Tick Control Florida

If you are experiencing a tick problem in Miami with your dog you have much more to worry about than dealing with the pain and discomfort ticks inflict on your pet. you need an effective tick control program.

According to Floridahealth.gov ticks are responsible for transmitting very serious diseases to dogs and humans, as many as 8 diseases including Lyme Disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Human Ehrlichiosis / Anaplasmosis, Southern Tick-Associated Rash Illness (STARI), Babesiosis, Rickettsia parkeri infection, African Tick Bite Fever.

Ticks Are Not Insects

Unlike fleas which belong to the class of Insecta or insects which generally have six legs like ants, tick belong to the class of Arachnida or arachnoids which is the same class as spiders which generally have 8 legs, this is vital to understand if you are going to control them effectively.

Because insects are generally controlled with insecticides designed primarily to deal with the class of insects most people’s tick control efforts in fail when they use insecticides.

Ticks are blood feeding parasites, as they feed they release anticoagulants that prevent the blood from coagulating or clotting this enables them to continue to have a constant blood flow for feeding.

Types of Ticks

There are several species of ticks in Miami and around Florida that attack dogs, cats are rarely attacked by ticks they are mostly attacked by fleas. Some of the ticks found in Florida are the brown dog tick and the American dog tick which are the most troublesome.

Brown dog ticks rarely bites humans and most infestations are frequently found on dogs and inside the home.

American dog ticks attacks a wide variety of animals and people, but rarely will infest homes.

Brown dog tick rarely transmits disease to humans, but are known to transmit Btonneuse fever in the Mediterranean. Brown dog ticks can transmit diseases to dogs like canine ehrlichiosis and babesiosis.

Tick Feeding Habits

A single female Brown dog tick can lay as many as 3000 eggs after feeding just once on your dog. Brown dog ticks are difficult to control because after feeding she will lay her eggs in cracks on the roof of dog houses, between wooden fence pickets or high on the walls or ceilings of your house. In your home the eggs are laid around baseboards in the casings of windows and doors, furniture, curtains, in the edges of rugs.

Adult brown ticks can live for as long as 200 days without sucking a blood meal.

One American female dog tick can lay as many 6,500 eggs and then die. The eggs will hatch in about 36 to 57 days. The larvae can live without sucking a single drop of blood for up to 1 year and 6 months.

The newborn American ticks can attach itself to small rodents and feed for bout five days. The larvae then drops off the rat and molts to a new stage called the nymphal stage. The nymphs then crawl around looking for new rats and mice to feed on then feed with blood for 3 to 11 days. These Nymphs can live without feeding blood for up to a year and a half. An American dog tick may requires from 3 months to 3 years to complete its life cycle. A Ticks life cycle is egg, larva, nymph, adult.

American dog ticks are known to carry and transmit Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, and other diseases from animals to people. Dogs are not affected by these diseases, but people have become infected when picking ticks off the dogs. People should use latex or nitril gloves when removing ticks from dogs.

Removing Ticks

Part of an eco friendly tick control strategy is physically removing all Ticks from pets and humans immediately when they are noticed. Ticks should be removed carefully and slowly using tweezers at the mouth-part that is biting the skin not fingers. If the feeding tick is broken, the mouth-parts that have been left in the skin could transmit disease or cause serious infections.

American dog ticks are known to cause paralysis in dogs and children when ticks attach themselves to the base of the skull or along the spinal column. This paralysis is caused by a toxic secretion produced by the tick when it feeds. Removing the tick quickly is vital to a rapid recovery. Recovery occurs usually within 8 hours.

A simple baseboard or lawn spray isn’t going to control ticks in your home you need an integrated tick management program to control theses blood suckers.

Preventing Tick Infestations

These simple measures are considered part of an integrated Tick control strategy that can be taken to provide you and your dog a tickless environment.

• Keep the grass mowed at correct height and frequency, do not allow leaves to pile up remove all the leaf litter, brush, remove weeds at the edge of the lawn, trim all low lying tree branches and shrubs around the edge of the lawn.
• Control your dogs activity by keeping them out of the woods.
• Control wildlife management by fencing your property and perform rodent reduction management by installing exterior rodent bait stations.

 

Dips and shampoos and sprays are all curative tick control procedures and are after the fact and only help to kill the ticks that are already on your dog. This is not conducive to a healthy environment the key is host prevention.

Since ticks are not insects using products like Frontline Plus which is primaraly used to control fleas will not control ticks on dogs effectively, a proven products is K9 Advantix II which is designed to control ticks on dogs does control ticks on your dog for up to 30 days, this is vital and a good part of a preventive strategy.

It is our experience that most people try to save a couple of dollars by buying cheaper products or dog collars or products that are mainly for fleas and cats that have no effect on dog ticks.

Over The Counter Pesticides

Over the counter flea and tick control hose end type sprayers are ineffective at controlling all stages of a ticks life although they do a good job on fleas. A lot of time and money is spent with theses products because they tie the words flea and tick control but as we have shown before that fleas and ticks are not the same class and therefore tick control must be performed with different pesticides and different strategies to achieve a proper tick control. Second the lethal dose required to kill ticks is far higher than that to of killing a flea.

Spraying alone is not a long term control solution strategy, you have to control the host which is the dog the tick is there because you have a dog and they prefer your dog.

We offer our upfront Tick control service pricing for your home, lawn and garden. Tick prevention program is free with a complete lawn and garden program. Tick Control service comes with a 30 day warrantee. See manager for details.

If you have performed all the above steps or have tried to perform your own tick control in Miami and are still experiencing tick infestations then give us a call to get a free no pressure, no hype, no sales pitch quote over the phone.