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Ticks

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When I was young, maybe teenager, me and my cousin were at camp and discovered a hornet nest (could not see it, we just saw them always going to that same spot under some wood stairs). We decided to investigate and see if we can destroy it, since people were often getting stung when they went up or down those stairs.

We were run bombing it with buckets of sand and water etc and running the hell away. Like some kind of recon mission. My cousin ended up getting stung in a few places and we both ran down to the camper as they were chasing us. We took a break. My cousin was telling everyone else at camp "I got stung here, here, and #$%@#$#@$#@" at that moment one stung him right inside the lip. It was hilarious timing, like something out of a cartoon. After he got over the pain we were just all laughing since his lip was super huge. Poor guy lol.

Me and my grandpa go back to check it out. My grandpa is the type of guy that will watch us kids do stupid crap like that and then step in shaking his head once things get out of hand. He gets on his knees on the steps where the nest is, shoves his hand in the nest and is like "oh yeah I feel it this is a big one!" and he's literally just handling the nest with his bare hands getting a feel for it. Meanwhile I'm like 20 feet behind thinking he's freaking insane, but yet not surprised. They all start pouring out and I end up getting stung on my foot. I don't even know how my grandpa did not get stung. Crazy guy lol.

I don't actually remember how all of that ended, if we just kept working at it or if he got rid of it himself. I think we actually ended up continuing and were eventually successful. Been a while so don't quite recall.
 
CZroe said:
Male athletic shorts and swimming trunks were SUPER short back in the ‘80s. I remember riding my bike and having one fly right into my shorts and getting me in my crotch. She got me a few times on the leg side. Good thing I was wearing my tightey whiteys!
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I had a yellow jacket sneak into my underwear that were just laying on the floor in the bathroom. I was taking a shower and after drying off I went and put my underwear back on. That was most unpleasant. It stung my scrotum and I screamed like a girl!

It felt like hours for it to stop hurting.

🙁
 
Iron Woode said:
I had a yellow jacket sneak into my underwear that were just laying on the floor in the bathroom. I was taking a shower and after drying off I went and put my underwear back on. That was most unpleasant. It stung my scrotum and I screamed like a girl!

It felt like hours for it to stop hurting.

🙁
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D:

On the plus side, your children will have crazy yellow-jacket super powers.
 
I don't care about Lyme, but it's that new "allergic to meat" disease that I'm terrified of getting from them. Screw that noise. I would probably have to off myself.
 
My wife's cousin has that Alpha-gal syndrome. She was never a big red meat eater anyway, but she still says it sucks!

Another reason I poison the crap out of my yard every year. Turn it into a vast waste land for bugs.
 
pcgeek11 said:
My wife's cousin has that Alpha-gal syndrome. She was never a big red meat eater anyway, but she still says it sucks!

Another reason I poison the crap out of my yard every year. Turn it into a vast waste land for bugs.
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poisoning your yard means you're poisoning your family and your neighbors. sucks to live next to you.
 
Does Diatomaceous earth work on ticks? That used to be my ring of death around my last house that was prone to insect invasions. Actually, I used to use some far more evil stuff I had to apply with gloves, dust mask and googles - then it was deemed a carcinogen and environmental hazard 🙁. It’s like waterproof stains, you just can get the "good stuff" anymore.
 
Ajay said:
Does Diatomaceous earth work on ticks? That used to be my ring of death around my last house that was prone to insect invasions. Actually, I used to use some far more evil stuff I had to apply with gloves, dust mask and googles - then it was deemed a carcinogen and environmental hazard 🙁. It’s like waterproof stains, you just can get the "good stuff" anymore.
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On the microscopic level, diatomaceous earth resembles bits of broken glass. Though food-grade DE is harmless to humans and animals, those itty-bitty glass-like fragments kill insects like fleas, ticks, lice and mites (and their larvae) by piercing their protective structures, which causes them to dehydrate and die.
 
highland145 said:
On the microscopic level, diatomaceous earth resembles bits of broken glass. Though food-grade DE is harmless to humans and animals, those itty-bitty glass-like fragments kill insects like fleas, ticks, lice and mites (and their larvae) by piercing their protective structures, which causes them to dehydrate and die.
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also works on snails and slugs.
 
highland145 said:
On the microscopic level, diatomaceous earth resembles bits of broken glass. Though food-grade DE is harmless to humans and animals, those itty-bitty glass-like fragments kill insects like fleas, ticks, lice and mites (and their larvae) by piercing their protective structures, which causes them to dehydrate and die.
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Seems to. My mother uses the stuff all over her place and the dog has free reign. Only see a tick on the dog every few years or so and it probably comes from venturing out.
 
