Guinea fowl are wonderful, we used them all the time for our garden, yard
and around our boarding kennel. Never had a trace of a tick and besides they
aerate the garden for you to some extent. We lived on 40 acres with about 10
of it being thick trees, the kennel was beside the wooded area and after
turning loose the guinea's we had no problems with ticks or fleas anywhere.

Kathy

"lwr" wrote in message ...
"Guinea hens are known to have a voracious appetite for ticks, so some
folks in
tick infested areas buy them for that purpose.

Susan"

AND


"Go 5 mile out of town and you see more and more guinea fowl which on a
restricted diet can reduce tick populations by about 80%"

Hi Folks -
Yes. Get some guineas! Both these quotes are true I'd say - as we've
had between 6 - 24 guineas almost
constantly running loose (they over winter and roost in a good sized
chicken house) for over two dozen years
here on my Ozark beef farm and believe me the ticks have been NOTICEABLY
reduced in number!
This is apparently how it works - 1/ guinea walks by the tick on the
leaf - the tick jumps onto the
guinea - 2/ guinea preens itself regularly - finds tick - 3/ eats tick.
Aslo fattened ticks collecting where
animals often sleep are a thick juicy snack for a guinea - also of
cardinals I might add.
So - over a period of years this repetitive guinea process severely
eats into the tick population (unless
God forgid - rabbits are ever allowed free birthing rights in rampant
blackberry patches by certain overly
sensitive types who love 'cute' more than good sense.) Now lo and
behold - we are seldom adversely affected
by excessive ticks anywhere near our house - although one or two will
appear occasionally no matter what it
seems. Guineas are however often noisy - and sometimes here they can get
shot dead if they overly indulge in
any monotony of racket - causing the evolution of quieter and quieter farm
guneas - one would hope. G
Actually when they 'pair off' (married???) they can become quite settled
and peaceful - making a pleasant
kind of gentle peeping sound as they walk by ever scanning the grass for
bugs.
We like the natural 'pearl' kind - like you see on Natiuonal
Geographic shows about Africa - I wouldn't
want a weird purple or mauve or white one on the place - (unless G they
were also quieter).
- Wes/MO