"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message
from "Sian" contains these words:

We have lived in this area for over forty years and, over the last three
years have noticed a rise in the garden tick population.

We live near heathland and there have always been deer around so
there must
have been ticks but it is only in the last there years, as i mentioned,
thatthey have become a problem.

The cats pick them up. We pick them up. And I am getting concerned.

Is there ANYTHING we can do to protect our animals and ourselves,
apart from
moving, which we don`t want to do!!

My thanks for anything you can suggest and my apologies if this is a
subject
that has been discussed before. I am new to the group.

In the UK ticks aren't a particular health risk to the pets; I don't
think pets even find them as irritating as we do; or even notice them.
I've never seen our dogs and cats scratching or rubbing even at very
engorged ticks.

It would be worth doing some research to see if Lyme disease is
present in your area, which is a health risk to humans. Your GP should
know. If it's not, then tickbites are unpleasant and annoying but
nothing to worry about.

You can reduce the number of ticks you pick up yourself, by keeping
out of long grass and bracken, not sitting around on the lawn, and not
letting cats in your bed. But you will still get some. The record
tick-pick for one person in one day in our family is 27 :-( when we
were living in a Lyme area, but he had no ill effects.

Janet.



Since posting this I have learnt that a neighbour`s son, four doors away.
was diagnosed with Lyme`s disease last year, though we didn`t know. The
cats, as you point out, don`t seem to suffer any ill-effects and don`t find
the ticks irritating. We use Frontline but it isn`t always effective. I use
Tea Tree Oil on any tickbites, but they do itch at times!


Thank you all for the advice ; much appreciated.

Sian