One of the best practices you can take toward keeping your dog healthy is tick control. There are many tick control products to choose from, so you should try to find the best for your dog's environment.
How Ticks Live and Where They Thrive
The tick begins as an egg laid on the ground that hatches into a larvae, or seed tick. The larva attaches to a host, starts feeding, drops to the ground and molts. After the first molt, it becomes a nymph and again attaches to a host. After it is full, it drops and molts again. Finally, it becomes an adult, fixes itself to another host and falls off when full.
Humid and woody areas are ideal breeding grounds for dog ticks. Ticks also thrive in grassy, shaded areas with lots of brush. They flourish during springtime, primarily because that is when females lay eggs. Ticks also favor long grass stems as their platform for dropping onto hosts.
Non-Chemical Tick Control
These methods work alongside chemical controls to provide maximum protection from ticks. First, keep your grass and weeds short, especially during hot weather and springtime. This minimizes the tick's transportation platform and also clears the way for pesticide application.
Remove any abandoned bird nests. These nests are usually teeming with soft ticks. Also get rid of all debris piled up around the yard or house to keep the ticks from crawling up it and dropping on your dog. To protect the dog's indoor environment, keep his bedding, food and water bowls clean and fresh.
Chemical Tick Controls
Cutting grass and clearing debris will help keep ticks from dropping onto your dog, but a powerful pesticide will go much further. One of the most effective chemical controls are tick sprays. These can be used outside or inside and are safe for your pet. When spraying a pesticide on plants, make sure to spray the top and bottom of the leaf. Many ticks can detect the chemical and will hide on the unexposed portions of plants.
When applying a spray indoors, spray over cracks and on the edges of the walls and floor. Most ticks do not jump, but crawl. Keeping the baseboard and floor well treated will prevent them from crawling higher. Additionally, work your way from the inside of your house to the outside, to prevent the ticks from rushing away from the insecticide and into your home.
Many pet owners and vets enjoy using topical treatments such as Frontline and Advantix tick controls. This line of tick treatment works quickly, and prevents recurrent infestation by attacking the tick life cycle. These creams are applied to infected areas and work first to bar the tick from biting. Then it kills the tick. These tick control products also contain long lasting repellants that keep ticks away.
Ticks are pesky creatures that can cause much irritation, but they can be avoided. Keep your dog's environment well trimmed and clean, and take care to apply insecticides regularly on indoor and outdoor surfaces.