February 20, 2023 • 19 mins
Looking for a few simple and safe methods to control and repel ticks in your backyard this spring, summer and fall?
Jim and Mary take you through 3 natural methods to control the tick population in your yard, and highlight a few simple and natural methods to help deter them from finding you no matter where you are!
Ticks are one insect that can create a long list of issues for the health and well being of humans and pets. The tiny insect with a unique look all to its own can be infected with bacterial disease as well as viruses and parasites.
That is exactly why keeping ticks out of your backyard and off of your skin is so important - and what today's podcast is all about! See how to safely rid your yard of ticks, and how to repel them from you, your family and your pets too.
Jim and Mary take you through 3 natural methods to control the tick population in your yard, and highlight a few simple and natural methods to help deter them from finding you no matter where you are!
Ticks are one insect that can create a long list of issues for the health and well being of humans and pets. The tiny insect with a unique look all to its own can be infected with bacterial disease as well as viruses and parasites.
That is exactly why keeping ticks out of your backyard and off of your skin is so important - and what today's podcast is all about! See how to safely rid your yard of ticks, and how to repel them from you, your family and your pets too.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Welcome to the Simple Garden Life podcast, a program dedicated to keeping the yard
of gardening simple, fun and alwaysrewarding. Now Here are your hosts,
Jim and Mary Competti. Hello andwelcome everybody to Simple Garden Life. I'm
your host, Jim Competti, alongwith Mary Competti and well Mary. Season
three, episode two already, itseems these just come by quicker than ever,
(00:24):
and so does the garden season.It does, and everybody's been emailing
us getting excited about the upcoming gardenseason, and we're happy to share our
information on this podcast. I'm gladyou said that. If you do want
to email us with questions or apotential podcast idea, email us at the
farm at Owgarden dot com, oryou can sign up to follow us at
simple garden life dot com. Youcan do that on Facebook, on your
(00:45):
favorite podcast app, pretty much everyapp you know you got, iHeart Apple,
I Caast, We're on them all, so sign up there. But
if you have an email, likeI said, email us at the farm
at Owgarden dot com. So let'sget into today's podcast, which really is
one that seems to become a hottopic every year and one that can be
a little bit scary for families whenyou're talking about that. And that is
(01:06):
the subject of ticks and ticks inthe yard, right, how to deal
with ticks, how to get ridof ticks. So what do you do
if you do have a tick onyou? Yeah, we have a couple
articles on our sites and they alwaysseem to really do well when they go
out, because everybody wants to know. You know, I have all kinds
of tick issues, but they reallycan be dangerous. I mean they can
be a serious problem for pets,children and adults. I mean, I
(01:27):
know myself. I had a sisterthat was bit by a tick and had
lime disease and had to fight throughit. She's better now, but I
mean that was some scary moments forher, right, And I even had
the same thing when I had totick on my head. You know,
I had to do rounds and roundsof a high dose of antibiotic to make
sure I didn't get lime disease.I remember that. I remember that how
hard that was and how long itcame. And then I mean it goes
(01:47):
for everywhere. It's not just ushumans, our Doug Jazzy, we never
knew this. I'll never forget.She's gone now. But when she was
probably ten or eleven, we tookher to the vet and they were running
some tests and sure enough came backthat she had had lime disease. Even
though we had her on you know, medicine and hopefully tick prevention, it
can happen, right and you know, this time of year it gets kind
of scary. And if you livein areas that the weather hasn't been too
(02:08):
bad and hasn't been cold, andyou always worry about witch bugs and ticks
might be come up in the springtime. You know, it can be almost
all year. Now. We talkedabout that. We know some people have
just found them on them last weekand right now we're sitting in February.
But it doesn't matter if it's Februaryor March. Right in the thick of
summer, they're out there. Soyou know, they can they can do
(02:28):
a lot of damage. It's notjust a painful thing to have a tick
on there. I mean they causea lot of you know, bacteria,
viruses, and parasites or all threein people. You know, lyme disease,
Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tickborn fever, rash illness, there's a long
list, right, and there's probablythings that we don't even know that ticks
can do. Yeah, and soobviously the real key is to keep them
(02:49):
off of you, and we'll talkabout that today. We're going to have
a couple great ideas for how toactually eliminate ticks from your yard, and
then also a couple of things forrepellent that you can do as well.
But I think it's it's really good, and it's the question of the week
which really brought on this podcast.So we'll handle that right now and hopefully
answer it right. Today's question ofthe Week comes from Anne from Bedford,
Indiana and writes what can I doto get rid of the ticks in my
(03:10):
yard? Naturally? Last year bothof my dogs were covered in them,
and I found one on me almostweekly. It almost makes me not to
want to go outside. You know. We'll have a story on this in
a little bit about our youngest andabout not wanting to go outside. Oh
yeah, it's actually kind of funny, but it's not funny for Anna.
I understand that you get that fear, and if you can't, you know,
always be checking. So you know, you bring up a great point
(03:32):
An and what do you have todo. I think first and foremost,
and we talk about this, youhave to be really diligent and checking for
ticks. And we're talking every night. I know it sounds crazy, but
not just you, but your pets. They can bring them in and they
can be inside. Really early preventionis the key. When you're talking about
(03:52):
ticks, right, you really needto find them at least twenty four hours,
within twenty four hours of them attachingto you. You know, all
of us could dress in long sleepieves, boots, jeans and stuff. But
in the middle of summer, whowants to do that. Oh they can
be hard to find and they cancome up at any moment. I know
we've been driving down the road beforeafter I've been outside and you're like,
you have a tick in your ear, and it's kind of it's I don't
(04:12):
know what I want to say.It's disgusting and weird at the same time.
