I omitted Frontline from my initial post accidentally, we have been using this for a couple years now, initially it worked very well and we would find ticks on the floor, some dead and some which had perhaps bailed off the dog, dead one's which were partially engorged but still in/on the dog. The effectiveness has waned over the last year and I find, during my twice daily close inspections, ticks in various states of engorgement regularly. Being yellow (the dog) the ticks are very easy to spot and usually they come out on top of the fur within a few moments of his laying down and I can walk over and simply pick them off and put them in my alcohol filled tick-jar; the only way to truly grasp the sheer number of ticks I find on him. He got lime disease two years ago, it was amazing in that it dropped him in three days; he went from his normal extremely active self, to me carrying him to the car for a trip to the vet in 72 hours flat. I presume that any mammal can contract lime disease? I am wondering, with their prevalence here, how much of an issue we will have with the goats, donkey, pony we are preparing for, and ticks/lime. I know right now I spend ten minutes in the AM and ten minutes in the PM with the dog giving a good petting/scratching/brushing in search of ticks and if the case will be the same with the other animals I fear I could be spending an inordinate amount of time searching them for ticks. Might cause me to reconsider.

Rhizo, check Google or Bing Images, and you will see examples of plant collars. It is an old and effective method for protecting plants that are attacked at ground level by billbugs, cut worms, wire worms, and such. I said jars because I drink coffee and use the coffee jars for plant collars. Each jar makes two collars. I think 2 liter drink bottles would be better, but I do not have them. Birds pull up corn to eat the sprouted kernel. I have lost no corn with plant collars to birds. Once the corn is big enough, they (for me, brown thrashers and purple grackles) leave it alone. However, a plastic plant collar will not protect sunflowers from attacks by brown thrashers.

Ballplayer, Sure looks like you keep trying. I'm not sure what the problem is but I can tell you how I do mine. I usually start 500-600 seeds a year, FWIW. First, I get one of those plastic to-go trays with a lid from a restaurant. Drill small holes in the bottom of it. I like Ferti-lome Ultimate Potting Mix though every once in a while, I find a small piece of bark or a twig that needs to be remove. I add about 1.5" of this, then use a tweezers to place each seed individually, just barely in the mix. Cover that with a thin layer of potting mix, maybe 1/4". Set the entire thing in a tub of either rain water or aerated (for 24 hours or more) tap water. Let it sit until the mix is sopping wet. Remove it, put the lid on the tray and either place it on a heat mat set to 85 degrees or during summer, just on a bench. I do not water it again, at least not for a week or more. Usually within 3-5 days, the first seeds germinate. As soon as they do, I put them under CFL bulbs, as close as I can after removing the lid. When the mix is almost dry, I set the container back in the tub but usually add a very small amount or Tomato-tone fertilizer. This is lower in nitrogen but high in other ferts plants need to develop good roots. Put it back under the lights, then repeat as necessary. Once the seedlings develop at least one good set of leaves but usually two, I prepare nursery trays. Fill with potting mix, set in that tub of water and compact the mix, then refill and compact again. Let it sit, usually for an hour or more - however long it takes to throughly soak the mix. Remove it from the tub, set it aside for the evening. By the next day, excess moisture has drained off. Using my finger, I poke a hole in the mix. I gently remove the seedling (it helps to have that mix damp, but not wet) and place it in the hole until just the leaves are showing, then tamp the mix around it. When I finish a tray (6-36 plants) I put it under lights, again as close as I can. Then, I let the plants grow, watering them only when the mix gets dry (usually the plants will start to wilt a bit). Once the plants get 8-10" tall, I transplant them into 5-7 gallon pots. That's for my dirt plants. Next is the hydro ones. HTH, Mike

I am referred to as "the tick magnet" in my household. It is not uncommon for me to walk across the lawn, spend 10 minutes in the veggie garden, and come in with a tick. I've gotten so I can spot a wood tick sitting on the top of a plant, waving its little legs and waiting to grab hold. I'm going to repeat what I said in the post from last fall that Claire linked. I live on an old farm with a mix of field, brushy growing-up field, and woods. I use bug dope with DEET, though I put it only on my clothing and I don't always use it. I own several pairs of the pyrethrin impregnated socks and I tuck my pant legs into them. (Along with my bug net during black fly season I usually look pretty dorky when I am out in the garden.) I don't really worry about ticks because during the height of the season I might find 6 or 8 on me over the course of a day, but I do take them seriously. Instead of worrying, I do a complete visual and touch check whenever I come into the house in the spring and fall. Clothes get stripped off and examined along with my body. I again do a complete visual and fingertip check at bedtime every night (until it gets too cold for the ticks to be active) standing nekkid in front of a mirror so that I can see places like under my arms and the middle of my back, etc. in case I missed any the first time around. I also comb my hair with a comb having close-set teeth and do a careful touch examination of my entire scalp. Clothing I take off doesn't go into the bedroom. I view that nightly 15 minutes as the dues I pay for being able to get out beyond the lawn areas at my house. When we first moved here I used to freak out about getting a tick, but there are so many (mostly wood ticks, though there are some deer ticks) that I just don't have the energy to get worked up about them. I'd rather put the energy in to doing careful checks afterwards since it takes a day or more for a tick to get seated and spread disease. I do this check religiously, every single night, even if I have not worked in the garden. It's part of my bedtime routine, like brushing my teeth. It is my understanding (and fits in with my observations here) that rodents are a large part of the cause of the "deer" (more accurately referred to as "black-legged") tick problem, so the tick tubes, which target the application of permethrin specifically to rodents, make good sense. I haven't used them, however, and studies vary in their evaluation of effectiveness. Last season was the first we had appreciable numbers of black-legged ticks, so we are just starting serious consideration of management for them. I haven't previously seen reference to nematodes as good for controlling ticks, so I did some reading. It seems like around here they aren't too effective since nematodes live in the soil, and when are ticks are in or on the ground, it's too cold for the nematodes to be effective. They are also more effective on adults that the nymphs that often spread disease. However, I did come across a fungus that it supposed to be better in this part of the country, Metarhizium anisopliae, that has met with EPA approval for tick control. Unfortunately, it appears to still be in the product development stages. As others have mentioned, keeping areas with brush or long grass mowed will help reduce shelter areas for ticks, and reducing areas like stone walls where rodents hide will help as well.