Check yourself for Ticks

[B5MECH]

Ahh like walnut aftershave
Thanks will have to try a bottle

 

[Sparra]

For some reason I thought ticks are only in the first 300 or so mm from the ground and any that get onto you up high have climbed there..Probably wrong but I thought I read it somewhere...

 

[B5MECH]

The area is swampy and I only seem to get them when I brush through trees and they end up on my upper back and neck and head, I've never got one when I'm in open grass fields and haven't had an issue even in the dog parks, they seem to be tiny grass ticks, it may be a coincidence about the tree thing but I'm not sure

 

[Old Fred]

The area is swampy and I only seem to get them when I brush through trees and they end up on my upper back and neck and head, I've never got one when I'm in open grass fields and haven't had an issue even in the dog parks, they seem to be tiny grass ticks, it may be a coincidence about the tree thing but I'm not sure

The only trees ticks get in around here are banana .Generally only get them in grass .Neem works on me but not the dog.

 

[B5MECH]

Thanks Fred, by the sounds your in FNQ, I grew up in Cairns and those ******* paralysis ticks killed one of my dogs and no matter what we tried nothing would keep them away from her.
I sounds like it will work on the little buggers down here

 

[Heatho]

Bushmans with long pants tucked into your socks. Anything with DEET should work but yeah I think Bushmans is the best. I've got some mates that work on the local bush regeneration team here on the NB I'll ask them if they know of anything better.

I had 30 grass ticks on me last year from my own front garden in one go ( I hate the ba@#$rds), I sprayed the whole garden with pyrethrin afterward and haven't seen any since. You know that the grass ticks are nymph paralyisys ticks mate? They can give you a red meat allergy too if you're unlucky, very common on the NB..... Areas with paralisys ticks I usually avoid at certain times of year, anywhere humid and scrubby with have them within 10km of the coast.

 

[B5MECH]

I didn't know that 8.( I think I'd want to die if I can't eat steak, some are near the primary school so I'm surprised there hasn't been complaints from parents.
The council is happy to poison rabbits regularly but maybe they need to focus on these little buggers.

 

[Heatho]

Yeah mate, a lot of pets die every year around here, people get lyme like illnesses in the area, thousands of red meat allergy (MMA)sufferers too.

Extract: "Dr van Nunen blames the proliferation of bandicoots. And this is where the allergy gets even stranger. When the tick feeds on a bandicoot or other small mammal, it picks up a small amount of alpha-gal from its blood, which is transmitted from the ticks gut into the human when the tick is pulled off. It is this sugar that people with MMA become allergic to."

Check the rest of this article, everyone who lives in our area should be informed about this.
http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/he...t/news-story/1f64fdb74e86fe7fd1a9c30793806548

Anyway from 100,000's of tick bites here every year only a couple of hundred develop an associated illness. Should still know about it though, could save a life one day.

It's rare but the little buggers can be pretty dangerous sometimes.

 

[B5MECH]

I've been seeing quite a few bandicoot holes lately and rabbits are popping up again so will take more notice next time I get an itch, the one from yesterday on the back of my neck I scratched it out without knowing it was a tick then later my GF found one itching on her back which I plucked with tweerzers and both have swelled up
Will have to get some wart off and stop scratching them out

 

[Davent]

Keeping them you is harder than your dog. Regular inspections of soft tissue areas , and getting them early is the go. My mate had a real problem in his yard. He had a perty, country and western, and got a couple of bails of hay to set the mood. Thats where they came from. A few weeks later, they were out of control. His dog had hundreds on him , and no matter what he did, they kept coming back. Untill he bought chooks. Yep, he now has about 8 chooks, and no grass ticks.
My dog got a few when she was a pup. She was also born with mange, which is passed on from her mum. Treated her with ivamac (at the vets), and she has never had a flea or tick since, not one.
As for people. Sprat around the tops of your boots, and check your groin and arm pits regularly if in a problem area. Plants like cycads house hundreds of ticks. So if detecting in areas with black boys etc, you are in tick country.

 

[B5MECH]

Ahh, I went to look at a bush area to to have a look around and there were heaps of black boys so I think they would have come from there and not the grass,
our house was sprayed for tics not too long ago but that might give me a good reason to see if I'm allowed to have a pet chook clucking around the back yard :lol:

 

[Old Fred]

Have allways been told to spray ticks first to kill them then remove .That way when u gently remove them with tweesers they come out in one piece ,Try and remove them alive they leave a fang like thing in the bite that causes infection May be a load of old wives tales but i spray the buggers

 

[Ned]

Most ticks in swampy areas live in Ti Trees / Paperbark. Stay away from brushing against them.

Ned

 

[Heatho]

Last one I had on me dropped onto me from a paperbark tree. It was a paralysis tick too, the Northern Beaches is just about the worst place in Australia for the things, they are also the deadliest of any tick, actually I don't even know if any others are deadly to animals, though they can even kill a child but generally will just make an adult sick.

I pretty much totally avoid bush areas around here this time of year. Last year was a severe tick season and I think this one may be worse due to the rain and mild winter temperatures. Perfect tick breeding weather.

 

[Jaros]

We use Bravecto for Fleas and Ticks--3mths protection per tab.

 

[Ridge Runner]

If ya wearing shorts, coat ya legs in Kero and the same with ya blundstone boots, they don't like it, Or Citronella Oil, they don't like that either,

John.

 

[B5MECH]

I've been digging BMX and MX jumps in the local bush for more than 15 years and have never got one. last year I got 2 in a few months apart from the back yard which has been sprayed now, but the areas I've been going seem to be infected in them
the last one came from the bush but I've had a couple from where there a few trees and shrubs are beside a school and I think a couple are paper bark trees
I definitely wont scratch without checking again
I never new they are so evil

 

[The Green Wanderer]

Yep their out and about the whole reigon.

Got one behind my right ear a month ago, dropped onto me when I was ducking under the branches of a rivergum and knocked my hat off.
Generally try and wade up creek to avoid the pests but didnt on this occasion.

Was poking around the Koah area at the time, only other time ive had a tick bite was climbing the pyramid a couple of years back. They love the bracken ferns up there.

Mostly ticks hang around in the brush and grass about waist height or below waiting to drop onto passing animals to feed.
Its worse when you stop amid the scrub for whatever reason as it gives them more time to get onto your clothing then climb in somewhere warm.

They also seem more abundant around water which i assume comes back to the habit of wild animals which come down to drink.

Either way, nasty little suckers

Was once told that a mixture of tea tree and chilli oil would keep away ticks but havnt ever tested that advice...

 

[B5MECH]

When I lived in Cairns I never got a tick on me just my dogs, even leaches would swim around me to get to my mates :lol: I'm starting to wonder if Australia has a epidemic and something new needs to by introduced to eat them, but that could be a bad idea like the cane toad

 

[Sandta]

Good thing we (Australia) dont have lymes desease