Serious Help Wanted

[nonthaburial]

I have lived in this house in Nonthaburi for nearly 3 years now, the last two summers, whilst having a few ticks around the garden, they did not pose much of a problem.

This year however, my garden, my verandahs, the exterior walls are totally tick infested. I clean the areas on a daily basis using such things as Dettol/Bleach mixture - to no avail, the little blighters are everywhere.

I have two dogs, a GR who, because of her hair length does not suffer too badly with the ticks, but my Lab is having a real hard time.

Can anyone give me any wisdom on how to eradicate this nuisance. Is there an agriculture type pest spray that could be used to spray the whole area ???

Your much sought after comments please !!

[davethailand]

For the dog you could try "Frontline" tick flea drops, available from the vets, its very good.

[Heng]

Yep, Frontline. The vet may tell you monthly is best. But one dose and then again if the ticks come back is probably best (as Frontine basically makes your pet's skin toxic to ticks). We hit our three dogs with a dose 6 months ago and none have come back except for the occasional scout tick, which can easily be picked off.

Shelltox for the plants and garden area. A lot of the other bug sprays don't kill ticks for some reason.

[sylvafern]

I had this exact same problem a couple of years ago where, not just the dogs were infested, but the whole house was. Not just the exterior walls, but inside too. When we pulled the couch away from the wall we discovered that the whole back of the couch was covered in ticks. It was unbelievably disgusting and we tried lots of things to get rid of them, but in the end the only thing that worked was having the house fumigated by the pest control people. Not just spraying around the house (we tried that) but when they come in and use the stuff so strong you have to go and stay somewhere else for the night (I'd recommend even staying away a couple of nights). That finally got rid of the ticks around the house and the only thing that worked with the dogs was taking them to the vet/groomers (Doc Love Dog on Chang Wattana Rd) and having them dunked in a special bath to kill the ticks and them being extremely viligent with their tick prevention program. Frontline never worked, especially with our Cocker (like you, our GR was more resistant) so what worked best was to take them both for monthly tick injections at the vets (or arrange the vet to come to you). Since our Cocker died and we now have a Shitzu we don't seem to have quite the same problem and every 2 months seems to work. That and having the grass mowed regularly ... long grass always made it worse. Hope this helps!

[sbk]

We have had that problem too, unfortunately fumigation isn't really a solution since we have an open style house. What I found worked was (ok this is some serious work here tho) to pull all the furniture outside, vacuum it, wipe it down with a damp cloth. Spray all the cracks with that really nasty termite spray. Fill all cracks and holes and paint over the top of that. Paint all interior and exterior walls. For some reason, the ticks really dont' like fresh paint and that will, at least, eliminate the ticks inside the house for some time.

Oddly enough, it gets rid of the geckos and toukays for awhile too.

Anyway, I do a daily tick check on my dogs, and use the frontline spray.

Lots of work when there are 5 of them but one is only small so she is pretty easy. But I don't mind, they reward me in many different ways.

[bina]

we use acritin powder (ACRITIN POWDER Active Ingredient : 1% Permethrin Powder. Use : Effective dusting insecticide for external treatment in poultry) or opigal (Specifications: OPIGAL 5 dusting pow. DESCRIPTION : Powder of Carbaryl for the control of external parasites of domestic animals. COMPOSITION :Opigal is a synthetic carbamate) powder its the stuff they use on chickens and chicken houses against ticks, mites etc... they are both safely used on adult dogs... opigal can be used on all mammals not sure about the acritin since we dont have felines...

NOTE: it can be used also on pet snakes (Mixed with cornstarch powder to dilute the concentration )that may have snake ticks, mites etc.

we powder the dogs beds, houses, and laying around areas; the dogs themselves now have collars with some industrial strenght type tick repellent since the frontline and other types didnt work (they are chain farm dogs and really suffered); this must be done frequently though so its a bit of a pain....

and we do like sbk and do a weekly de ticking; its also their off the chain play time so they dont mind the hassle: we wear gloves and put the ticks in some of the carambat powder, and disinfect the tick areas to prevent infections)... all thee dogs have double coats up until june but our tick season is 7 months of the year

Edited July 23, 2006 by bina

[nonthaburial]

Thanks for all the replies folks, but Bina where are these two powders found for purchasing

[ThaiPauly]

I was just about to ask the same question...we are pulling at least 250 a day from out GR,, they are climbing out of the walls, climbing in my bed ,then onto my body...its abs;utley unbearable..every little itch, and you think you have a tick on you and normally you do.

I will go and buy this frontline today, deal with the aftermath after I have rid the poor dog of them

Thanks for the info

TP

[bina]

thailand agriculture being what it is, buying poisons shouldnt be too much of a problem. u have to go to those shops for stuff that supply the local chicken fighting afficiandos etc i noticed opigal on sale... in big cities, havent a clue....

look for the chemical names that i listed, not the brand names... when looking for the chemical name, pay attention to the percent concentrate: also, most agricultural supplies, even in the western world, still use pictures of cows, horses, chickens etc on the label to help know what poison/medication can be used on which animals... dogs arent so sensitive so what works for majority of farm animals works on dogs (lower concentrate or put less on)... cats are very sensitive (they lick themselves a lot)...as are puppies under three months of age, and very small toy dog types...

in any case, when using any chemical powders/sprays etc on a dog and u notice that it is drooling/sleepy/ vomiting etc after the dosages, immediately wash dog with water.... when dusting a dog, do NOT dust until the dog is coated white!!! just take a handful and rubb thru its coat.... oh! do it up wind so u dont breathe in too much of the dusting also...

thsoe two products are not good for house dogs if u have kids, only for outdoor or homes with children who know to wash hands after petting and dont lick the dog (kids pet dogs and then eat, etc.)

the two powders are very good for dusting the grounds around the house...under sofas, etc

just google the two words and u will come up with company suppliers/etc...