But you've got to check and you'vegot to make sure. So first
and foremost, as we said,that's that's the key. More than anything
else. You can do all theseprevented things, but you can still go
out and get them somewhere. You'vegot to check and make sure you're you're
diligent about that. But you know, number one, this is not one
of our two ways. But Iwant to talk about this because it's huge.
If you have been on the fenceabout raising chickens, this might be
(04:38):
the final factor to make you doit. You can tell the story.
But it was kind of amazing whenwe first moved to our farm back in
twenty ten. Right, it wasa different property, but that was our
first farm. And you know,we got there, we had chickens.
We mowed the property down completely witha brushog you and I did, and
literally there would be hundreds of ticks. Oh, it was over the place.
(04:58):
It was horrible, in fact,so horrible that our youngest son at
the time came out and I lovethe story. We had a trailer out
there and he was going to mowfor us and he got a couple of
ticks that he saw on his jeansand that was it. No, he
stayed on that trailer I think forlike eight hours. He wouldn't come down,
he was so afraid of the ticks. But I'll tell you what.
Once we had the chickens free rangingthat property, it made all the difference.
It was unbelievable to me. Ticks. You know, chickens love ticks.
(05:23):
They love a lot of pests,another great reason to have them.
But I'll tell you, within ayear, I don't think we had ticks
anywhere, And in fact, Iremember that time. In fact, we
didn't have ticks back until we hadsome dogs that moved into the neighborhood that
would come over and we were justterrified to let our chickens totally free range,
so we kind of confined them moreinto some larger spaces down there.
(05:44):
Never ticks down there, but that'swhen we started to see him come back
to our house. Right, theymade a huge difference. And if the
cost of eggs doesn't have you gettingchickens, now, maybe the prevention of
ticks will. That's exactly right,That's exactly right. It's just kind of
crazy when you think about how ananimal like that can take control so much
and so quickly. But I'm tellingyou, if you have chickens, let
them free range a little if youcan. If you don't have them,
(06:05):
been thinking about it. It's somethingto think about. So let's get into
some of the others that we cando. The very first thing that we're
going to talk about is ways toeliminate ticks, to kill ticks, to
keep them from ever, you know, becoming an issue. And I'll tell
you one of the best all naturalways is nemoil. Yeah, when it
comes to protecting plants from insects,disease, and more, nemoil is really
(06:28):
the proven all star. It reallyis. It's an all natural remedy.
We use it for a lot ofthings. I mean, nemoil is great
to spray on fruit trees early inthe year to prevent scab. It helps
eliminate insects, it helps with ticks, and this is what's crazy. It
has a long list of qualities allover but ticks. When we're talking about
this, it's very effective. Maybewe should explain what nemoil actually is.
(06:49):
Yeah, nemoil is actually you know, it's made from pressing the oil from
the seeds of a kneme tree,you know, and it's a pure oil.
It's one percent organic, one hundredpercent natural. What people don't realize
is this was back in the daybefore all the chemicals came to play.
I hate the word in secticize becauseit always thinks of a chemical. But
(07:11):
it was natural and this is whatfarmers and everybody else you know, would
spray on their fields to help stopthat. And it really came around and
was good. Nemoil really is incredible. It can control apids, white fly
infestations on flowers and vegetable plants,kills mosquitoes and fleas. And if that
wasn't enough, and this is abig one for a lot of people,
it can eliminate young Japanese beetles beforethey ever reach adulthood. Oh, this
(07:33):
is a huge thing for us.Yeah, I mean it really is.
And so people talk about grubs andtheir lawn with ground moles and everything else.
Nemoil is a great way to affectthat because it's the grubs that it
kills. And when you kill thegrubs, you're not going to have the
ground mools coming in because there's nofood. You know, if there's no
food in the cupboard, the groundmools aren't coming around. So nemoil has
a lot but to control tick infestations. I guess before we say that,
(07:57):
Mary, I guess we had toget to one thing. It doesn't kill,
right, doesn't bother or harm beesand butterflies, the pollinators out there.
We get a lot of emails likeis this going to hurt the bees
or butterflies or destroy or kill them? And it really doesn't want applied correctly.
Well, think back we talked about, you know, orchard back in
the thirties and forties, before therewere all kinds of chemical sprays. They
use neem oil to prevent scab andto prevent infestations from insects. So if
(08:20):
it was killing their main pollinators,they weren't going to use it, right.
So the key with neem oil,you don't want to go out and
spray it on anything as far asa butterfly or anything like that. It's
you know, it still could possiblyharm them if it hits them, But
if you're out there in the morningand you're spraying early or late at night
when they're not active or the beesaren't active within a few sects, it's
not going to hurt them. It'sgoing to dry and not hurt them.
(08:41):
It's not anything like an insecticide thatcan they can come on and get you
know, residual effects from and harmfrom. So that's what makes neem oil
so fantastic is that you know itkills a lot of the of the bad
guys, but it doesn't always killthe good guys, and not always it's
very safe in not killing them.So how does it kill ticks? So,
actually, you know, it's reallyimpressive that you ask that question because
(09:01):
a lot of people are like,ticks are just so hard to kill.
