Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Get Rid of Ticks Without Poisons - Make a Homemade Tick Sweeper

Quick and easy sweepings of the campsite or yard with this homemade gizmo can help put a serious dent into the herd of ticks in your area.

Here's how it works. In order to hitch a ride onto a victim, ticks stand at the ready, usually on the tip of a blade of grass or other vegetation. When dinner on the hoof (you, your pets, livestock, wild animals) pass by, the tick quickly latches on and begins crawling around looking for a suitable place to dine.

You can beat the ticks at their own game with a 'tick sweeper'. If you've never heard of this term before, it's because I just now made it up. It perfectly describes an old handy dandy trick.

Make a white 'flag' out of a sheet and attach it to a stick. No! It's not for surrendering to the ticks with. Never, ever surrender! The idea is to slowly drag a light colored cloth lightly over the vegetation, and if there are any ticks Out There, they will quickly latch onto the cloth, in hopes of a landing a meal. Ha! There, you can clearly see them! At this point you can engage in hand to hand combat. Have handy a tweezers and a small jar of rubbing alcohol. Drop the losers into the alcohol, which will immediately immobilize and kill the ticks. This frees your attention to catching potential escapees on the tick sweeper. Deal with the ticks crawling near the edges of the cloth first, then work your way inward. Work fast, and you should nab them all.

Any size cloth will do, but a 4' x 6' size is just right for me because it floats over the grass better, plus it's easier to reach the crawlies for dispatching. An old sheet will work. An old piece of lightweight flannel cloth is even better. A towel is too heavy and will knock most of the little buggers off of their perches. Because ticks are tiny and dark colored, the drag cloth must be white or light colored, preferably a solid color, not print.

Combat Tip: Ticks can not only sense body heat, but also sense when a shadow is overhead (a meal). This puts the tick into super alert mode, and thus ready and willing to latch onto your sweeper. Wave the 'flag' sweeper over the area once or twice, before dragging the cloth over the grass.

I won't tell you what the neighbors will think...

...just do it. Show them your conquests, share this trick and be a hero in the 'hood.




This copyrighted material may be reprinted by you for noncommercial use, if the following credit is given:

This article and recipe is an excerpt from Mrs. Tightwad's Handbook #2: HOW TO MAKE HOME REMEDIES THAT REALLY WORK. For more information, see the left sidebar on this site: http://purecajunsunshine.blogspot.com/

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just found your blog - love it!! Can't wait to read more.

PureCajunSunshine said...

;) Thanks!

Anonymous said...

I am impressed with your survival and home remedy tips and applaud your courage in some dire situations! Keep up the writing...not only useful, but good!

PureCajunSunshine said...

Thanks for the kudos, but I cannot take credit for the courage part! Mostly, I'm a wimp.

I can only attribute my courage to a close relationship with Jehovah God, through Jesus and His teachings in the Scriptures.

I am brave only because I believe that God will equip me with everything I need in order to endure and rise above my trials and to safeguard my relationship with Him. (James 1: 1-7)

So with that in mind, I try not to be like the hog that eats acorns all day long under the oak tree, but does not look up to see where they came from. LOL

PureCajunSunshine said...

lol! Who would ever expect a spiritual post under "Homemade Tick Sweeper"?

Never know what might pop up 'round here.