Ticks

[chloelovesdisney]

If you found two ticks on your dog, and one tick inside your house, over a three week period, would you hire an exterminator? We did take the dog to the vet and started her on antibiotics plus tick medication. I am concerned that there may be baby ticks coming in the future if one of them laid eggs.

I spoke with an exterminator today who wants to spray, clean my carpet and says I need to send ALL clothing and linens that we own to be professionally cleaned while he is here doing his spraying. His fee is almost $1000, plus however much it costs at the cleaners. We have a lot of clothes, I can't imagine how much that will be.

I will go ahead and do it, if it is necessary. I just can't decide if the exterminator is exaggerating the issue. DH looked under every nook and cranny tonight looking for another tick, and couldn't find one anywhere. We have never found a tick on our dog or inside the house, ever before, and just really have no clue if this is a giant problem or not. My friend lives in the country and is basically laughing at me for getting an exterminator involved and sending all of our clothes/linens out for three ticks over a few weeks. She says they find ticks, kill them and move on.

 

[JessicaR]

Ticks are a seasonal thing around here and I have never seen them multiply in my house ever. My dogs and kids carry them in all the time during the summer months.

My dogs are front-lined but that doesn't stop the tick from being carried in and falling off. I also have my dogs vaccinated for Lyme's. We're in a heavy Lyme disease region for dogs.

When I first moved here over 20 years ago ticks freaked me out! Not anymore.

I personally wouldnt do any of those things suggested. You could spray your outside property if you want.

 

[beattyfamily]

Every spring and end of summer (tick seasons) my dogs get ticks and sometimes I'll find one on one of my kids and yet I have never hired an exterminator.

Once we start to see them, DH puts poison outside on the grass and that's it.

I certainly wouldn't call an exterminator for 3 ticks seen in 3 weeks.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

Thank you for the info. It does seem extreme to me for three bugs but I really have no idea how they multiply, etc.. He made it sound like they would be infesting all of our furniture, carpet, bedding, clothing and be crawling around everywhere before we know it, if we don't act right away.

 

[tikilyn]

I've never heard of hiring an exterminator for ticks. Two summers back we had them BAD!! It was so horrible, everyday I would pick ticks off the kids and my poor ds got them the worst. Anyways before we realized we had a huge problem with them my dh mother came over to vist and I caught her looking up at my ceiling. I asked dh (his mother doesn't speak English) what was she looking at. She told him "all those nasty ticks you have up there".

She pointed them out to dh and I was like she's crazy we don't have a tick problem, thats just dust up there. Well she was right. The ticks embedding themselves where the wall and ceiling met. From that day on I would find them crawling up my walls. I was so grossed out, I made my dh pick every single one of them out of the ceiling. It took about a week and then off to the vet for tick meds. After that we've had no ticks.


Ok so after reading my post I know I didn't answer your question at all but I did learn that I could call an exterminator for ticks.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

Ack. That is exactly what I do not want.

 

[MariDisney]

Our dog picks up ticks every so often through the season. Occasionally we've gotten them on us. I've even gotten them in a few unmentionable places. LOL I've never considered doing anything else except making sure the dog has his flea and tick drops once a month. When they're on the dog or us, I just pull them off with a tweezer and flush them. Honestly I've never even mentioned it to the vet or our doctors.

 

[MickeyMouseGal]

Most ticks stay attached to the host (dog) and feed for a while before they fall off and lay eggs. If you got the ticks off right away and they now have tick medication on them, the chances of there being tick eggs in your house are pretty slim.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

Oh my gosh, I will not be happy if I find a tick in an unmentionable place. DH was willing to get a hotel until this is taken care since I was so freaked out by the exterminator. I am not sure what to do. I am hoping to wait a little bit and see if stops now that the dog got the tick medicine.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

Most ticks stay attached to the host (dog) and feed for a while before they fall off and lay eggs. If you got the ticks off right away and they now have tick medication on them, the chances of there being tick eggs in your house are pretty slim.