When kneem oil sprayed on a tick, you know, it blocks the insects
ability to breathe. I mean,when when that happens, the tick loses
all ability to function soon dies.It sounds horrible and it is, but
you know, I mean it's oneway. Especially when ticks get established in
a yard, they can just overrunit and you can be all kinds of
(09:22):
trouble. Kneem Oil is a greatway to do that. So you know
you want to spray, as wesaid, early in the morning is a
great time. You don't have toworry about you know, bees and other
things coming in if they're getting inclover or anything like that. The mixture
can be applied directly to lawns.You can use a pump or a backpack
sprayer just you want to coat thesurface of the lawn even and you can
do areas if you have this massiveyard. Obviously, some people can't have
(09:43):
a commercial sprayer to go out there, but if you have a smaller yard,
it's pretty easy to do that.The big thing is to make sure
you get the mixture right right.You need to mix one gallon of water
with six tablespoons of knem oil toget the correct mixture. Yeah, that'll
help you know, that'll get thespray to stick to the grass when you
put that on there, and addin a teaspoon of olive oil to help
that or vegetable oil. We likethat because that oil is what makes it
(10:07):
stick. And once you do that, it's going to say you want to
shake it well and then head outand spray. And I mean, it
really is an effective mixture and it'sa great way to get control of your
lawn, especially if you have asmaller yard or midsize yard. You can
really spray and keep it effectively.And remember do not spray directneme oil on
the law. And you need tomix it absolutely. It has to be
mixed as far as how often,you know, once a month through late
(10:30):
spring, summer and fall is usuallyenough. Maybe the first time you want
to spray it, you know,once every two weeks, just for that
first time to get it really undercontrol. But after that, once a
month, we'll have a link onour site. There's a lot of great
you want to make sure it's naturalone percent neme oil. If you go
to Simple Life, Simple Garden Life, excuse me dot com and for this
article you will see, as wealways do, we'll list at the end
(10:52):
along with some other articles on controllingticks. But we'll have that link there.
Right. There's a lot of productsout there. You just have to
be very careful about which one youpick. Yeah, I mean, you
have to just make sure it's onehundred percent. And like I said,
well have a couple. I thinkwe have a couple links for different ones
on there, and it's it's areally good product to have around for,
as we said, more than justcontrolling ticks. So I think we've covered
neem oil. Let's take a breakand we'll come back after this to talk
(11:15):
about another great alternative for controlling ticksand repelling them, and then also a
really good all natural repellent. AlRight, we are back and we're talking
about controlling ticks. And you knowwe've already gone over chickens, which are
a great natural way if you happento have them of taking them out and
then kneem oil, which is reallya highly effective product and natural to actually
(11:37):
kill ticks. Another one that hasbeen long standing and you know goes in
the essential oil category is eucalyptus.Eucalyptus as a you know an oil has
been around for centuries and it's usedfor all kinds of things, muscle paining,
arthritis, anti inflammatory, skin healing, you name it right. It's
actually very popular. And bubble bathstoo for relaxation mode. Didn't know that.
(11:58):
One say, that's why Mary andI make such a great team.
I know some things, she knowssome things. We have a lot to
learn too, as always, don'twe. So But anyway, getting back
to the eucalyptus oil um, itis excellent against ticks, both as a
repellent and actually as an insecticide,somewhat like knem oil as a deterrent.
It's pretty easy to use. Youcan create an effective repellent spray by combining
(12:20):
you know, twenty five to thirtydrops of eucalyptus oil with about six ounces
of water and then you know you'regoing to spray that on your clothing.
It's it's actually safer skin. Iknow it's probably a great time to talk
about any of these products, Mary, and when you're when you're testing them
out right, when you're testing anyproduct, just like um when you test
out carpet cleaners, you always haveto test it on a small area of
yourself or your pets first. Youknow, everybody has a different reaction.
(12:43):
You can develop a rash or youcould burn. You really want to take
protection and test a small area beforeyou actually apply it. Yeah, I
mean these are safe, all naturalmaterials. But you know people have safe
all natural peanut butter and they havean allergy to it or personal I know
you do, Marry. I'm sorry, but but the key is you just
want to test a little area,make sure there's no you know, nothing
(13:05):
problem before you go to use it. But it is a highly effective repellent
when it comes to ticks. Andthen again you have to mix it with
oil or water. You have tomix the oil with water to safely use
it. Yeah, and it canbe safely used on dogs as well.
You know, you always want tospray as we talked about a little small
portion to make sure it's not anirritant. Stay away from cats. People
ask us this all the time withessential oils. Cats there's an inside issue
(13:28):
that they have trouble. Not goodto use it on them. But for
dogs, good for you know,anybody other than infants, you know,
small children, adults usually good.Again, just test it, but wow,
does it make an effective repellent,I mean very effective. Ticks do
not like it. They will stayaway from it. As we said,
it's also it can also kill them. In fact, we talked about this,
(13:50):
A lot of people will use youknow, three to four tablespoons with
a gallon of water and do thesame thing with nem oil. They're going
to spray their lawn with it.Neem oil is more effective. But one
of the things you can do,and we've talked about this and we've had
people right into us, is theyactually mixed both. They'll take the knem
oil, they'll put a couple oftablespoons of the eucalyptus oil in there with
it and spray it on the lawn. It's kind of that double dose that
(14:11):
can really wipe them out. Sothe eucalyptus oil and water mixture is good
to use on your clothing, andit also can be used on your lawn.