TP: u have to deal with aftermath at the same time or else it wont work; btw, frontline doesnt repell ticks, only kill them once they have been on the dog for 24 hours plus/minus; we do the frontline drops once a month, and have added on using the killtix collars plus dusting the grounds....

[Nienke]

With my kennel and all those rotating dogs I have unfortunately a lot of experience with these pests

I have pest control come to spray all kennels, playgrounds, house, etc., every months. Beginning of this year even every two weeks, so hard it was to get these pests under control. They hide in cracks, little holes, and every impossible place where even the spray machine can't reach them. Every month I stand as a policeguy controlling every move these pest crontrol guys make. If you don't they will only spray the floor and nothing else. I also want the top of the roof be sprayed, under the roof, all mosquitonets, under the cages, all fences, and every iny-tiny crack. Next to this, all dogs coming in with ticks will receive a tick treatment and I ask my customers to give a helping help in giving their dogs frontline before boarding them (tick free) with me. Only in this way I can keep the whole under control. N.B. I'm not saying tick-free guaranteed. I think for the latter you need a sterile tiled room, that gets sprayed every week, not really a pleasant environment for a dog or any animal.

If you are planning to call in the troups, then it is best to do so at least twice with a two week interval, 1 time is most often not enough. The pest control company where I informed several years ago told me they have packages of 1 time only, two or 4 times within one month, and a yearly contract for once a month.

Anyway, name of the ticky powder that to my experience is most efficient is TICTOX, available in most petshops. Dunno the ingredients, but for sure not very environmental and doggy friendly

You can powder the dog before going to sleep. Next morning they're stone dead (the ticks, not the dog ), providing that you have powdered on the skin and not only on the coat. Disadvantage of this treatment is that you have to repeat this at least twice a week and if the dog swims, every day. If your dog has a lot of ticks, you can consider it dipping in Bayticol (most vet's sell this as anti- tick and -flea liquid). Be carefull, though as it is highly poisonous. I get the impression that Pest control also uses the ingredients that is in Bayticol, but then in even higher concentrations. But I can be wrong here. The boys who spray have no other clue than that it stinks and possible not too good for the health

Frontline, revolution, tick shampoo's , ivermectin injection against ticks, and most powders are inefficient in areas where the tick is epidemic and still doesn't prevent some ticks to crawl up your animal, bite and transmit one of the horrible tick disease.

This brings me to a highly important issue and that's the danger of the tick diseases. There are several, but I think, Erhliciosis canis is the most common in Thailand and the most sneaky and FATAL. There are many different symptoms and most are vague and similar to other disease, such as recurrent conjunctivitis, skin problems, sudden fever that is back to normal the next day, appetite loss for a few meals only, etc.

E. canis is very difficult to detect under the microscoop (less than 30% accuracy). A blood test done three days before my little boxer passed away due to E. canis showed negative for blood parasites (Can you imagine? )

Luckily there is a new test that is highly accurate (98%), it is called the SNAP-test. It looks for anti-bodies against E.canis.

I advise my customers to test their dogs for E-canis every 6 months. Because when this fatal disease is caught in its acute stage, it can be cured. But once it has gone over into the chronic stage, the only thing that you can do is boost the immune system with a very good diet.

In Chiang Mai there are, to my knowledge, two vet. clinics that can do the SNAP test. It is Dr. Nook Animal Hospital on the Chiang Klan Road (Entrance next to the Ayuthaya Bank) and Ban Mha Ka Meaw (next to Chiang Mai Land entrance on the Mahidol road).

More info you can find on my website www.luckydogs.info. Click on articles, then look under 'Health'

Oh, and don't think that when your dog gets only 3 or 4 ticks a year it can't get E.canis. A friend of my found one tick. 14 days later she did the SNAP-test and the dog tested positive And this is only one of the several cases I have come accross.

I have been told that one female ticks lays about 500 eggs, although last time my vet told that that isn't correct, one female can lay upto 2000 eggs. Just in order to keep my sanity, i prefer to believe the 500 eggs story. Nevertheless, just make a small calculation and you can imagine how it is possible that after two or three years they crawl up your walls, yourself and in your bed

[sbk]

OK, I found the powder Bina was referring to. Our local gas station also sells all sorts of pet food and animal remedies and they actually have it as a dog tick powder.

Its Bearing brand tick and flea dog powder and on the back says it is 5% Carbaryl. They also had permethrin powder but we decided to start with this one. Have dusted all cracks with it and then dusted the dogs before we went to bed (they like to go swimming during the day). So far, so good.

The white bottle with an orange cap and label was 150 g for 60 baht, YMMV .