I am not sure if I got them off right away, or if they were on her for a while. We did take her in to the Animal Hospital as soon as we found them both times. None of the ticks have been engorged. Is it possible it fed, fell off, laid eggs, and then got back on?

 

[N&B'smom]

The ticks embedding themselves where the wall and ceiling met.

Why did I have to read this right now before I drift off to sleep???

 

[chloelovesdisney]

Our dog picks up ticks every so often through the season. Occasionally we've gotten them on us. I've even gotten them in a few unmentionable places. LOL I've never considered doing anything else except making sure the dog has his flea and tick drops once a month. When they're on the dog or us, I just pull them off with a tweezer and flush them. Honestly I've never even mentioned it to the vet or our doctors.

Now I had to check all of my unmentionable places because I keep thinking I feel one on me now.

 

[MickeyMouseGal]

We did take her in to the Animal Hospital as soon as we found them both times. None of the ticks have been engorged. Is it possible it fed, fell off, laid eggs, and then got back on?

Probably not. The species of ticks around here don't reproduce indoors. But just to be safe, I would call your vet in the morning and ask about the life cycles of your regional ticks.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

That is a good idea, thank you!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

No, I would never. But we're pretty good about finding any ticks the dog might pick up right away and getting them off. I've never heard of the notion of hiring an exterminator for ticks before. Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[floridalaurie]

I work for an exterminator and we treat for ticks all the time. I have NEVER heard of telling people to send all their clothing and linens to the dry cleaners. We tell people to make sure the animals are treated. We have our customers mop and vacuum (get rid of vacuum bag in outside trash) before we come in and treat. I, personally, wouldn't be too freaked out over 3 ticks in 3 weeks. Just keep an eye on your pets and and make sure you are taking care of the pet beds etc.

 

[kacaju]

What size are these ticks? Are they the size of this . if so they are then deer ticks and they are very hard to see, so I could see you wanting to be sure your house is free of them.
Are they big? do they look kind of like a small watermelon seed? Those are dog ticks. They do not carry lyme, but can carry other types of illness.
I grew up in an area that was wooded, we did daily tick checks before going to bed.
We never once had ticks *invade* our home.
We had dogs and indoor/outdoor cats.

 

[golfgal]

It sounds like your exterminator is trying to make a buck. There is NO need to exterminate your house for a couple ticks. Having lived in woodtick country all my life I have NEVER seen an indoor infestation of ticks anywhere. They do not multiply like spiders or other bugs in the house and what if all 3 ticks were male and couldn't multiply? Get some tick meds for your dog and don't worry about it.

 

[Fabinva]

Two summers ago we had ticks bad, found one in one of my dog's ear (have two dogs), the kids each had one and my son's was in an unmentionable place it was when I found one inside the house (on wall) that I told husband we needed to do something about it. He sprayed the yard, front and back for ticks, found the stuff at Home depot and it seemed to work as we did not see anymore on the dogs, kids or inside house for rest of summer.
I would not go thru all that trouble or call exterminator for a few ticks.

 

[luvmy3]

Thank you for the info. It does seem extreme to me for three bugs but I really have no idea how they multiply, etc.. He made it sound like they would be infesting all of our furniture, carpet, bedding, clothing and be crawling around everywhere before we know it, if we don't act right away.

They said that because they want your money

What size are these ticks? Are they the size of this . if so they are then deer ticks and they are very hard to see, so I could see you wanting to be sure your house is free of them.
Are they big? do they look kind of like a small watermelon seed? Those are dog ticks. They do not carry lyme, but can carry other types of illness.
I grew up in an area that was wooded, we did daily tick checks before going to bed.

Deer ticks do grow beyound the larval stage so it is possible to find a larger deer tick. I have found many on my kids through the years.
Here are some images.
**Warning*** This may give some of you the heebie jeebies


http://images.search.yahoo.com/imag...&sigr=11qpm3bl2&sigi=1218h5tl8&sigb=12ut4o7pn


OP we have our lawn care company spray for ticks. We use Natural Lawn of america so they do not use chemicals. This will not protect you or your animals from picking up ticks in other places but it does keep them from living in your own yard (or at the very least where you have treated).