Yeah, absolutely, And like Isaid, it's that joint thing where
it's a deterrent and also an insecticidewhen it's sprayed and directly on them.
So great, great two methods rightthere, if you're really trying to control
your lawn, and that's where they'regoing to come from. Most of the
(14:33):
time we talk about this. Anotherthing you can really do is, you
know, keep your yard cleaned up. You know, old brush piles,
woodpiles that are not you know,neat and have a lot of stuff.
Those are going to attract ticks justlike anything else woodlands coming close to If
you can clean out a little bit, the more you can clean out,
the less tick problem you're going tohave. Right and with eucalyptus, I
know there's either it's a love orhate relationship with people. Either love the
(14:56):
smell of it or you hate it. So choose what works for you.
That's right, and we'll have likeI said, links to all these on
the site that finally, you knowwe talked about clearing up. The more
that's cleaned up, the more birdscan play a part in this too,
not just chickens. They can comein the yard, you know, they
live on in sexts a lot too, So the more they can get to
them, the better they're going tohave. So, last, but not
(15:16):
least, this is not an insecticide, but a pure repellent. And when
you think about repellents, even whenyou're talking about eucalyptus oil, you know
you're going to go places you're notalways going to be in your safe zone.
If you've if you're trying to takecare of your yard, and there's
never gonna be one hundred percent killthese. You still have to be diligent
and check every night. But whenyou're out in the woods, let's say
(15:37):
you're going camping, what is thebest way to protect yourself? I mean,
one of the best ways we've everfound, and that we like.
There is a ton of products onthe market. I personally don't like ones
that just aren't safe or organic.It worries me, it scares me.
One that we found that we absolutelylove is tick wise Right. It's all
natural tick repellent. The dracts you'regonna love and it helps prevent those ticks
(16:00):
from calling on you. It reallydoes, and it actually is pretty effective
at keeping mosquitoes and other insects awaytoo. So even better for that.
And it's deep free. It isdeep free, and that's what I love
about. In fact, it's it'swe'll get to this in a second,
but it's made. I'll get toit right now. You know, it's
all natural oil, cedar wood.We've talked about cedar of cedar wood before
it in the fight against Japanese beetles, Geranium, citronella, peppermint, rosemary,
(16:23):
and lemon grass. All natural,no deed, as you said,
And it's just you know again,it will work for about one to two
hours per application. Yeah, andit comes in a spray bottle. That's
what I love. It's a veryquick thing. You can spray it on
your clothes. It's not going tobe you know, it's not harmful.
Um, it's great when you're traveling, camping, gardening, any of those
things where you're going out for alittle bit. And as far as the
(16:45):
smell, you talked about the uslip a smell, um, this is
more lemony. I think there's alittle bit of a hint of a vanilla
in it. But yeah, Imean it's great for ticks, mosquitoes,
black flies, gnats and all kindsof biting bugs and it's it's it's just
a great product to have as andI like it because it's a peace of
mind. Right. There's no harshchemicals, non toxic ingredients, so it's
(17:07):
safe to use on your clothing,your gear, your skin, everywhere.
Yep, except for not on catsexactly. Again, it's a natural oil,
so keep it away from cats,dogs, horses, you know,
cows. You know you're gonna befine, but keep them away. So
okay, So there we have coveredthe tick. I hope we answered Anne's
question. It's one that we geta lot of emails in about doing a
(17:27):
podcast on, so I think itwas important to do it. Protecting your
family, protecting your kids and yourpets very important. Let's just kind of
go over a little conclusion here beforewe end. You know, we started
with you know, you really gotto be diligent. You gotta check every
night during the season, even insome off seasons. Make sure you know,
you're looking to make sure there's nota tick attached to you, right.
Obviously, if you can clothe yourselffrom head to toe, you know,
(17:48):
that's a great prevention, but sometimesyou can't, so be sure to
check yourself, check your clothing whenyou come in. If you can get
chickens, great, they're great,you know, tick repellent or tick eater,
so they are right. And thenthe other thing is to make sure
you keep that yard cleaned up.The more brush piles you have, the
more things you have around, themore problem it's going to be. Then
we go to the point where you'retalking about a pure insecticide. That's where
(18:11):
kneem oil comes in. You canspray your along with knem oil. It's
going to help control that tick populationagain for that once a month through you
know, the warm season, springsa season through fall, maybe a couple
of times every two weeks right inthe beginning, just to help control it.
You can lipt the oil as anotherone you can use for that,
but really good as a deterrent,right. And you know, knem oil
we keep in our garden cabinet allthe time. You know, we use
(18:36):
it all the time for various things. So it's one of those products that
you would really like to have onhand whenever you need it. Absolutely.
And then finally we talked about tickwise and there's a lot of other ones
out there, and it's just oneof our favorites, but it's an all
natural tick repellent, mosquito repellent.That's great if you're going on hikes in
the woods or you're going out towork in the garden. Just great to
spray on your clothing and it'll helpkeep ticks away. So I think that's
(18:57):
the important part is to keep yourfamily safe, keep your PA's safe.
Just be diligent about it. Kindof like gardening. You know, you
can't let it go too long withoutthinking about it, right you guys,
stay on top of it for sure. All right, that does it for
this podcast, I think, Mary, what do you think? Let's go
and remember whatever you do, findthe fun and gardening and grow something beautiful.
