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Our dogs have deer ticks

Our dogs got deer ticks while visiting central florida. Now our yard has been infested and we have triend front line and nothing works. Can you offer suggestions on how to cure them from these undesirable pests?
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If you do a yahoo search or a google search for "tick control," you will see a lot of good info on the first page of hits.  I looked at one site called www.doyourownpestcontrol.com/ticks that looked like it had some good information on it.  They recommend specific chemicals for the yard, and there are links to those chemicals.  The chemicals that they recommend are of relatively low toxicity, as far as commercial insecticides go -- which in my mind is a good thing.  You want an insecticide to kill what you want it to kill, but you want it to be safe for yourself and your pets, and you don't want it persisting in the environment forever.  

For spraying the yard, I have used hose-end sprayers successfully.  They are pretty easy to use and will hold enough solution to cover a small to medium size yard.

If you prefer to use one of the gallon reservoir-type sprayers that you carry in one hand while you operate the spray nozzle with your other hand, spend enough money on it to get a good one.  When I tried those, I tried to go cheap, and the ones that I used (I think I tried two) didn't work very well.  But exterminaters use them all the time, so I'm thinking their usefulness probably depends a lot on the quality of what you buy.  

If you have a big yard, you may not need to spray the whole yard, just the areas where the dogs spend the most time.  Remove the dogs and keep them well aways from the area while you are spraying, and keep them out of the area until the spray is completely dry.

Also, ehow.com/tick-control looked good.  They recommended planting pennyroyal around the perimeter of your yard.  Supposedly, ticks don't like it.  

Diatomaceous earth kills fleas.  Maybe it will kill ticks too, but you'll have to check that out, because I'm not totally sure.  The big advantage of DE is that is is nontoxic to everything but insects (and hopefully ticks).  

You've got to treat both the dogs and all the areas where they stay, inside and outside.  For the dogs, if Frontline doesn't work, maybe Frontline Plus or Advantix will.  I have heard that the Preventic collars are good.  If none of the spot-on products or tick collars work, then I think you are just going to have to check the dogs daily and remove ticks as you go, until the problem is under control.

If you have a local hardware or farm supply store that has knowledgable people who work there, they probably know what works and doesn't work, as far as yard products.  As far as the dog products, I would be more careful of taking folks' advice from that type of setting.  Sometimes you get the old wives's tales, like "Oh, yeah, we used to douse old Shep in kerosene.  Never had any problems."  As ginger advises, your vet would probably be a better local source of advice for dog products.

Good luck.
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675347 tn?1365460645
COMMUNITY LEADER
Ticks are terrible. They just are a nuisance, and can carry Lyme disease of course (though not all of them do)
If Frontline won't work, maybe you could ask your vet for some advice? I'm not sure what could kill Ticks in your yard and on the dogs too, and would be safe for dogs.
I heard that Geranium Essential oil can repel Ticks. I'm not sure if it works or not. But you really need to completely get rid of them....and I'm not sure what to use for that.
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675347 tn?1365460645
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