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I am pretty they do, while I haven't seen them in my yard, they love my neighbor's ~1acre lawn abutting woods across the street. I see them hanging out there al

by kortex 5y ago

I am pretty they do, while I haven't seen them in my yard, they love my neighbor's ~1acre lawn abutting woods across the street. I see them hanging out there all hours of the day. I actually just learned about guinea fowl elsewhere in this thread! Definitely will be looking into it. I also started doing the permethrin soaked cotton balls in tubes. Mice collect the cotton for their nest and it kills ticks. Also our dog gets tick-killing meds and takes out a non-trivial amount just by collecting and killing them.

mrfusion 5y ago
They could probably crawl over from your neighbors yard. Not sure how far they travel. Or hitch a ride on mice? Wow if tick killing meds exist for dogs maybe we could get deer on those. Problem solved?
- at_a_remove 5y ago
  I know when I bring my deer into the vet for their annual checkup, they'll probably offer the shot pretty soon.
  - mrfusion 5y ago
    You could mix it into food or salt licks or even hire people to hit them with medicine darts. I thought I’ve heard of that for deer birth control before?
    - at_a_remove 5y ago
      Edible vaccines are not easy. There's a reason you are still getting injections. Shooting them with darts, well, those would be a hell of a lot more expensive than bullets. It seems ... fraught with a lot of potential for unexpected effects.
bstpierre 5y ago
Based on our experience, with anywhere from 2 to about 15 in a flock, guineas aren't super effective at reducing ticks. They're also very noisy, leave big turds all over the place, and at least in our rural New England area, serve to attract predators. Our spring "dog tick season" has become intense the last couple of years. At the height of the season this spring the daily tick count from grooming the dog was anywhere from 10 (a light day) to a high of 27 ticks acquired after an hour-long hike. When it's this bad, I can pick up four just walking across the front lawn. During that season they're mostly not deer ticks, so fortunately they're bigger and much easier to find, and at least according to most literature I've seen, dog ticks do not transmit Lyme.

by kortex 5y ago

mrfusion 5y ago

They could probably crawl over from your neighbors yard. Not sure how far they travel. Or hitch a ride on mice? Wow if tick killing meds exist for dogs maybe we could get deer on those. Problem solved?

at_a_remove 5y ago
I know when I bring my deer into the vet for their annual checkup, they'll probably offer the shot pretty soon.
- mrfusion 5y ago
  You could mix it into food or salt licks or even hire people to hit them with medicine darts. I thought I’ve heard of that for deer birth control before?
  - at_a_remove 5y ago
    Edible vaccines are not easy. There's a reason you are still getting injections. Shooting them with darts, well, those would be a hell of a lot more expensive than bullets. It seems ... fraught with a lot of potential for unexpected effects.

bstpierre 5y ago

Based on our experience, with anywhere from 2 to about 15 in a flock, guineas aren't super effective at reducing ticks. They're also very noisy, leave big turds all over the place, and at least in our rural New England area, serve to attract predators. Our spring "dog tick season" has become intense the last couple of years. At the height of the season this spring the daily tick count from grooming the dog was anywhere from 10 (a light day) to a high of 27 ticks acquired after an hour-long hike. When it's this bad, I can pick up four just walking across the front lawn. During that season they're mostly not deer ticks, so fortunately they're bigger and much easier to find, and at least according to most literature I've seen, dog ticks do not transmit Lyme.