Ticks and Lyme Disease

[00:00:00] Lindsay: Oh, hey, it's me, the mosquito that just bit you in the middle of February because it's practically summer, Lindsey LaBella, and today we're going to actually talk about a phobia that I have, which is ticks and Lyme disease, because you're listening to Rochester Trail Riders.

[00:00:23] Yeah, I'm going to totally be a talking head on you today. My apologies. I had a couple of interviews that kind of backed off on me and last minute. Just feel like I need to put out a podcast and we're going to talk about ticks and Lyme disease mainly because Friend of mine goes hey tractor supply has chickens.

[00:00:44] I was like, yeah, yeah chickens It's just like hey, no, they have guinea hen keats and I was like, what what? And immediately drove to Geneseo, stopped in, saw a whole bucket of keats, which is ridiculous by the way, because guinea hens are an African bird. They are a wild bird. They don't typically lay eggs this early in the season.

[00:01:11] You usually can't find guinea hens until like, oh, I don't know, May. So to find them in February is unheard of. And I got a little excited. Not gonna lie. I kind of had that. Meme or the evil smile just crept up by my face and I'm like I'm buying them all and it turns out if you say you're going to buy the entire container of chicks at Tractor Supply, they'll give you a 10 percent discount to feed your horrible habits of impulsive chick buying, which then meant I had to come home I put the car heat You know, the heated seat on in the car to keep the chickens nice and happy for the right home.

[00:01:52] And then I kept the car running as I went, I'm totally unprepared for chickens. And now I got to set up this like makeshift brooder, you know, find a stock tank, put some bedding into it, go find my premier one heat lamp bulbs, dead, go put a new bulb in it. Try to get the area warmed up, go find my feeders and waters because I'd.

[00:02:14] It's been a year since I've had any animals on this farm, like, that involved a brooder. Found those old things. Then dumped the little guys into their new home and watched them, you know, peep around. And it's so adorable. So I now am the proud owner of 20 keats, which are baby guinea hens. But, I digress.

[00:02:36] Why am I so excited about guinea hens? They are tick eating machines. Unlike chickens, these guys will rove in a gang. I call my little pack of guinea hens the Mafia. This is gonna sound bad, but I figure with the last name of a labella I'm allowed to. I call them the Mafia because they're just a gang of loud Italians.

[00:02:59] They just scream everywhere they go. They're incredibly annoying and highly vocal, but they're fantastic at finding the little critters that nobody wants to have around called ticks and those evil ladybug twins or Japanese beetles. Or anything that should not be around here that's an invasive species that none of us want.

[00:03:23] And they go gobblygook for them. Problem is, they also like to be eaten by every piece of wildlife. Or just randomly kill themselves for no reason. I'm probably spent close to 2, 000 over the past 5 years on guinea hens. Purchasing them just to watch them murder themselves in various ways. I think that's a whole episode on itself.

[00:03:43] My personal favorite was when I had 24 of them, for some reason, just decide to take flight at about 3 o'clock in the morning. I only know this because I happened to have been outside with my dog at 3 AM when I heard the entire flock of guinea hens go flying right over my head. And I was like maybe they'll come back.

[00:04:03] They didn't. Just in case you're wondering. By the way, they're about 6 a piece, so you do the math on what 24 of those things fly and over your head cost after you raise them on food and energy and time and water and everything in between to get to the point where they could fly away. But I digress again.

[00:04:24] Ticks. They eat ticks. They're fantastic. That's my biological warfare against ticks and Lyme disease on my farm. Problem is, ticks aren't, you know, they're not going to do it alone. You Most of us have like barn cats because rodents are an issue on a farm, you don't want them in your feed, so we all have these awesome little barn cats around.

[00:04:44] Did you know that even if you have a horse that is We'll say they're injured for some reason. They're on stall rest for like three months. They haven't seen the outside You'd think you wouldn't have to worry about Lyme disease or a tick problem on a horse that hasn't even been outside. Ert! Wrong. Cats can actually be carriers and bring these little buggers into your barn to your stalled horse who is on stall rest because of some other medical phenomenon.

[00:05:15] And then they get this tick, and now they have Lyme disease on top of their injury, and it's no bueno. So what do I do? I catch my cats, and I put Seresto collars on them. It's expensive. Don't go with the cheap collars. But you know what? Catch your cat in March, and that collar is good all the way until December.

[00:05:35] So you get covered for the majority of the season, and don't have to worry about bringing ticks into your barn via your cats. I haven't seen a tick on my cat since I started doing this, which is great. So that's my second game plan. And then, I don't care how many of you think that you can fight off ticks with organic products and garlic and diatomaceous earth and all this fancy stuff.

[00:06:03] It's a bunch of hoo ha in my world. Love me or hate me. I think it's hoo ha. The only thing that I know that works is Ultraboss, which is a Primrithin product. And it is, yes, it is a chemical. And it works fantastic against tics. If you go to Tractor Supply, you usually can find it in one of those squeeze bottles, the same kind of bottle that you would get your joint supplements in, you know, dosing wise.

[00:06:24] And you can, where you can squeeze like three ounces of it. I'll squeeze one of those, mix it in with my fly spray, and spray my horse down with that as a regular thing. Or I will, for myself, and actually it's my homemade fly spray, I will, uh, mix it in with a little bit of Pine Sol. Because I love Pine Sol.

[00:06:44] And a little Dawn Soap because it makes it sticky. And I will put that into a container with some Premarathin, and I will use that as a, uh, a fly spray. But more importantly. I will put that on my clothes. So if I'm out and about and I'm wading through tall grass or I'm working, especially when I'm doing fencing.

[00:07:03] If I'm out there or anywhere I'm brushing up against grasses, I will soak my pants in this stuff and make sure none of these little creepy crawlies will crawl up my pants and bite me because I've had Lyme problems before myself. I found one in my armpit and it was terrible. So there you have it.

[00:07:26] There's my three things to keep lime at bay on my farm, which is guinea hens because they're so much fun, and keeping soresto collars on my cats and permarthen on my horses. By the way, if you're going to places like Howland Island, I highly recommend using this. Wipe it down, put it on one of those shop towels, wipe your horse down from chest, legs, feathers, everything.

[00:07:50] Just to keep them from crawling up and getting onto your horse. Highly, highly recommend.

[00:08:01] All right, that wraps it up. It's a short one. I know, I get it, but uh, I'm in the middle of kidding season with my goats. So if your farm doesn't have goats, I highly recommend. Super fun, super exciting. But, this means that I'm not going to be able to keep up on my podcast until Kidding Season is over. I will do my best and try, try, try, but please know I I do love this podcast.

[00:08:25] I do plan on coming back, but I just need to make sure that I have a good 20 bouncing baby goats on the ground before I come back at this full time. So, that about wraps it up. Until next time, respect the trail, wear a helmet, and leave no trace at your trailer site. Happy trails!