per year for ticks or heartworms in NC ), monitor your dogs for ticks present or attaching,  use topicals vs orals, and rotate chemistry.  I prefer topicals for ticks as there are no antidotes for oral tick products.  I spread the topicals out over the dog neck to rump along the back and comb them in immediately.  Using products with different modes of action or rotating between natural, chemical, and nothing during low pest or no pest months reduces the chance of pesticide toxicity.  As a former pesticide researcher and adviser for a wide range of forage, food, animal, and household pest control I can tell you the lies and 12 month a year "preventative" BS the veterinarians and pet pest control industry promotes would be considered criminal and malpractice.  The first rule of IPM is if you do the same thing long enough it will stop working.  The second rule is the dose makes the poison. 

http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2012/07/23/tick-borne-disease-in-dogs.aspx

http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2012/05/04/flea-and-tick-control-tips-for-pets.aspx

National Park Sevice IPM guide for ticks. Most of the IPM ideas involve starving the ticks, taking away their host and home, avoiding infection, and chemical or biological controls when the tick numbers get too high to live with ( ie monitor and treat when needed only ).

http://www.nature.nps.gov/biology/ipm/manual/ticks.cfm

In the case of tick borne diseases reducing the population of small mammals such as rats, mice, and chipmunks that are close to areas where your dogs frequent can reduce disease in the ticks as these small mammals are host for tick borne diseases and a blood food source for female mosquitoes.  Not all small mammals are alternate hosts ( probably depends on the tick species and tick density ).  Squirrels in one study had no effect on tick infection rate but mice and chipmunks did.  Removing ground covers or reducing their height plus cutting brush and overgrowth so that sunlight can shine on the ground and plants 8 hours per day reduces tick numbers as does reducing leaf cover and ground trash that ticks use to overwinter.  Ticks are soft bodied and thin so drying them out with fire, sunshine and dusts or freezing them in the winter with reduction in places to overwinter works well.  In many parts of the USA we had a warmer than normal and fewer low temperature days than usual so more ticks overwintered.

Thanks for responses so far. Can't seem to find anyone who will vouch for natural prevention methods.

Pesticides aren't prevention either .. the tick has to bite the dog with most of these pesticides. All of that prevention BS for heartworms and most flea and tick products is just that BS and marketing lies. All of the heartworm products kill the L3-L5 stage of the heartworm after the dog is infected. Ticks can be discouraged by some products such as permethrins and pyrethroids. As far as natural .. that is questionable sometimes too?? I use cedar bedding for my kennel dogs and seldom see a flea or tick. I use permethrin spot on for ticks ( I buy the horse spot on and use 1 tube for 2-3 dogs ). Cedar oil would likely give some prevention although I have no experience as I use cedar bedding. Cedar bedding and cedar oil probably has health effects for some dogs due to dust and allergies.  As much as possible I try to cut out the pet industry marketing leeches who tell their lies for the pet food and pesticide makers. If my dogs need salmon oil I feed them a half can of pink salmon ( $1.25 per week ). If my dogs need animal protein and animal fat I buy chicken leg quarters for 65 cents per pound ( $1 per day ) and if my dogs need vitamins I feed beef liver they get 1/3 pound per week as raw beef liver from Food Lion. Healthy well fed and exercised dogs don't get sick and can fight off parasites and diseases. I worm twice a year or perhaps more .. once ( 5 days in a row ) with fenbendazole and once ( three days in a row ) with pyrantel pamoate. The only pest prevention my dogs get once per day and once per month year round is human grade animal protein and fats. I will give them a little rice with their salmon from time to time as a carbohydrate source but everything I have researched says that carbohydrates and sugars promote cancer in both dogs and humans. At present dogs are dying of cancer at a rate higher than in humans.

I mist my dogs with a lavender essential oil water solution every day in addition to grooming/checking for ticks and I haven't had a problem with ticks on my dogs, and I live in an area infested with ticks. In fact, one day last year my siblings and I met up to walk our dogs in grassy/woodsy area. None of the dogs got ticks (they were all treated with the lavender water), but a few of the humans did! I have also found that essential oil of lemongrass and citronella also works well at deterring insects, but I prefer the scent of lavender. I use oils from Wyndmere and Aura Cacia, if you are interested in going the essential oil route.

The lavender oil sounds good .. I'll give it a go. Creepy crawlies like insects, ticks and spiders have an essentially passive respiration system .. they don't breath in and out and they can't sneeze to clear their spiracles ( air tubes ) so some oils and fragrances block up their respiration and chokes them which is a good thing if you want them dead or gone. I haven't come up with a business model just yet but a dragonfly is the best mosquito control available. Rice fields are natural habitats for mosquitoes and dragonflies are the mosquito hunters in them. When a dragonfly is around all of the mosquitoes will be hiding as far down in the vegetation and under everything they can find. The mosquitoes likely hear the dragonflies wings and the frequency and vibrations they make so there is a product for a dogs collar in that idea so long as the frequency does not drive the dogs crazy too.  Creepy crawlies are very adaptive however so you have to rotate controls and keep them guessing where their death will come from. 

I have been using "DE" on my dogs for about 4 years now and it does keep Fleas off my dogs but never had a Tick problem until we went to Tennessee...then...There were Ticks...The "DE" doesn't keep them from getting on my dogs but they don't stay on my dogs...I found some laying on the floor of my kennel...still alive so I just killed them...
I feed my dogs a teaspoon of Food Grade "DE" everyday in their food...I put a teaspoon of "DE" on their kibble/covered with water...

~Bob~

Tick and flea control with DE .. as far as I know DE is a dessicant and irritant which kills fleas as a dust applied to the pets coat.  The food grade is the only type to use on humans or animals as the pool grade has silica crystals (ie glass) which are respitory and internal irritants.  Humans and animals can eat food grade DE which has some effect on GI tract internal pests ( worms, nematodes, etc ) but does not control fleas on the outside of your dog as a food additive.  There is not any down side of using food grade DE other than cost and it is relatively cheap.  It can be used in the house or kennel safely or applied as a dust to the dog's coat.  Once DE gets wet it loses it potency as a dessicant or irritant for insects.  Good for small insects like fleas and bedbugs but not so good for ticks.

http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2010/08/12/natural-strategies-for-a-fleafree-itchfree-pet-this-summer_2620_.aspx