Until next week, everyone, happygardening. We hope you've enjoyed this
(19:17):
episode. Subscribe to the Simple Gardenpodcast on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
or most of your favorite podcast apps. You can also head over to
Simplegardenlife dot com where you can listenand read all of the show notes to
every episode, and if you haveany questions, any ideas for show topics,
or if you want to share yourfavorite garden tip, email us at
the farm at owgarden dot com.Until next time, Thanks everyone,
Welcome to the Simple Garden Life podcast, a program dedicated to keeping the yard
of gardening simple, fun and alwaysrewarding. Now Here are your hosts,
Jim and Mary Competti. Hello andwelcome everybody to Simple Garden Life. I'm
your host, Jim Competti, alongwith Mary Competti and well Mary. Season
three, episode two already, itseems these just come by quicker than ever,
(00:24):
and so does the garden season.It does, and everybody's been emailing
us getting excited about the upcoming gardenseason, and we're happy to share our
information on this podcast. I'm gladyou said that. If you do want
to email us with questions or apotential podcast idea, email us at the
farm at Owgarden dot com, oryou can sign up to follow us at
simple garden life dot com. Youcan do that on Facebook, on your
(00:45):
favorite podcast app, pretty much everyapp you know you got, iHeart Apple,
I Caast, We're on them all, so sign up there. But
if you have an email, likeI said, email us at the farm
at Owgarden dot com. So let'sget into today's podcast, which really is
one that seems to become a hottopic every year and one that can be
a little bit scary for families whenyou're talking about that. And that is
(01:06):
the subject of ticks and ticks inthe yard, right, how to deal
with ticks, how to get ridof ticks. So what do you do
if you do have a tick onyou? Yeah, we have a couple
articles on our sites and they alwaysseem to really do well when they go
out, because everybody wants to know. You know, I have all kinds
of tick issues, but they reallycan be dangerous. I mean they can
be a serious problem for pets,children and adults. I mean, I
(01:27):
know myself. I had a sisterthat was bit by a tick and had
lime disease and had to fight throughit. She's better now, but I
mean that was some scary moments forher, right, And I even had
the same thing when I had totick on my head. You know,
I had to do rounds and roundsof a high dose of antibiotic to make
sure I didn't get lime disease.I remember that. I remember that how
hard that was and how long itcame. And then I mean it goes
(01:47):
for everywhere. It's not just ushumans, our Doug Jazzy, we never
knew this. I'll never forget.She's gone now. But when she was
probably ten or eleven, we tookher to the vet and they were running
some tests and sure enough came backthat she had had lime disease. Even
though we had her on you know, medicine and hopefully tick prevention, it
can happen, right and you know, this time of year it gets kind
of scary. And if you livein areas that the weather hasn't been too
(02:08):
bad and hasn't been cold, andyou always worry about witch bugs and ticks
might be come up in the springtime. You know, it can be almost
all year. Now. We talkedabout that. We know some people have
just found them on them last weekand right now we're sitting in February.
But it doesn't matter if it's Februaryor March. Right in the thick of
summer, they're out there. Soyou know, they can they can do
(02:28):
a lot of damage. It's notjust a painful thing to have a tick
on there. I mean they causea lot of you know, bacteria,
viruses, and parasites or all threein people. You know, lyme disease,
Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tickborn fever, rash illness, there's a long
list, right, and there's probablythings that we don't even know that ticks
can do. Yeah, and soobviously the real key is to keep them
(02:49):
off of you, and we'll talkabout that today. We're going to have
a couple great ideas for how toactually eliminate ticks from your yard, and
then also a couple of things forrepellent that you can do as well.
But I think it's it's really good, and it's the question of the week
which really brought on this podcast.So we'll handle that right now and hopefully
answer it right. Today's question ofthe Week comes from Anne from Bedford,
Indiana and writes what can I doto get rid of the ticks in my
(03:10):
yard? Naturally? Last year bothof my dogs were covered in them,
and I found one on me almostweekly. It almost makes me not to
want to go outside. You know. We'll have a story on this in
a little bit about our youngest andabout not wanting to go outside. Oh
yeah, it's actually kind of funny, but it's not funny for Anna.
I understand that you get that fear, and if you can't, you know,
always be checking. So you know, you bring up a great point
(03:32):
An and what do you have todo. I think first and foremost,
and we talk about this, youhave to be really diligent and checking for
ticks. And we're talking every night. I know it sounds crazy, but
not just you, but your pets. They can bring them in and they
can be inside. Really early preventionis the key. When you're talking about
(03:52):
ticks, right, you really needto find them at least twenty four hours,
within twenty four hours of them attachingto you. You know, all
of us could dress in long sleepieves, boots, jeans and stuff. But
in the middle of summer, whowants to do that. Oh they can
be hard to find and they cancome up at any moment. I know
we've been driving down the road beforeafter I've been outside and you're like,
you have a tick in your ear, and it's kind of it's I don't
(04:12):
know what I want to say.It's disgusting and weird at the same time.
But you've got to check and you'vegot to make sure. So first
and foremost, as we said,that's that's the key. More than anything
else. You can do all theseprevented things, but you can still go
out and get them somewhere. You'vegot to check and make sure you're you're
diligent about that. But you know, number one, this is not one
of our two ways. But Iwant to talk about this because it's huge.
