OK, this has gone on far too seriously long by a half! Been waking up with ticks sucking on me. I know they dogs (who don't seem to be bothered with them) are bringing them in from the fenced yard. I keep it well manicured and clean, but we live in the country and the ticks are bad this year. I've always hesitated to spray because of fear it would make the dogs ill. But it is a small yard and surrounded by a driveway, so I think doing so might help.

Can anyone recommend a safe grass spray, maybe something water-hose fed that may work?

Thanks!

Chris, Violet, and Nola Rue

Not sure about things that are safe to spray, but have you tried using rose geranium oil on the dogs? It's a good tick repellant and you can just put a drop on their collar every so often. Just don't use it on cats if you have any, they can't metabolize the oils. I got a good sized bottle from Amazon for right around $10.

Living here in south FL I deal with ticks all year long. There really is no safe way to treat your yard. All you can do is stick with the directions of the product you are using. Now in our experience we found out that the the dry stuff you put in the spreader works longer and is a better then the bottle stuff you put on the hose. Why, because as soon as it rains the hose stuff washes away the spreader stuff doesn't unless you live on a hill.
We do not have a preference on what brand we use they all seem to work the same. We also mix ours with Diatomaceous earth and do it once every 3 months. It does help but it does not get rid of them all.
Also pine trees are known to have large amounts of ticks on them. So if you have any pine trees you may want to treat them also.

I don't have any information to help but wanted to say it's nice to hear from you Chris and I hope you are doing well! We would love to see some updated pics of Violet!

Thank you all. I asked my vet today, too, and he suggested the granulated chemicals as being safe(st) and longest lasting.

Sorry I haven't been around much. I am still very focused on our adoptee Violet, as well as her sister Nola. I am babysitting Storm, a Golden Retriever that owns a good friend of mine. I awoke with Storm on my face this morning as she does NOT like...STORMS!

Here's one from earlier in the new year...



And Violet testing out the new area rug...

Welcome back.

Ticks are not to be ignore here on the east coast! We are finding many more cases of mammalian meat allergy (or alpha-gal) caused by tick bites to humans around here.

Here's a link to some information coming out of UVA: http://www.peoplespharmacy.com/2011/10/01/830-alpha-gal-allergy/

My family personally knows 4 people with this allergy, maybe 5. It causes terrible anaphylactic reactions for the affected person when he eats mammal meat. My son's friend is part of the current study at UVA.

Our vet told me that Va Tech is conducting some tests to try to predict if this will ever effect animals. So far there are no reports that is has.