Before we had our first dog, I was already exposed with the tick problem because the house we rented had thousands of ticks. Obviously, the previous occupant had dogs that are infested with ticks. We spent a lot in insecticides to get rid of the ticks inside the house, fumigating the interior for 2 weeks. But after sometime, the ticks appeared again. When we did an investigation, we noticed the ticks coming from the ceiling. That means the pesky creatures have made a hideout somewhere in the ceiling of the ground floor (it is a 2-story house).
Okay, that's done. But when we had our first dog, a year after the fumigation, some ticks appeared. Everyday, our puppy has 5 to 10 ticks. Well, we spotted the source which was the soil in the front yard... and later also in the backyard. We treated the soil with insecticide. Done again. And although our puppy had some ticks once in a while, at least the infestation was already controlled.
As what the title says, for us, ticks are the mortal enemy of our dogs. Until now that we had moved to another house, we still do some fumigating once in a while because we sometimes find ticks in our dogs. And we are still to identify where it's coming from.
I have always wondered about what is responsible for the heavy infestation of dogs with ticks because unlike cows, they are small animals. The greatest challenge when it comes to tick control is the fact that they lay eggs on matter on the ground usually in grassy areas. Even when they do fall off, they have the capacity to remain dormant for long periods of time despite the shrinking caused by starvation. It gets worse when they hide in cracks in dog kennels where they can't easily be located despite fumigation. They have an additional negative dividend in the fact that they transmit myriads of diseases. I posit that the best method of tick control is to fumigate the kennels and other dwellings with a liquid fumigant which can be delivered in form of sprays to access the various nooks and crevices where ticks are likely to hide. It has to be stated here that any ticks that survive develop a resistance to these fumigants presenting an even greater challenge to control them. A hot blow dry spray delivered through a hosepipe is an effective second lime of defence with regard to this eventuality.
