I hate those things and when I spot one can't get it out fast enough. I would be freaking out having to find someone to remove it.

Look up tick tubes on the internet. They greatly reduced ticks around my house. Also in the summer I shower with Irish Spring. Ticks aren't suppose to like it. I only go one tick so far this year and I believe I got that when I was elsewhere that day and didn't start showering with the soap yet. I can see how some spots are impossible to remove ticks from without help.

I thought I remembered from Boy Scouts that insects (especially mosquitoes) love Irish Spring, and hate Coast Deodorant Soap.

With how wet it has been at our place there are a veritable plethora of ticks. I've found about a dozen that had bit me, and in 10 minute period in a grassy area had about 10 that found me are started crawling, looking for somewhere to bite.

I actually just got back from the clinic where they removed a tick under my armpit! I thought it was a mole and tried to get a closer look but hard to do. I tried to use a mirrow and magnifying glass and " thought" I seen what I thought was a little of legs. That freaked me out so called the clinic and they said to come in. I am on antibiotics for 10 days as the area had a little redness. It was a dog tick and said it didnt have to be sent in. I don't own a dog but I guess those ticks are everywhere! This was my first encounter and hope it is the last!

How awful for you....we don't have ticks here. My friend has chickens which eat them, but there are only 4 chickens, so not sure how many they can eat in a day.

Take your step-daughter a Payday candy bar.

KW, my neighbor called us a couple of weeks ago at 1030 one night. Her DH was out of town and she had found a tick in the middle of her back while in the shower. I went over (in my pj’s - she was in hers too) and removed it. She said it apparently had been in there since the day before after she went riding her horse and she had just found it. Gave us both the heebie jeebies. We are in the country and we always spray ourselves when outside. Somehow this one found its way and latched on.

Oh, I can sympathize! I once had a tick latch on between my shoulder blades when hubby was out of town. It was late at night when I discovered it, so had to sleep with it. Every time I rolled on my back, it irritated the thing and would wake me up.

I had a co-worker remove it when I got to work the next morning. Knowing it was there overnight didn't make me a happy camper, but there was nothing I could do about it so I tried to think about other things!

You could have used the claw side of a hammer to pry it off. ;) lol Glad you were able to get it removed.

How many just felt under their armpits?

Great opportunity for someone to invent a long handled tick puller.

I guess I am extremely fortunate. I live in the woods and on property with weeds and tall grass. I have never got a tick on me or any of the animals. I did see a raccoon with one in her ear one time.

I'm grateful to have someone to 'watch my back'!

I did see a raccoon with one in her ear one time.

you got close enough to a racoon to see that?

I had one in my head once (in the 70s - we lived in a woods). I was married then and my X got it out. haven't had one since. I did move away from that house in the woods.

my dogs had them back in the 90s. I got 'em off of them. It turned out that the yard where I rented had lots of them. I attacked it with weed killer and tick killer. It was a desert 'yard', so most anything growing was weed.

When I saw the title of this thread my first thought was ticks. They are a big issue here, and I've had many bites over the past 10 years or so. I've also gotten sick from them, and still deal with that. In fact, the symptoms that recur today are from a tick on the back of my neck that I didn't notice until it had been attached for some time. A few years ago I found an almost fully engorged tick on the back of my head--in March! It had survived multiple showers and shampoos with ease.

Rose Geranium essential oil is the most helpful product I've found. It confuses the ticks' highly-sensitive scent receptor. I started using it last year and had only one bite--a major improvement for me.

Bob, I sure hope none of those ticks were infected with Lyme, etc.

Alisande, would you elaborate on the oil please?

Dolly, I elaborated on it in this thread from last month:

https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5295708

This is the oil I use:

https://www.amazon.com/Geranium-Therapeutic-Grade-Essential-15ml/dp/B003DH787U

Alisande, I hope so as well. After seeing the documentary "Under Our Skin" I understand a little more about how Lyme's Disease really can be some bad mamma jamma.

Also worrying for me, since many of the ticks I saw were Lone Star ticks, is the Mammalian Meat Allergy their bite can induce. A co-worker mentioned that she has it and that she can no longer eat pork or beef (or any other red-meat).

you can make a spray with essential oils Tick spray

I've always thought the worst thing about living alone would be having no one else to blame when something is misplaced.

Norar. LOL This hit a cord with me. My little granddaughter slept over last night and wanted to sleep with grammy. Then at 2 o'clock in the morning proceeded to throw up on the spread. After cleaning up her and the mess I went to look for the spare spread and don't know where I put it. OK it was 2 AM and I am aloud to be foggy. But it is 8pm now and I still don't know where I have it stored.

LOL!! Or not having someone available to unscrew those pesky, sealed-like-glue jar lids!! And it took me 10 minutes last night to open a bottle of wine that had a metal (not foil) cork covering....and no cork :-) Was a screw off lid but still took an act of God to remove that metal sheathing!!

Don't have ticks here, but I'm sure another body would come in handy for those that do and find them in unaccessible locations.........