If you have been on the fenceabout raising chickens, this might be
(04:38):
the final factor to make you doit. You can tell the story.
But it was kind of amazing whenwe first moved to our farm back in
twenty ten. Right, it wasa different property, but that was our
first farm. And you know,we got there, we had chickens.
We mowed the property down completely witha brushog you and I did, and
literally there would be hundreds of ticks. Oh, it was over the place.
(04:58):
It was horrible, in fact,so horrible that our youngest son at
the time came out and I lovethe story. We had a trailer out
there and he was going to mowfor us and he got a couple of
ticks that he saw on his jeansand that was it. No, he
stayed on that trailer I think forlike eight hours. He wouldn't come down,
he was so afraid of the ticks. But I'll tell you what.
Once we had the chickens free rangingthat property, it made all the difference.
It was unbelievable to me. Ticks. You know, chickens love ticks.
(05:23):
They love a lot of pests,another great reason to have them.
But I'll tell you, within ayear, I don't think we had ticks
anywhere, And in fact, Iremember that time. In fact, we
didn't have ticks back until we hadsome dogs that moved into the neighborhood that
would come over and we were justterrified to let our chickens totally free range,
so we kind of confined them moreinto some larger spaces down there.
(05:44):
Never ticks down there, but that'swhen we started to see him come back
to our house. Right, theymade a huge difference. And if the
cost of eggs doesn't have you gettingchickens, now, maybe the prevention of
ticks will. That's exactly right,That's exactly right. It's just kind of
crazy when you think about how ananimal like that can take control so much
and so quickly. But I'm tellingyou, if you have chickens, let
them free range a little if youcan. If you don't have them,
(06:05):
been thinking about it. It's somethingto think about. So let's get into
some of the others that we cando. The very first thing that we're
going to talk about is ways toeliminate ticks, to kill ticks, to
keep them from ever, you know, becoming an issue. And I'll tell
you one of the best all naturalways is nemoil. Yeah, when it
comes to protecting plants from insects,disease, and more, nemoil is really
(06:28):
the proven all star. It reallyis. It's an all natural remedy.
We use it for a lot ofthings. I mean, nemoil is great
to spray on fruit trees early inthe year to prevent scab. It helps
eliminate insects, it helps with ticks, and this is what's crazy. It
has a long list of qualities allover but ticks. When we're talking about
this, it's very effective. Maybewe should explain what nemoil actually is.
(06:49):
Yeah, nemoil is actually you know, it's made from pressing the oil from
the seeds of a kneme tree,you know, and it's a pure oil.
It's one percent organic, one hundredpercent natural. What people don't realize
is this was back in the daybefore all the chemicals came to play.
I hate the word in secticize becauseit always thinks of a chemical. But
(07:11):
it was natural and this is whatfarmers and everybody else you know, would
spray on their fields to help stopthat. And it really came around and
was good. Nemoil really is incredible. It can control apids, white fly
infestations on flowers and vegetable plants,kills mosquitoes and fleas. And if that
wasn't enough, and this is abig one for a lot of people,
it can eliminate young Japanese beetles beforethey ever reach adulthood. Oh, this
(07:33):
is a huge thing for us.Yeah, I mean it really is.
And so people talk about grubs andtheir lawn with ground moles and everything else.
Nemoil is a great way to affectthat because it's the grubs that it
kills. And when you kill thegrubs, you're not going to have the
ground mools coming in because there's nofood. You know, if there's no
food in the cupboard, the groundmools aren't coming around. So nemoil has
a lot but to control tick infestations. I guess before we say that,
(07:57):
Mary, I guess we had toget to one thing. It doesn't kill,
right, doesn't bother or harm beesand butterflies, the pollinators out there.
We get a lot of emails likeis this going to hurt the bees
or butterflies or destroy or kill them? And it really doesn't want applied correctly.
Well, think back we talked about, you know, orchard back in
the thirties and forties, before therewere all kinds of chemical sprays. They
use neem oil to prevent scab andto prevent infestations from insects. So if
(08:20):
it was killing their main pollinators,they weren't going to use it, right.
So the key with neem oil,you don't want to go out and
spray it on anything as far asa butterfly or anything like that. It's
you know, it still could possiblyharm them if it hits them, But
if you're out there in the morningand you're spraying early or late at night
when they're not active or the beesaren't active within a few sects, it's
not going to hurt them. It'sgoing to dry and not hurt them.
(08:41):
It's not anything like an insecticide thatcan they can come on and get you
know, residual effects from and harmfrom. So that's what makes neem oil
so fantastic is that you know itkills a lot of the of the bad
guys, but it doesn't always killthe good guys, and not always it's
very safe in not killing them.So how does it kill ticks? So,
actually, you know, it's reallyimpressive that you ask that question because
(09:01):
a lot of people are like,ticks are just so hard to kill.
