I Love Nature

@4meAndyou , I've got ticks this year just sitting on my patio! I've never seen them so bad!

@Datura The deer carry them, but they are an equal opportunity blood sucker.

@4meAndyou they are so bad here that my state is offering free testing if we send the ticks to them. They have been on the rise for many years but this year it's unbelievable. The little nymphs that are the most disease ridden are the size of a poppy seed!

@Datura Oh my gosh...I think I would throw organic gardening out the window and have my property sprayed!

@4meAndyou , that's the problem, there is no effective spray to treat areas. The only sprays available are to treat your clothing or skin.

@Datura I used to have my lawn and the bushes sprayed because my dogs kept bringing in ticks from the hillside...they would go right up into the bushes where the fallen leaves could not really be cleaned...and it did seem to work.

But I have to admit I am not familiar with what they used, nor am I up on all the bug sprays.

@4meAndyou , my property is 20 acres of woods and fields, I mow 2 acres. There just nothing available to treat such large areas.

@Datura Quite true. I suppose you could try to limit the places where the deer hang out.

@4meAndyou , lol...they own the woods, the field and all of my yard! This is prime Pennsylvania deer country. There are literally hundreds on my land alone. We just have to do a body tick check constantly.

@Datura If you could save your urine, or your husbands urine, you can "Mark" your territory with the urine and the deer will avoid that area.

@4meAndyou , nope. Tried that years ago. Ditto dog urine, Irish spring soap, moth balls, pepper spray, and even the special smell bad spray that's very expensive.
Being a landscape architect, I've probably heard and tried them all.

@Datura Sorry. I wish I had better ideas. The last one I can suggest is that you remove their free lunch from your living area and plant lunch elsewhere.

@4meAndyou , thanks, I really do appreciate the ideas. I've lived here for 40 years so I've had lots of time to come to an understanding about the deer. I've decided to be philosophical. They were here long before white man was, I'm sort of squatting on their land. Putting up with ticks and deer eating my plants is a small price to pay to live in such beauty among woods, waterfalls, my pond, creeks and fields.

@Datura My brother was a day lily hobbyist. He bought an acre of land in Michigan just to plant his different varieties, and he would serve the flowers in his salads.

@4meAndyou, me too! I have a great many varieties. diploid, triploids. I just love them. I used to do an edible flower talk with foods I prepared.
I've read that the Japanese batter and fry the day lily flowers. I've never tried that, but always mean to!

@Datura He tried that...tempura batter. It's pretty good!

@Datura My husband sprays his clothes everyday. The Deet.. Repel kills the grass within hours! I made him start spraying on the road... I don't use the stuff, but he has had Lyme disease a few years ago.

@Echoing , I have "outdoor clothes" that I keep sprayed and put on to go outside. The spray I use is supposed to last through several washings. Seems to work. Lyme disease is nothing to fool around with! Hope he recovered ok.

@Datura Kinda did... He got Bell Palsy from the tick/lyme. That was when we were on EP. He tried to run away because he said I did not sign up for this. I sent him a Tens unit, and about 4 mos. later he was all better. He still has spells where his eye gets lazy on him when he is over tired. It was not a good time for him.

@Echoing wow..it sure wasn't a good time for him. So glad he had you!! I've known a couple other people who also had some long term effects. Some had lyme for years and went undiagnosed for a long time years ago when it was just coming to light.