We live in a place that has been infested with ticks. They fall from the trees, crawl up your legs, they seem to be everywhere. They even got into the house and crawled through the carpet until they found me. When we let the chickens loose in the yard, bingo, no more ticks. They ate them all. I will never pen those chickens again.

I hope your treatment does the trick! I've already gotten Lyme disease this year too. The doxycycline is a big PITA to take. Nothing with calcium within two hours of taking it, so it messes with morning tea and vitamins. Then there is the possible photosensitivity and I'm always outside - that's how the ticks find me for goodness sake! Just regular tick bites without the LD bother me for over a month so I must be allergic to tick spit too. Nasty little creatures!

Adellabedella, I wonder if the ticks you grew up with were the same as the ones causing problems now. When we first came to PA 40+ years ago we had the occasional dog tick to deal with, but that was it. I remember being grossed out by my first look at an engorged tick. Little did I know . . . Maifleur, I had no idea ticks would be inclined to enter a house like that. I assumed they stayed outside sniffing around for urine. I know two of my cats have brought them indoors. Even though I've treated with Frontline Plus (or this year, Revolution), the ticks don't die immediately. Sjerin, thank you so much for remembering Barbara. I haven't announced it at the KT. I put it off, and then time passed. But maybe I will anyway. Some other members probably remember her as well. I know I've posted pictures of her artwork over the years. Yes, we called each other Sis. There were three daughters from my mother and her two sisters, all around the same age. The third, Terry, died 10 years ago. Everyone at the KT was rooting for her when she had a liver transplant, and wonderful to me when she died a few days later. I don't know how to predict the long-term effects of my current round of tick-borne illness. I had identical symptoms about 10 years ago without treatment. By the time I discovered the tick bite, my fever had gone down, and I was pretty clueless. So was my doctor. I remember the weakness lasted many weeks, and the night sweats lasted a few years, off and on (mostly on). They finally stopped when I started juicing vegetables. This is why I'm so faithful about juicing. I eventually found out my symptoms were caused by babesiosis, so common in its very mild form and so hard to test for that it's present in our public blood supply. It's treated with anti-malarials, and I refused treatment because I have good reason to fear liver damage. When it appeared I might have been reinfected last week, I was so sick and felt so discouraged, and started to think I might be getting too old for this. But as I said, I feel a little better (and therefore a little more optimistic) every day. Babesiosis is said to always be a co-infection with Lyme, so the doxycycline I'm taking is helping that part of it anyway.

Friends have a horse farm and raise guinea fowl for their own use and foe sale. no, guinea fowl are pet like. They are happy to peck around the yard, devouring ticks and bugs but aren’t normally Domesticated like laying hens. Our friends make sure they have proper shelter but treat them as livestock, some live, some might get picked i off by hawks, coyotes or stepped upon by a horse. they feel the guineas do an excellent job at tick control.