CZroe said:
Seems to. My mother uses the stuff all over her place and the dog has free reign. Only see a tick on the dog every few years or so and it probably comes from venturing out.
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From what I've read its also very effective as a preventive measure against bed-bug infestation and I've personally used it to help knock down a whole-house flea infestation. Only real negative is that it takes awhile to fully work.
 
lxskllr said:
They're good food for some animals, especially birds, but I agree; fuck ticks. The critters can eat something else.
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Ticks suck. Uh so do mosquitos, and I hate them worse. At least ticks don't fly around looking for lunch under your skin. Instead they hitch a ride.
 
Red Squirrel said:
I heard some parts of Quebec even have rattlesnakes and black widows now.
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Rattlers and black widows are legit threats and not as much as people would think.

You have to be pretty unlucky to get bitten by a Rattler. That rattle tail is there to alert you. They aren't looking for trouble.

It's just the female black widow whose bite is poisonous. I have lived where they are for decades. I have encountered a few, but very rarely. You aren't apt to run into one. They typically are in dark out of the way places, say under your house, maybe in a corner. And they hang out in their web, just sit there, is my experience. You will very very likely see it before it's any possible menace to you. And again, they aren't looking for trouble. They just want a fly to enter their web and have lunch. The female is a kind of medium sized spider. Not tiny, not big. Maybe IIRC all in all about the size of a 25 cent piece. There's a red hourglass on their abdomen, that's how you ID them.
 
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Captante said:
From what I've read its also very effective as a preventive measure against bed-bug infestation and I've personally used it to help knock down a whole-house flea infestation. Only real negative is that it takes awhile to fully work.
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I had some silver fish in my bedroom and a couple of applications over some weeks of boric acid under the bed seems to have done them in. Boric acid also (thankfully!!!) was the end of a cockroach threat here when I found them living in a small boom box in the kitchen. Some powder in the radio and they disappeared. That was decades ago.
 
Ajay said:
Does Diatomaceous earth work on ticks? That used to be my ring of death around my last house that was prone to insect invasions. Actually, I used to use some far more evil stuff I had to apply with gloves, dust mask and googles - then it was deemed a carcinogen and environmental hazard 🙁. It’s like waterproof stains, you just can get the "good stuff" anymore.
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Yes. They can still hitch a ride past that area on a person or pet, but yes the dehydration effect that comes with hundreds of thousands of fossil shards piercing their bodies still applies to ticks thankfully. Keep the dust mask (better yet get an upgraded one) though. Just because it didn't come from a lab doesn't mean it still can't screw you up. That stuff goes in your lungs and a large portion will never leave.

I use weapons grade garlic everywhere and DE strategically. 2 applications this season so far and I haven't seen a tick in almost 3 weeks. Still have mosquitoes and black flies, but no ticks. I do what I can to take it easy on the bees.
 
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zinfamous said:
poisoning your yard means you're poisoning your family and your neighbors. sucks to live next to you.
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Well I don't have ticks or fleas...

Properly used it doesn't hurt anything but the bugs. It must suck to be eat up with bugs.

Enjoy your Alpha-gal syndrome.
 
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TBH I would probably choose chemical poisoning over getting bit by a tick and slowly dying of Lyme disease.

That said I'm not a big fan of using chemicals either so I'd probably avoid it unless I can confirm I really do have ticks. It sucks that these are making their way here now, I really like the idea of living off grid or at very least building a camp from scratch but with all these dangerous things starting to show up because of climate change it will make life much harder. You pretty much have to wear pants now if going in the bush and that freaking sucks when it's like 20+ degrees out.

Times were simpler when all I had to worry about is bears.
 
Captante said:
You have far more confidence in the big chemical companies then I do
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Been doing it for 35 years or so. If it was going to get me It should have already gotten me. Meh 😛

If you have fire ants, ticks fleas etc .... You can't get rid of them with idle threats. Or throwing Lavender water on them.

But to each his own.
 
I had lyme disease 2 summers ago and I have no clue how or when the tick got me. But damn that was not a fun 2 weeks, especially not knowing what the hell is wrong with me.
 
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