“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.” – Chinese proverb When it comes to integrated pest management, we talk, a lot, about prevention. Keeping mice and brown marmorated stink bugs out is preferable to dealing with them once they’re in your house. So remember those…Continue Reading What’s Bugging You? – Missed Opportunities
When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen. – A. A. Milne Last week I wrote a blog post on Tick Bite Prevention – Dressing the Part discussing why we make the recommendations we do. Today I want to address one commonly…Continue Reading Tick Bite Prevention – Dressing the Part – Rubber Boot Myth
You can have anything you want in life if you dress for it. —Edith Head I don’t know about you, but what I want in life is to go outdoors and enjoy beautiful weather without contracting a life-changing illness. And, thank goodness, it IS possible. In the long list of items you can do to…Continue Reading Tick Bite Prevention – Dressing the Part
“One can never have enough socks.” ― Albus Dumbledore For Christmas, I gifted my step-family… socks. To be honest, I was a bit surprised by the delight with which the 8 and 10-year-old boys received them. (I didn’t get excited by socks until I was college-aged.) And, in my defense, they were good hiking socks….Continue Reading Permethrin treated clothing – watch your timing
“Tick species differ in where they prefer to hang out, but it is possible to come into contact with a tick anytime you leave the pavement.” – Don’t Get Ticked NY There are many tick resources out there and almost all of them include recognizing and avoiding tick habitat as a strategy for avoiding a…Continue Reading Avoiding tick habitat
“Frugality, I’ve learned, has its own cost, one that sometimes lasts forever.” – Nicholas Sparks Some pesticides containing permethrin can be applied to clothing, footwear and gear to protect against mosquitoes, ticks, and other biting insects. Recent research confirmed that permethrin interferes with blacklegged, American dog, lone star and Asian longhorned ticks’ ability to move…Continue Reading Permethrin Treated Clothing? Do it the right way.
“Frugality, I’ve learned, has its own cost, one that sometimes lasts forever.” – Nicholas Sparks Commercially available “tick tubes” are tubes filled with permethrin-infused cotton. Mice take the cotton to line their nests and are treated for ticks every time they return home. It’s estimated that a typical ¼ acre yard needs six tubes twice…Continue Reading Don’t Make Your Own Tick Tubes
ou might have noticed that we’re having a bit of a crisis with ticks and mosquitoes. They bite, they suck, and they can transmit pathogens to us during their feeding. One of the many things that we can do to avoid ticks and mosquitoes is to use repellents. But there are two important ideas to…Continue Reading Tick and Mosquito Repellent Safety—for You and Yours
We have been thinking a lot about ticks these days, so we are particularly grateful to our guest contributor, Paul Hetzler, for writing about another blood-sucking ectoparasite – mosquitoes. Originally published on April 28, 2018 – Courtesy of Paul Hetzler, CCE St. Lawrence County Hooray—it’s the end of April and the snow has mostly receded….Continue Reading Let’s work on being less attractive (to blood-thirsty mosquitos)
These days if you live near anything green — a suburban development, however humble or high-class; a neighborhood park where shrubs and meadow flowers grow — best you’d read up on ticks, be they black-legged ticks (aka deer ticks) or lone-star ticks (so named for the silvery white dot on the female’s back). While you’re…Continue Reading Steer Clear of Ticks and the Diseases They Carry — the IPM Way