Bob_cville, I saw an online map this morning showing the shocking progress of the Lone Star tick. It's moving across the country rapidly. Scary stuff. The Wall Street Journal had a recent article about the CDC's underreporting of Lyme Disease cases. Oh, and for those who live in California, I saw a chart with your state shown as the top reporter of Lyme Disease. That was a surprise.

Pulled a huge, fat tick off one of my dogs last week and my head itched for days. lol Bought some Frontline Plus from Petmeds so hopefully they won't have any more for the Summer anyway.

I picked a tiny tick off me last night after weeding the blueberry cage area. I picked off another on and set it on the sink for a second. I looked back and it was gone ;-( -- I hope it was just a bit of grit or thorn. This season not so bad & I think it might be because of all the wild turkeys (21) and the three opossums. The opossums don't hunt and eat ticks, but they accumulate them and fleas. Because they keep themselves very clean, they tend to (literature suggests) eat the groomed off ticks. I actually find that hard to believe -- eating a tick? They have poor visual acuity, so I don't think they see and grab ticks. They do eat slugs, voles, moles, mice, carrion and just about anything -- the more decomposed the better. But don't feed them meat (like chicken) off the bone. They need the calcium and nutrients in the bones or they can become depleted in dietary calcium and grow misshapen bones. Fascinating animals. Read up on them. Unfortunately they are very misunderstood, causing some people to harm them. They don't live but a couple of years. One reason is that they have short telomeres. I took some night photos and video of three ~ 7 month old (?joeys? There's a name for the young. Forgot it.)

I've had many tick bites and picked many from my clothing, body, *eyelid* and pillows. I've experimented and photographed and video-taped them turning over when engorged. There's also a video of that online (YouTube). A well-designed little horror.

Kenn and others-- about how much would you be willing to pay for a sort of 24 hour open "TICK STOP!" ? Maybe I'll set up shop. But then, no very private areas -- people will be on their own unless I can cheaply find a used DaVinci robot in good condition. Tick removal, tick into little jar of alcohol, Benadryl and two (2) doxycycline capsules -- $100. For another $25, I'll photograph the bite site.

desertsteph, I rehab wildlife. I don't raise baby raccoons any more but there are many here. I live on a bayou, in the woods. This is a raccoon that I raised that stayed around here for 15 years....which is very old for a wild raccoon. She came every night for yogurt, but was not a pet. I raised hundreds of possums. I used to get all the possums from the Houston pound, before the wildlife center was opened and they finally got people to stop trapping them in wooded areas. I handled as many as 400 a year. I often had 30 or more babies on a tube at a time....they don't nurse like most mammals...being born as embryos, after only 13 days gestation, they attach to a teat and the mother drips milk. You have to tube feed them when they are really small. Anyway, sorry to hijack the thread, but the only possums I ever saw with fleas were ones that came from town and lived under sheds or brush piles where there were a lot of dogs and cats with fleas. Normally, you wouldn't see a wild possum, from a more natural area, with any fleas and I have never seen one with a tick. Someone dumped out a bunch of baby raccoons here one time that had mange, but I cured them with Ivermectin, a horse and cattle wormer. I routinely worm the raccoons here that way....mixing it with pancake syrup, and water and pouring it over dry dog food.

My husband is traveling a lot. There are a lot of times I wish he would be here. Once my dog (without my knowledge) ate a rabbit. Threw up an eyeball and some other parts on my bed. Don’t think he would have dealt any better with it, but at least we would have suffered together. He also removed a tick from my back once, but wanted to set it free outside. Must say I got all dramatic in a “you want to set my potential murderer free” kind of way. Took it from him and flushed it.

marilyn_c, thanks for sharing the photos, information and vignette. So interesting. I love those animals. A few months back I put out some things like sunflower seeds, cheese, broth w a bit of meat & bone scraps, nuts. This was in the evening. Opossum would come and eat it. Then a young raccoon began to show up and beat the opossum to it. We didn't do this every night. Then the weather turned to black bear season, so we don't leave anything out.

Do you thick the opossums eat ticks or groom them (eat them) from fur?

I have opossoms out around the barn quite frequently and have always heard to just let them be as they eat a lot of ticks. I always assumed they found them in the grass. Wish they would find and eat them all!

I've heard that they eat ticks, but I have no idea. Like I said....I live in the woods, but never see ticks on any of my animals, or myself. I know they eat mice, and love them. Someone asked me how could a possum catch a mouse....assuming they can't run very fast. Well, like a cat, they pounce. I am sure if they see a tick, they would eat it. We have cattle egrets here and they follow the horses around all day long....even riding on their backs, and when they are walking beside them, they are always catching and eating something. Wouldn't surprise me at all if they ate ticks. They are constantly eating. I have even seen them pluck a horse fly off one of the horses. Horse flies seem to be really bad this year.

My wife is always very concerned when she see an Opossum in our yard. She has heard that some of them carry EPM which doesn't affect the opossum but in horses causes a serious, career-ending degenerative neurological condition.

Birds can carry it also. It does affect possums though, if they have it. It comes from a particular parasite and the way they get it is eating the body of a dead possum that has it.