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Old May 26th 06, 09:34 PM posted to alt.med.veterinary,alt.animals.cat,rec.pets.cats.rescue
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Default Help! Tick Infestation!


Hello, everyone. For reasons too involved to list, I have very limited
posting ability to Usenet. I can read as much as I want, however, so
please forgive my lack of quick response to answers to this query.

All last year in this rural farming area, we never saw a single tick.
Not one.

Suddenly, starting about two weeks ago, ticks seemed to be everywhere.
Our indoor cats have not been affected, but the barn cats in the area
all seem to have multiple ticks feeding. It is terrible.

I have spent the last two days reading every .edu and .gov domain
website I could find about these filthy bloodsucking fiends, and have
already begun to take some of the actions they recommend, including
cutting grass to golf-course heights, pruning all low-hanging tree limbs
and generally making the surrounding environment unwelcoming to ticks in
all three of their life stages.

However, I would like to combine these efforts with a chemical approach.
Discouragingly, I have read that the most effective (and legal)
residential insecticide for tick control is pymethrin and pymethroid.
Though 6-45 time less effective than the illegal phosphate insecticides,
anything is better than nothing.

The problem with pymethrin-based poisons is that cats are particularly
sensitive to its toxicity, or so I have read. I really do not want to
present these barn cats with anymore problems than they already face,
but the ticks also kill them.

I have recently come across a recommendation to use something called
Sevin against the ticks. I have been unable to find any reference to
Sevin's effect on mammals, cats in particular and wildlife in general.

Any help or recommendations would be GREATLY appreciated. I have
included a good email address in the Reply-To: line in the header.
Thanks in advance for any constructive response.