Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[Sally PB]

Lots of wildlife this year, many Sandhill cranes, love them! Are they loud? You bet! Never mind the 'quiet in the country'.

Oh my goodness, are they EVER loud!

Our standard "joke" between the two of us (hubby and me) is to say, "Oil that crane!" when we hear them.

 

[PhantomSlayer]

So I'm going on a rant here!
Yet another Lyme positive deer tick on Thursday, so more antibiotics, again. Maybe I should use doggy flea and tick products on myself?!
And, also Thursday, developed a 'cold', and today tested Covid positive, third time, never super sick, but apparently I'm an easy mark for this bug. Without having all the vaccines, might have not lived through these episodes. Guess i should be wearing those face masks more often, again.
Rant over!
Lots of wildlife this year, many Sandhill cranes, love them! Are they loud? You bet! Never mind the 'quiet in the country'. And our next door neighbor saw a bobcat a couple days ago, along the fence between us, near our coop. May it concentrate on those bunnies and rodents, not our flock!
The coop won't have it's spring cleanout this weekend either, hoping for next weekend. It won't be me doing the deed either. I'd like to separate out breeding groups for spring, but not until everything is ready. Of course we have two broody hens right now, when it's too soon to have eggs for them!
Mary

Do you do anything to prevent ticks? I have paranoia about chemical stuff so I usually just spray a diluted mixture of tick repellent essential oils on my clothing when ticks are bad out.

 

[Folly's place]

The tick thing: here they are getting more common every year, from near zero to WOW!
Guess I'd best start spraying my clothes, don't love the thought either. BUT Lyme positive ticks, so far not with anything else, aren't good.
Mary

 

[aart]

Yet another Lyme positive deer tick on Thursday, so more antibiotics, again.

You found it on you and had it tested?

 

[fuzzi]

The tick thing: here they are getting more common every year, from near zero to WOW!
Guess I'd best start spraying my clothes, don't love the thought either. BUT Lyme positive ticks, so far not with anything else, aren't good.
Mary

I wonder if you could import opossums? They eat lots of ticks.

 

[troyer]

Do you do anything to prevent ticks? I have paranoia about chemical stuff so I usually just spray a diluted mixture of tick repellent essential oils on my clothing when ticks are bad out.

For three years now I have used eucalyptus, peppermint and spearmint oils with great success. I haven't mixed them I've just used them separately. I don't dilute the oil at all, I spray it on my clothes in it's concentrated form. I have yet to have a tick attach itself to my clothing when I use it in it's full concentrate. The ticks in our area are so numerous that even the flea and tick chemicals wouldn't keep all of them off the dogs, it would prevent some of them, but not all of them.

 

[Sally PB]

For three years now I have used eucalyptus, peppermint and spearmint oils with great success.

Knowing nothing about oils, where do you get these? Is any one of them better than the other?

I'm not sure hubby would go for the eucalyptus smelling one.

 

[aart]

I wonder if you could import opossums? They eat lots of ticks.

Plenty of opossums in Michigan.
Not sure that they eat many ticks as much as they pick them off themselves.

 

[Sally PB]

Plenty of opossums in Michigan.
Not sure that they eat many ticks as much as they pick them off themselves.

They're tick bait?

When we used to watch the Tigers play, hubby commented that, when Prince Fielder ran to first base, he looked like a possum running down the road. So when we see a possum running down the road, we say, "Hi Prince!"

 

[Folly's place]

The MSU veterinary path lab, in East Lansing, will test individual ticks for five diseases: Lyme, Anaplasma, Erlichia, Rocky mountain spotted fever, and Borellia, and ID the tick. Mine were deer ticks, and only had Lyme disease. UGH!
Starting on meds immediately, not waiting to get sick.
Mary