The down side of spring

Guess what was crawling on my back at 3 am this morning....A wood tick!

YUCK! We are very lucky to be tick free here. To cold for the little buggars I would imagine!

Yuck! I always hate this time of year. Our little dog loves to bring those nasty bugs in the house...
So we tend to keep him around the yard now and with the guineas there are no ticks right in the yard, so happy about that.

I have a tick story.

Bought child her first horse. He was 34 years old and in very bad shape! Bone thin with the longest hair I have ever seen on a horse. Looked like a mastadon. Despite feeding, was not gaining weight (also, he had no teeth and a bad heart).

Back then I didn't like horses so had not touched this one in several weeks of owning him, but one day I did decided to pet him and felt an odd sensation as I ran my hand over his side. Little bumps. All over. Like stucco. I parted his hair and, holy Hannah, what the heck are those things!?

Called over stable owner and said (remember, I was a newbie) are these lice? He almost passed out! Ticks. THOUSANDS of them covered every square inch of this horse! They were killing him. Horse guy injected Ivermectin, but it did not even dent the ticks. So for weeks daughter and I stood there and hand picked ticks off this poor horse. Each was dropped in a litte jar of gasoline OR squished with a rock. THey were not flung into the environment to reproduce. A tick must be gouged out with a little chunk of horse hide attached, they do not 'pick' off. In his ears, in his mane, in his tail, under his tail, in his groin, behind his hooves, we went over every square inch of the horse with a fine tooth comb, literally. But once the filthy cling-ons were gone, he improved swiftly. GOt used to casually picking ticks off the kid or myself after these tick picking sessions. I no longer panic when I see a tick, just crush the little bugger.

Thankfully they are not too bad in our area, but were very bad in the hot grasslands this horse had come from. (involuntary shudder) they can suck the life out of an animal! Blech!