When kneem oil sprayed on a tick, you know, it blocks the insects
ability to breathe. I mean,when when that happens, the tick loses
all ability to function soon dies.It sounds horrible and it is, but
you know, I mean it's oneway. Especially when ticks get established in
a yard, they can just overrunit and you can be all kinds of
(09:22):
trouble. Kneem Oil is a greatway to do that. So you know
you want to spray, as wesaid, early in the morning is a
great time. You don't have toworry about you know, bees and other
things coming in if they're getting inclover or anything like that. The mixture
can be applied directly to lawns.You can use a pump or a backpack
sprayer just you want to coat thesurface of the lawn even and you can
do areas if you have this massiveyard. Obviously, some people can't have
(09:43):
a commercial sprayer to go out there, but if you have a smaller yard,
it's pretty easy to do that.The big thing is to make sure
you get the mixture right right.You need to mix one gallon of water
with six tablespoons of knem oil toget the correct mixture. Yeah, that'll
help you know, that'll get thespray to stick to the grass when you
put that on there, and addin a teaspoon of olive oil to help
that or vegetable oil. We likethat because that oil is what makes it
(10:07):
stick. And once you do that, it's going to say you want to
shake it well and then head outand spray. And I mean, it
really is an effective mixture and it'sa great way to get control of your
lawn, especially if you have asmaller yard or midsize yard. You can
really spray and keep it effectively.And remember do not spray directneme oil on
the law. And you need tomix it absolutely. It has to be
mixed as far as how often,you know, once a month through late
(10:30):
spring, summer and fall is usuallyenough. Maybe the first time you want
to spray it, you know,once every two weeks, just for that
first time to get it really undercontrol. But after that, once a
month, we'll have a link onour site. There's a lot of great
you want to make sure it's naturalone percent neme oil. If you go
to Simple Life, Simple Garden Life, excuse me dot com and for this
article you will see, as wealways do, we'll list at the end
(10:52):
along with some other articles on controllingticks. But we'll have that link there.
Right. There's a lot of productsout there. You just have to
be very careful about which one youpick. Yeah, I mean, you
have to just make sure it's onehundred percent. And like I said,
well have a couple. I thinkwe have a couple links for different ones
on there, and it's it's areally good product to have around for,
as we said, more than justcontrolling ticks. So I think we've covered
neem oil. Let's take a breakand we'll come back after this to talk
(11:15):
about another great alternative for controlling ticksand repelling them, and then also a
really good all natural repellent. AlRight, we are back and we're talking
about controlling ticks. And you knowwe've already gone over chickens, which are
a great natural way if you happento have them of taking them out and
then kneem oil, which is reallya highly effective product and natural to actually
(11:37):
kill ticks. Another one that hasbeen long standing and you know goes in
the essential oil category is eucalyptus.Eucalyptus as a you know an oil has
been around for centuries and it's usedfor all kinds of things, muscle paining,
arthritis, anti inflammatory, skin healing, you name it right. It's
actually very popular. And bubble bathstoo for relaxation mode. Didn't know that.
(11:58):
One say, that's why Mary andI make such a great team.
I know some things, she knowssome things. We have a lot to
learn too, as always, don'twe. So But anyway, getting back
to the eucalyptus oil um, itis excellent against ticks, both as a
repellent and actually as an insecticide,somewhat like knem oil as a deterrent.
It's pretty easy to use. Youcan create an effective repellent spray by combining
(12:20):
you know, twenty five to thirtydrops of eucalyptus oil with about six ounces
of water and then you know you'regoing to spray that on your clothing.
It's it's actually safer skin. Iknow it's probably a great time to talk
about any of these products, Mary, and when you're when you're testing them
out right, when you're testing anyproduct, just like um when you test
out carpet cleaners, you always haveto test it on a small area of
yourself or your pets first. Youknow, everybody has a different reaction.
(12:43):
You can develop a rash or youcould burn. You really want to take
protection and test a small area beforeyou actually apply it. Yeah, I
mean these are safe, all naturalmaterials. But you know people have safe
all natural peanut butter and they havean allergy to it or personal I know
you do, Marry. I'm sorry, but but the key is you just
want to test a little area,make sure there's no you know, nothing
(13:05):
problem before you go to use it. But it is a highly effective repellent
when it comes to ticks. Andthen again you have to mix it with
oil or water. You have tomix the oil with water to safely use
it. Yeah, and it canbe safely used on dogs as well.
You know, you always want tospray as we talked about a little small
portion to make sure it's not anirritant. Stay away from cats. People
ask us this all the time withessential oils. Cats there's an inside issue
(13:28):
that they have trouble. Not goodto use it on them. But for
dogs, good for you know,anybody other than infants, you know,
small children, adults usually good.Again, just test it, but wow,
does it make an effective repellent,I mean very effective. Ticks do
not like it. They will stayaway from it. As we said,
it's also it can also kill them. In fact, we talked about this,
(13:50):
A lot of people will use youknow, three to four tablespoons with
a gallon of water and do thesame thing with nem oil. They're going
to spray their lawn with it.Neem oil is more effective. But one
of the things you can do,and we've talked about this and we've had
people right into us, is theyactually mixed both. They'll take the knem
oil, they'll put a couple oftablespoons of the eucalyptus oil in there with
it and spray it on the lawn. It's kind of that double dose that
(14:11):
can really wipe them out. Sothe eucalyptus oil and water mixture is good
to use on your clothing, andit also can be used on your lawn.
Yeah, absolutely, And like Isaid, it's that joint thing where
it's a deterrent and also an insecticidewhen it's sprayed and directly on them.
So great, great two methods rightthere, if you're really trying to control
your lawn, and that's where they'regoing to come from. Most of the
(14:33):
time we talk about this. Anotherthing you can really do is, you
know, keep your yard cleaned up. You know, old brush piles,
woodpiles that are not you know,neat and have a lot of stuff.
