Thursday, April 26, 2012

Ticks of all sizes

According to popular wisdom, our warm winter has left us with an over-abundance of ticks, and already, I’ve found two, one trying desperately to climb my leg, the other, hoping for a bite on my husband’s knuckle. Ticks are difficult to kill - they don’t smash the way ants and spiders do, but tweezers and a cigarette lighter can work wonders. Deer ticks and dog ticks are pretty common up here. Deer ticks are the culprit’s in Lyme disease, as well as being smaller and harder to find. Luba’s had a few as well, though Yarrow’s managed to stay tick free so far. The chickens have been keeping our tick population down a bit, but we’re looking for some guinea hens to aid them in tick control. Guinea hens are supposed to be devastating to ticks. I hope so.

Last week, while checking for ticks and burning any we found, I answered a call from the biggest tick of all. Apparently, along with finding someone to draw up and approve building plans for an outhouse that already exists, and a gray-water system that will be absorbing all of 3 gallons of water a day, we need to get busy licensing our dog. So in addition to getting out to town hall pretty soon, I’m working hard to finish the front fence. The fence designed to keep people I don’t know from wandering in, it’ll have a gate and everything when it’s done, though, since it just covers the road access to the land, it’s more of a symbolic than physical deterrent.

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