Will quail eat ticks?

[SeanM]

We just moved to some property that has been abandoned for about two years. The ticks here are pretty ridiculous. I am an outdoors kind of guy and don't mind the occasional tick, but I was averaging about 30 ticks a day over the summer. We got a few guineas at the end of the summer, which combined with a lot of mowing got the ticks around the homesite under control. However, I think that the back fields (we have about 60 acres and the guineas stay in the two acres around the house) will be just as bad when warm weather starts again. I was thinking about raising and releasing some quail on the far corners of the property to try to reduce the number of ticks.
I know a lot of advice will be to spray, but I don't really trust insecticides and do not want to spray. I know released quail have poor survival, but I am willing to sacrifice a few to our foxes if it will help control the bugs. Does anyone have experience with quail eating ticks?
Thanks!

 

[wbruder17]

Not sure if quail do, but What about chickens? Would they work?

 

[bfrancis]

Go guineas...they are tick eating machines and do well to free range.

 

[Kevin565]

The OP already has guineas. Now before you release any quail you need to talk to your local fish and game about your area's regulations about releasing them.

 

[wbruder17]

Quote:

One of our neighbors got runner ducks and thought they should "go play" in our protected watershed creek with a large population of wild mallards. I rounded up all her ducks from the creek (getting a nasty yellow jacket sting, which I am VERY allergic to, in the process) and returned them to her explaining all the reasons why that is not ok to do.

 

[joe125]

Aside from legal/moral implications of releasing any species of quail on the countryside... They are not cost effective tick vector control!

 

[SeanM]

Thanks for the input. The guineas that I have are great, but ours have not done well free ranging. I got 6 originally. As they got older, one by one they gradually decided to not return to the coop at night to be locked in. The longest that any lasted sleeping outside was 3 days! The two homebodies that like to come in behind the closed door at night are doing great, but the other 4 have been eaten by foxes or owls ( I have even seen the fox hiding under the guinea coop!) The fish and game comission here in NC allows quail to be released. My thought was that quail might have a little better survival instincts/coloration since they used to be native to this area.

 

[Chickensandmore445]

Hey i know this is a extremely late comment but Chickens will Eat every single tick in the world qauil or more Grass eaters the bugs

 

[MessyLove]

Thanks for the input. The guineas that I have are great, but ours have not done well free ranging. I got 6 originally. As they got older, one by one they gradually decided to not return to the coop at night to be locked in. The longest that any lasted sleeping outside was 3 days! The two homebodies that like to come in behind the closed door at night are doing great, but the other 4 have been eaten by foxes or owls ( I have even seen the fox hiding under the guinea coop!) The fish and game comission here in NC allows quail to be released. My thought was that quail might have a little better survival instincts/coloration since they used to be native to this area.

 

[MessyLove]

Something recently killed all my quail believed to be a rat or opossum; it didn't even really eat but one out of 5 not sure if It was disturbed but for the most part it killed them. I read that it was illegal to release domesticated quail because it will disturb wild quails that we are really low on.