Flea & tick control on the east side of the Cascades
We need to keep ticks off the dogs particularly because we regularly have small children in the house (childcare, visitors; ours is fledged).
We go hiking east of the Cascade crest in spring: Cle Elum/Teanaway area, Leavenworth, Chiwaukums, Vantage, Umptanum Ridge, Chiwawa R., that seems to be where we get them.
Recommendations? If you sun-spoilt east-siders can tell a mouldy Seattleite what you do for ticks, I'll tell you how to keep moss from growing between your corgi's toes.
We have used Advantix, apparently effectively, but sometimes I wonder about the permethrins.
We've used Advantage effectively for fleas. Can one alternate Advantage with Advantix? Use Advantage for fleas, and then -- if it's wearing off -- switch to Advantage with the permethrins if a trip to the east side is in the offing?
Reading Joanna Kimball's blog, she doesn't like permethrins (Advantix, Bio-spot etc.) but mentions this Comfortis, a new chemical, Spinosad, pill form, allegedly kills fleas for a month and kills ticks for a week. At first, I thought this might work for me; I could dose whichever dog is going "out east" with Comfortis on an as-needed basis, instead of keeping both dogs loaded up with permethrins all the time. But then I realized that this anti-tick window is too brief to be practical, and I don't want to be mixing chemicals.
Anybody have experience with Comfortis?
Here's a blog with some quite scary anecdotal observations (including fatalities) about Comfortis; anecdotal observations are notoriously unreliable and suspect, but:
http://www.dolittler.com/2008/3/29/cat.dog.flea.vet.pet.veterinary....
http://blacksheepcardigans.com/ruff/?s=permethrin&x=0&y=0
We go hiking east of the Cascade crest in spring: Cle Elum/Teanaway area, Leavenworth, Chiwaukums, Vantage, Umptanum Ridge, Chiwawa R., that seems to be where we get them.
Recommendations? If you sun-spoilt east-siders can tell a mouldy Seattleite what you do for ticks, I'll tell you how to keep moss from growing between your corgi's toes.
We have used Advantix, apparently effectively, but sometimes I wonder about the permethrins.
We've used Advantage effectively for fleas. Can one alternate Advantage with Advantix? Use Advantage for fleas, and then -- if it's wearing off -- switch to Advantage with the permethrins if a trip to the east side is in the offing?
Reading Joanna Kimball's blog, she doesn't like permethrins (Advantix, Bio-spot etc.) but mentions this Comfortis, a new chemical, Spinosad, pill form, allegedly kills fleas for a month and kills ticks for a week. At first, I thought this might work for me; I could dose whichever dog is going "out east" with Comfortis on an as-needed basis, instead of keeping both dogs loaded up with permethrins all the time. But then I realized that this anti-tick window is too brief to be practical, and I don't want to be mixing chemicals.
Anybody have experience with Comfortis?
Here's a blog with some quite scary anecdotal observations (including fatalities) about Comfortis; anecdotal observations are notoriously unreliable and suspect, but:
http://www.dolittler.com/2008/3/29/cat.dog.flea.vet.pet.veterinary....
http://blacksheepcardigans.com/ruff/?s=permethrin&x=0&y=0
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by LaVerne & Shirley on
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Right here in the Wenatchee Valley where my Corgis roam we dont have fleas or ticks. If you venture up to Badger Mountain or up in the hills there are sage ticks in the heat of the summer but we dont venture into the hot dusty terrain when it gets hot, so we dont use anything on our dogs nor is it ever suggested by our Vets. I have asked around and no one around here uses anything. Sorry I couldnt be any help!
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Permalink Reply by John Wolff on
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I believe a "sage tick" is the same as a wood tick Dermacentor andersonii; won't carry Lyme Disease but could vector Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever.
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I found this: WSDOH
Sources: Only certain hard tick species transmit Lyme disease from the rodent or deer reservoirs. In the Pacific coastal United States, the western blacklegged (or deer) tick (Ixodes pacificus) is the primary vector. These ticks live in heavily-forested or dense brushy areas, not open areas. It is likely these ticks must attach for at least 24 hours to transmit the disease.
Recent Washington trends: Each year there are 7 to 18 reports. Most Washington cases are the result of a tick bite out of state. The few endemic cases have tick exposures predominantly on the west side of the Cascade Mountains, reflecting the distribution of the Ixodes ticks.
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That surprised me. Maybe deer ticks (Ixodes) are on the wet west side in heavy forest and brush, wood/dog/sage ticks (Dermacentor) are on the dry east side. -
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Permalink Reply by Theresa Holland on
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Hey guys Borax in the carpets will keep the fleas off the kids, and it will not hurt any one. there are 5 dogs on the property at any one time and none of them or us are plagued with fleas. Don't have a problem with ticks here but in FL. we used advantix
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We used a company called FleaBusters many years ago when we had 1 cat. They dust your home with polyborate salts (sounds like borax to me); they have some machine for pumping it into your carpets/upholstery.
I was very satisfied; they guaranteed 1 year and we had no fleas in the house for much longer than that. -
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