All Things Dog Blog

Posted: 21 Jan 2010 02:37 PM PST

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(c) photo copyright Carrie Boyko 2009

Happy Tanner has No More Ticks!

Why is Tanner so happy? Because he is now tick-free. After a terrible infestation in October, Tanner and his housemates--Oliver and Xena--endured a tough month of de-ticking. Fortunately for us, we had the backing of our organic pest control company, Bug Brigade, to solve the problem without adding toxins to our environment.

Here's our story. After a 6 day camping trip with the dogs, we apparently brought home half the ticks in all the woods we hiked through. When I discovered the rascals, I started removing them, using the technique I had learned at my vet. The count went higher and higher.

Soon, I realized that de-bugging was not solving the problem. It was clear that we must have already dropped lots of the little guys around the yard and our home, as the dogs kept turning up with more, each time I checked them.

I called Scott and explained the problem. He was reassuring and confident that his peppermint oil treatment would do the trick, as long as I did my part. What was my part?

Wash all the dog bedding and rugs in areas they like to lay
Remove the ticks from the dogs each day during the treatment duration
Spray them with a peppermint oil preparation he prescribed
Contain the dogs to a designated area of the home, giving him full access to the rest for annihilation. And no, I didn't have to keep them in crates or even in a small room. They had full access to our kitchen, family room and a large screened porch. The weather was nice, so this worked out just fine.

Scott's treatment involved a couple of heavy duty power sprayings of the yard, porch and trees. It smelled great--no chemical odors when you're using peppermint oil. We smelled like candy canes at Christmas time.

In addition, they went over our entire indoors, treating all the floorboards and every area that the dogs had previously spent time in. After leaving me with a couple of recipes (1 for dog spray and one for house spray), I was given a bottle of peppermint oil to continue back-up treatments.

I thought this might be it, but was pleasantly surprised when they returned for repeat performances until the ticks had dwindled to only an occasional one here or there. I was thrilled not to have to bomb my home or spray pesticides all over my yard. A month later, we found ourselves with no more bugs and the lingering sweet smell of peppermint. How could I not love that?

If you're in the Central Florida area and are looking for natural pest control that won't be toxic to you, your pets or your kids, I can highly recommend Bug Brigade.

Would you like to share your experience? Write to me at LetsAdoptaDogPark@gmail.com. Happy tails!

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