7d • General discussion
Summer
Summer time. Gotta love it.
Well, it's much better than ice, snow and -40°F. Spring and fall are my favorites with spring being first.
BUT.....
With the new warmer weather comes a new set of problems. Mosquitos, ticks, fleas and an uptick in parasites. Here are some tips I've learned.
METAL WAYER BOWLS.
There's a rumor that cats carry toxiplasmosis. That's true.
But....
So do dogs, humans, raccoons, opposums, skunks and any other mammal.
Toxiplasmosis is caused by a worm type parasite. That parasite can thrive in plastic bowls. Especially when outside. Wild animals drinking from the same water dish as your pet can infect them and it can be, but not always is, fatal.
FLEAS AND TICKS
Ticks and fleas are always present. In the winter they live on warm blooded wildlife and hide there eggs in pilles of leaves.
A study was done by the conservation department. A tick was put in an ice tray with water and frozen. That cube was thawed out a year later. The tick crawled off. So freezing does not kill ticks. Chickens and birds, turkeys, ducks and geese (these two do a good job with snails and slugs too. Opossums and raccoons also eat fleas and ticks as well as snakes.
Putting a liquid on your pet or giving them an edible pill is the most effective at keeping ticks and fleas off pets, but it's only a partial fix. The fleas and ticks can still bite your pet and transfer a disease or cause an allergic reaction. The parasite will die, but the damage is done.
Treating your lawn is important as well. Fleas, ticks and mosquitoes will crawl under doors and windows. They hitchhike on shoes, walking pets, laundry (in a basket), packages, picnic blankets anything placed on the ground. Treating your lawn kills the parasites effectively preventing them from coming into the home. Lawns can be sprayed or granuals dispersed before a rain. Also diatomaceous earth works and peppermint planted around the perimeter of the home may repel ticks and fleas.
The hotter the weather the more aggressive the fleas are to lay eggs. Those eggs can lay dormant for up to a year. When the heat reaches into the mid to upper 90°s those eggs hatch and begin to forage. When treating your house for fleas raise the temperature of the house so eggs hatch before you put treatment on, but don't have a chance to lay eggs.
Read on the label of the treatment affects larvae.
Treating any little pools of water reduces the mosquito population. Having a small pond of water for mosquitoes that has goldfish in it (predators will try to eat the fish) or without the fish but treated. There are cakes that float on the water that will kill the mosquitoes.
Summer time is a nice time of year, but it's also a time to go do battle against fleas, ticks and mosquitoes.
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Summer
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