Tick Update

I'm a little hesitant to write about this, as I'm afraid that I will jinx myself, but I am happy to announce that Roscoe and Flash have been tick-free for nearly three weeks now. It was a long fight that consumed almost all of May and June for us, but at last, I don't have to check the dogs and the floors for ticks every night.


I feel like in our battle against the vampiric arachnids, we tried everything we could think of. We bombed the house with these foggers, not once but twice. They were definitely effective at getting rid of live ticks in the house, and the fog on the floor ensured that we only found dead ticks around for at least a week afterward.

We gave the dogs flea & tick medicine that I had purchase at Petco in October. We checked them at least once a day for ticks. Finally we decided we had to shave Roscoe, but although the shave and tick dip gave us a respite, we started finding ticks on him again after about ten days. There were definitely fewer ticks than there had been before the shave, but four or five ticks a day is still unacceptable. 

Frustrated, we started using Revolution, which is a Frontline-like flea and tick medicine the BVI Humane Society sells. Four days later, with no diminution in the ticks, I did some more internet research, and found that most professional bug-zappers in the States use a commercial version of Preventic spray to control tick infestations in and around homes. Conveniently, Preventic also makes a flea and tick collar, and also happens to be the only brand of collar that the BVI Humane Society sells.

So we put the Preventic collar on, with little hope that it would make any difference: after all, very little else up to this point had, the foggers being the main exception. I found one tick on Roscoe the next day ... and we haven't found a tick on him since. In fact, we've only seen three ticks in the house in the last three weeks, all on the floor, attributable I believe to eggs that may still be viable and hiding out in crevices.

For anyone anywhere dealing with a tick problem, while I would recommend the Hartz Home Foggers, for real tick prevention on your dog and in your home, the Preventic collars are the way to go.