On Jun 10, 9:41 pm, wrote:
On 2008-06-10, doctoroe wrote:

I really have not seen ticks this thick even in lawn grass before.
Anyone know if there is a lawn treatment that will get them, but won't
kill earthworms?

I don't think spraying with Malathion will harm the earth worms much.
It would be pretty diuted by the time water washed it to earthworm
depth and would have broken down from being exposed to air.

The pyrethrin stuff would probably be safer. And with either you have
to remember to respray because you have several generations of ticks out
there.
--
Wes Dukes (wdukes.pobox@com) Swap the . and the @ to email me please.

Probably so. Ticks are a bad deal, and I fully understand the desire
to reduce their numbers. I live on the edge of deer-and-tick heaven,
and I'm out daily in my market garden.

However, don't forget, even spraying "safe" insecticides will knock
things out of balance. Pyrethins are toxic to many beneficials,
including honeybees. as gardeners, we need honeybees and other
poolinators.
Just using honeybees as one example, the beneficials are under
enormous pressures these days, and in declining numbers. Same with
amphibians, etc. At some point, we have to research alternatives to
laying waste to the environment. These are the canaries in the coal
mine.

If we must use a "safe organic" such as Pyganic, at least consider
spray in the evening when the beneficials are less active (bees
returning to the hive, for instance). Same with, say, the common Sevin
dust, which bees mistake for pollen and return to the hive with it in
their rear-leg pollen baskets. They will feed it to the hive, and then
the beekeeper comes out to see his colony in piles, twitching on the
ground and landing board. It can wipe out a hive. It's heart-breaking
to those of us who keep hives to ensure pollination (it takes at least
11 visits to make a fully-formed cuke, for example).

One direction we - who are in the front lines having our hands in the
dirt daily - can do is to start researching personal alternatives
rather than broad-brush approaches, which can subsequently create tick
"hot spots," beyond the environmental issues. I mean personal beyond
the long-pants-tucked-into socks routine, which I can tell you IS
useful.

Here are two quick RESEARCH-BACKED alternatives a quick Google turned
up:

http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2007/070126.htm
beauty berry, which many of us already grow,

and
this product, developed at our own NCSU from wild tomatoes - ticks
actually preferred to stand in DEET than it:
http://www.bioud.com/
Can be sprayed on pants legs, etc.

I also have used catnip oil as a DEET alternative for mosquitoes, in
the New Jersey swamps on the Appalachian Trail. If it worked then, it
will work anywhere.
Again, this is research-based:

Catnip Repels Mosquitoes More Effectively Than DEET
Why catnip repels mosquitoes is still a mystery, says Peterson. ...
repellents was submitted last year by the Iowa State University
Research Foundation. ...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0828075659.htm

Nature has had to deal with these bests long before humans invented
agricultural chemicals.

In any case, I believe gardeners can be among those in the forefront
to lead us out of our mess. It sure ain't gonna come from Washington,
no matter who wins the election.
;-)

Happy, safe gardening!