Donna's Healthy Living Tips

One of my favorite parts of my morning ritual is taking a brisk walk.  I really love getting outside and being nourished by the sight of the sunrise, the trees, hearing the birds singing…all of it.  So on my first day in Tennessee I hopped out of bed and went for one of my favorite walks, from our house to the top of the hill overlooking the family cemetery.  Upon my return I realized I needed to add another piece to my morning ritual called “tick removal”.  Ugh!  I stopped counting after five.  Thankfully none of them had imbedded yet but they just gross me out.

I must say after being here a few days and picking ticks off regularly they gross me out less and less, even when they are imbedded.  We tried a new “tick repellant” for dogs this trip to see if it helped since Keith and I are committed to not putting poisons on Jewel any more.  So here are my “Tick Tricks” that I have picked up over my years in Tennessee:

Get a “Tick Twister”.  I found it on-line when I googled natural tick prevention or something like that and later discovered them at a pet supply store (Petco or PetSmart, I know that Pet Supplies Plus does NOT carry them).  They are about five dollars for two twisters and they are the world’s best invention when it comes to removing ticks.  They are shaped like the claw part of a hammer but a lot smaller.  You slide the tick’s body through the open end (ticks go in head first so you just lever them up a bit so they are perpendicular to your skin) and then maintaining the position of the tick, rotate the tick twister in a circular direction doing several full turns until it disengages.  The beautiful part is that there are not parts left in side of you to give you an infection and you are not squeezing on the tick to get it to pull out.  They are really strong and have amazing grips!

We tried Sentry’s “Natural Defense” Natural Flea and Tick Squeeze On for Dogs and Puppies” which is made with peppermint oil, cinnamon oil, lemon grass oil, clove oil, and thyme oil.  You squeeze it directly on the skin all the way down the spine from shoulder blades to base of the tail.  It leaves their hair a bit greasy for a couple days and it was a slightly unpleasant odor having that combination of all those herbs.  After a week I must say I have no idea if it helped or not.  We still picked off an average of one to two ticks per day.  I think the biggest contributing factor was where we allowed her to walk with leads me to my next “tick trick”.

Keep your grass mowed and leaves raked if you live in a “ticky” area.  Ticks love to hang out in tall grass (as do chiggers) and piles of dead leaves.  Jewel and I love to go tromping “off-road” as I call it when we run through the woods on the Tennessee property but we don’t do that during tick season (which is roughly April – October).

We have heard it said that sulfur can be used on humans as a tick repellant but don’t use it on your furry friends.  It can be poisonous to them.  A friend of mine just told me yesterday that after treating a dog of hers twice with a sulfur-based treatment for mange the dog died and she believes it is from the sulfur.  You can sprinkle it in the yard if you know you have a tick-infested area too although it is pretty expensive and it turns the soil more acidic (good for blueberries) so you may want to investigate more before you use that.  I don’t think I would use it if my dog my consume it in the yard but in Tennessee Jewel is always on a leash so we don’t need to worry about her eating something she isn’t supposed to.  By the way, if you use the sulfur on yourself you will need to put it in a lotion or powder to apply to your ankles since it won’t stay on by itself.

One final tip is to “feed the birds”.  Birds, and especially chickens love to eat ticks.  We aren’t in Tennessee long enough at one time to keep chickens but I believe we will begin filling birdfeeders on our next trip and keep them stocked to see if we can attract birds to our home and have their support in reducing the tick population naturally.

Those are my “Tick Tricks” that I have picked up over these past years in Tennessee.  I will admit to shrieking like a little girl and dancing in the tub with my arms flailing around my head when I discovered my first tick on the top of my ear a few years ago (yes, I was in the shower and I was in Michigan!).  I am proud to say I have matured a bit but I do believe the words “get it off of me!” came out of my mouth just a few days ago.  Ticks and I will never be bosom buddies but I do recognize their place in the ecosystem and I pray for a long, hard winter to reduce their numbers.  One more downside to global warming!

Donna Copeland is an Independent Shaklee Distributor who doesn’t believe in using poisons on the earth that will cause greater harm than what it is supposed to be fixing.  She shares her knowledge here on this blog on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  For more information on her Shaklee business, one of the most integrity-filled green companies around, go to: www.Shaklee.net/DonnaCopeland