Looks like a great hunt Tom...with excellent results! Thanks for sharing =]

Tom:

I've been thinking about your pictures all night and today...what a trip!!!

Fellas: I can testify as to something that WILL work against ticks.---FRONTLINE, the tick medicine for dogs.

Put some in a ziplock bag with a rag in it. When you are about to go where ticks are, just pat the rag on your clothes. It don't take much! It works on red bugs (chiggers) and skeeters too.

If Campeche is the name for "Land Of Snakes and Ticks", then thats what I ought to call my place! But then I'd be leaving out the Red Bugs and Skeeters and Hogs!

Those pictures are worth puttin' up with the ticks. Awesome!

Coach--

Good idea.

The active ingredient is Fipronil, which is also used to put a barrier into the ground around buildings to kill subterranean termites. Terminix labels it Termidor, and others use other names.

But be careful with it. If you do handle it, wear latex gloves and dispose of any contaminated materials wrapped up in newspaper, then wash your hands thoroughly.

It is very harmful to beneficial insects like bees, and whole colonies have been wiped out after they were accidentally exposed. One or more (like the termites) carry it back to the colony/hive where it is passed around and kills any that come in contact with it or eat it. Agricultural investigators have had to deal with it somehow wiping out bee hives here in Florida.

I guess a safer environmental approach would be to stick to the flea collars and/or DEET. Having come close to the consequences of Lyme disease, I prefer not to get bitten by any of the nasties.

Larry

Thanks Larry.
You are correct. Fipronil is very toxic. I read that even a concentration of one part per trillion is toxic to bees. That is one liter per cubic kilometer. Think about it. That’s not much.

It was in Organic or Physical Chemistry in college that we were discussing the toxicity of some substance, that someone in the class said that one gram of that particular substance could kill a million people. To which, Dr. Burr countered: “That’s like saying that a teaspoon of semen could impregnate 250 million women. The problem is distribution!”

Fipronil is some potent stuff. It should be handled carefully with the precaution of gloves. It probably wouldn’t do to sniff it either.

But it keeps the pests off my dogs. It will also keep them off of me. With what Lyme disease, West Nile Virus, and otherwise being eaten alive by the Skeeters around here, it’s danged if you do, and danged if you don’t.

I’m not sure that ANYTHING that really works is without risks. Thanks again for reminding us of that.