Those are going to attract ticks justlike anything else woodlands coming close to If
you can clean out a little bit, the more you can clean out,
the less tick problem you're going tohave. Right and with eucalyptus, I
know there's either it's a love orhate relationship with people. Either love the
(14:56):
smell of it or you hate it. So choose what works for you.
That's right, and we'll have likeI said, links to all these on
the site that finally, you knowwe talked about clearing up. The more
that's cleaned up, the more birdscan play a part in this too,
not just chickens. They can comein the yard, you know, they
live on in sexts a lot too, So the more they can get to
them, the better they're going tohave. So, last, but not
(15:16):
least, this is not an insecticide, but a pure repellent. And when
you think about repellents, even whenyou're talking about eucalyptus oil, you know
you're going to go places you're notalways going to be in your safe zone.
If you've if you're trying to takecare of your yard, and there's
never gonna be one hundred percent killthese. You still have to be diligent
and check every night. But whenyou're out in the woods, let's say
(15:37):
you're going camping, what is thebest way to protect yourself? I mean,
one of the best ways we've everfound, and that we like.
There is a ton of products onthe market. I personally don't like ones
that just aren't safe or organic.It worries me, it scares me.
One that we found that we absolutelylove is tick wise Right. It's all
natural tick repellent. The dracts you'regonna love and it helps prevent those ticks
(16:00):
from calling on you. It reallydoes, and it actually is pretty effective
at keeping mosquitoes and other insects awaytoo. So even better for that.
And it's deep free. It isdeep free, and that's what I love
about. In fact, it's it'swe'll get to this in a second,
but it's made. I'll get toit right now. You know, it's
all natural oil, cedar wood.We've talked about cedar of cedar wood before
it in the fight against Japanese beetles, Geranium, citronella, peppermint, rosemary,
(16:23):
and lemon grass. All natural,no deed, as you said,
And it's just you know again,it will work for about one to two
hours per application. Yeah, andit comes in a spray bottle. That's
what I love. It's a veryquick thing. You can spray it on
your clothes. It's not going tobe you know, it's not harmful.
Um, it's great when you're traveling, camping, gardening, any of those
things where you're going out for alittle bit. And as far as the
(16:45):
smell, you talked about the uslip a smell, um, this is
more lemony. I think there's alittle bit of a hint of a vanilla
in it. But yeah, Imean it's great for ticks, mosquitoes,
black flies, gnats and all kindsof biting bugs and it's it's it's just
a great product to have as andI like it because it's a peace of
mind. Right. There's no harshchemicals, non toxic ingredients, so it's
(17:07):
safe to use on your clothing,your gear, your skin, everywhere.
Yep, except for not on catsexactly. Again, it's a natural oil,
so keep it away from cats,dogs, horses, you know,
cows. You know you're gonna befine, but keep them away. So
okay, So there we have coveredthe tick. I hope we answered Anne's
question. It's one that we geta lot of emails in about doing a
(17:27):
podcast on, so I think itwas important to do it. Protecting your
family, protecting your kids and yourpets very important. Let's just kind of
go over a little conclusion here beforewe end. You know, we started
with you know, you really gotto be diligent. You gotta check every
night during the season, even insome off seasons. Make sure you know,
you're looking to make sure there's nota tick attached to you, right.
Obviously, if you can clothe yourselffrom head to toe, you know,
(17:48):
that's a great prevention, but sometimesyou can't, so be sure to
check yourself, check your clothing whenyou come in. If you can get
chickens, great, they're great,you know, tick repellent or tick eater,
so they are right. And thenthe other thing is to make sure
you keep that yard cleaned up.The more brush piles you have, the
more things you have around, themore problem it's going to be. Then
we go to the point where you'retalking about a pure insecticide. That's where
(18:11):
kneem oil comes in. You canspray your along with knem oil. It's
going to help control that tick populationagain for that once a month through you
know, the warm season, springsa season through fall, maybe a couple
of times every two weeks right inthe beginning, just to help control it.
You can lipt the oil as anotherone you can use for that,
but really good as a deterrent,right. And you know, knem oil
we keep in our garden cabinet allthe time. You know, we use
(18:36):
it all the time for various things. So it's one of those products that
you would really like to have onhand whenever you need it. Absolutely.
And then finally we talked about tickwise and there's a lot of other ones
out there, and it's just oneof our favorites, but it's an all
natural tick repellent, mosquito repellent.That's great if you're going on hikes in
the woods or you're going out towork in the garden. Just great to
spray on your clothing and it'll helpkeep ticks away. So I think that's
(18:57):
the important part is to keep yourfamily safe, keep your PA's safe.
Just be diligent about it. Kindof like gardening. You know, you
can't let it go too long withoutthinking about it, right you guys,
stay on top of it for sure. All right, that does it for
this podcast, I think, Mary, what do you think? Let's go
and remember whatever you do, findthe fun and gardening and grow something beautiful.
Until next week, everyone, happygardening. We hope you've enjoyed this
(19:17):
episode. Subscribe to the Simple Gardenpodcast on iTunes, Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
or most of your favorite podcast apps. You can also head over to
Simplegardenlife dot com where you can listenand read all of the show notes to
every episode, and if you haveany questions, any ideas for show topics,
or if you want to share yourfavorite garden tip, email us at
the farm at owgarden dot com.Until next time, Thanks everyone,
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