Tick Tubes? Anyone tried them?

Interesting. Sounds like something that needs to be dropped in areas like the mosquito control helicopters do.

I was up at Nemadji state forest four wheeling last weekend. Had to stop to relieve myself and when I came out of the grass I had 6 crawling up me, took just 30 seconds. Thankfully I noticed in time and none had the chance to bite in.

That is a misleading ad. Those tubes you can make yourself with cotton balls and permethrin spray (you can buy permethrin concentrate at Tractor Supply). The problem is how many of those infected ticks will a mouse pick up? How many mice will use the coated cotton in their nests? I wouldn’t be willing count on that controlling the ticks on my property. In Wisconsin the problems are deer ticks and now the lone star tick whose range is increasing in more counties in the state. Wood ticks are a pain but don’t carry lyme. The lone star ticks don’t carry lyme but will cause a rash and in certain individuals can make you allergic to red meat.
If you have an hour and want to get educated on the issue with ticks click on the go to this url which is from a couple of years ago and aired on PBS. http://video.wpt.org/video/2365620906/

msimon wrote:

The problem is how many of those infected ticks will a mouse pick up? How many mice will use the coated cotton in their nests?

Great points. Ticks only need one host. If it’s not a mouse that ate the bait, then it didn’t work.

I’m about 3/4 the way through Susan Paskewitz’s presentation.

However in the first 15 or so minutes (14:00 will get you close) she was talking about the first two stages (larva and nymphs) needing a host, chipmunks and 2 flavors of mice (and further North a vole), then they molted into the adult that feeds on humans, deer and a number of other animals.

Disclaimer: I’m not a tic expert nor did I sleep at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

So far the tic granules work well for me although the rains must have washed it all down stream as I had two wood ticks on me and the dog had one over the weekend.

Oh heck, she tells us how to make them (the tubes) at 45:00. lol!