# Household Tick Infestation



## kidkhmer (Jul 14, 2010)

I just got back from Thailand after 4 days and Karma is covered in brown dog ticks of varying sizes. I pulled about 12 of her and will do her again tonight. I have been always been perplexed about the presence of so many ticks on her periodically as I have always associated ticks with grass / bush / pasture etc and we have none of that where we live - just a lot of pot plants in our garden etc. 

Anyway today I hit the office after being away and I suddenly noticed there were heaps of small ticks on my bloody walls ! I have white tiles so I could see them easily. Interestingly, they are concentrated on the area of wall where Karma normally sleeps against BUT due to her being in heat - she has not been in the office for over a week - or maybe 2 weeks ! I guess the ticks eggs were there and started growing. I sprayed them with Mortein and they are now dead.:smirk:

So I am now assuming our house is probably infested as well but the tiles etc are very dark so I will not be able to see them and we live in a warm climate so if that helps them breed....well.....we are in trouble !! .I know my wife has pulled a few ticks of our daughter's head since we got Karma but I figured that was due to Grace using the dog as a pillow on occasion !

Is there a common spray / pesticide detergent or do I need to get some pros in ? Again...we have very little available here in Cambodia.


thanks


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## Stosh (Jun 26, 2010)

Ugghhh...I hate ticks. First you should vacuum the office, take the vacuum bag out and throw it away--you can seal it in a ziplock bag and freeze it for 2 days to make sure they're dead if you want. Any product made from pyrethrum is plant based and safe, also cedar oil which you might have access to. You can also try dusting with sulphur- you can get it at hardware or feed type stores and is safe for yards too. Diatomaceous earth kills them too. I'd leave the stuff down for a day or two then vacuum everything up. My mom lives in FL and had new sod put in her yard--within a week her walls were crawling with ticks that had infested the sod. You might want to get a tick collar for Karma- I've had to use them on my dogs when the ticks get bad here, some years the Frontline type preventive isn't effective enough


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Do you have tick diseases in Cambodia?


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## LisaT (Feb 7, 2005)

Brown dog ticks can live inside for years, and can carry lots of bad things.....it depends on the local area, but they are capable of transmitting anaplasmosa, ehrlichia, bartonella, babesia, rocky mountain spotted fever, and more.

I know that spraying a yard with ivory liquid soap (any soap?) will help kill the ticks but I don't know what to do about indoors  Yuck, and creepy. I hope that you can get these things under control.


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## CaseysGSD (Oct 15, 2010)

I second the Diatomaceous earth, it's safe to use just sprinkle it around the areas she lays and any area you have seen them!


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## kidkhmer (Jul 14, 2010)

Thanks for the advice so far !

I have wacked a fresh tick collar on Karma and will frontline as well. I pulled another dozen off her last night. My friend does dog grooming here for a business and he told me about a dog that was taken in and he rckons conservatively it had over 1000 ticks on it and the owners swear it happened almost overnight ! I thnk we do have tick diseases here becuase this same guy almost lost his spaniel to a tick but not a paralysis tick - just simple brown one.


And Creepy ? You want to here creepy ?


I got in the shower this morning and was about to turn the water on when i felt a tickling sensation on my back.....yes......you guessed it......TICK !:help::help::help::help::help::help::help::help::help:


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## Myamom (Oct 10, 2005)

I would ask my vet first...tell him what kind of collar and ask if it can be combined with frontline.


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## Jax08 (Feb 13, 2009)

Then all of YOU need to go to the doctor and get tested for tick diseases. Lyme's disease isn't anything to mess around with. It almost killed my BIL.


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## iglinska1 (May 10, 2010)

aa scary! but kinda cool, I lived in houston texas and saw bugs the size of rats. Im sure you have seen muuch more. I looked up Cambodia to learn about it, cool place, right by Thailand seems like a nice place to hike. Im terrified of ticks, I burn them anytime i see them and then press them and they make a "pop" sound its funny.... might make you feel better.


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## JKlatsky (Apr 21, 2007)

We had a dog infest our apartment once with brown dog ticks. She got treated with Frontline and a tick collar, but the house had to be sprayed twice by pros. When they went through they found 2 tick nests up under the bed skirt on the side of the bed where she would lay. GROSS.


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## kidkhmer (Jul 14, 2010)

Er god stop it !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And yes......i was popping them like grapes last night !


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## Stosh (Jun 26, 2010)

Sounds like you may have to get the office and home treated by pros.


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## Zoeys mom (Jan 23, 2010)

I would have the house treated, dog dipped, and then groomed to make sure they are all gone. Vacuum daily throwing out the bags for two weeks and then have the house treated again to be safe. Lastly due to your weather frontline Karma EVERY month so this doesn't happen again


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## lineywest (Feb 9, 2013)

*Tick infestation*

Hi, I also live in Cambodia, but up in Ratanakiri. It must be tick season right now. I removed over 500 ticks from my dog the week before last. I then used Frontline (the type you put on their shoulders, and it spreads) - when that didn't work, I used Frontline spray. It also didn't work. A friend gave her a shot of Ivomectin last week, and that did seem to work. Most vets in Phhom Penh will have this - you can get it really cheaply from a pet food shop in town (tel: 01283116 - you will need to speak Khmer), who has much cheaper meds than Agrovet. 

But today, a week after the shot, I found 100 more ticks on her - mostly a different variety this time. My landlord told me he had to give 3 Ivomectin shots - one a week - when there was a tick infestation when I was away last year. So I may have to do that. 

Someone advised me that I need to spray the earth under the house (where I think the ticks are coming from) with poison, but I can't do that, as one of my dogs won't allow me to put a collar on him (a rescue dog), so I can't keep him away from the area. If anyone has any environmentally friendly ideas for how to get rid of ticks from the soil without hurting the dogs (and my cat), I would be grateful - and preferably with a product that I can get in Cambodia! Since my well also isn't to far away, using poison doesn't seem like a good plan.

I just read that one adult female brown dog tick can lay up to 5000 eggs, and they can infest a house really quickly. Feeling a bit freaked out right now!


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## NancyJ (Jun 15, 2003)

I would talk with a university over there, perhaps agriculture department.

I have had very good success with using parasitic nematodes (not the bad kind)
Flea and Tick Control Products For Home and Pets

And they are very very safe - that AND diatomaceous earth (you must use a feed grade, not a grade for swimming pools). 

Last year, when I did that, all my neighbors had ticks and I had none. Also, I do give my dogs a half tablespoon of apple cider vinegar with each meal. I know no basis for it working but I have heard it does and last weekend we went to an area where ticks were crawling on the other dogs and mine had none and I checked for several days in a row. He does not get any regular flea or tick prevention medicine (other than monthly ivomectin for heartworm prevention but that never made any difference before at that dose)

How open is under the house? Chickens and Guinea hens like to eat ticks.


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