How To Make Tick Tubes.
About 2 weeks after we moved to New England in late March of last year, the snow started to melt. The ground began to thaw, and Lucy and I began going for long walks. Little did we know that while she was frolicking through the piles of leaves on the side of the road, that those leaves were crawling with ticks.
Lots and lots of ticks.
So many ticks that eventually they made their way on to Lucy. And well, then I became ultra paranoid about the tick problem. I even started wearing white knee high socks and white long sleeved shirts. I also started spraying my clothes down with a diluted spray of permethrin anytime I walked outside to work in the garden last summer.
We also put Lucy on NexGard {and haven’t had a problem with them getting on her since}.
And even with all those precautions, and an ample supply of tick twisters scattered about the house, I still ended up at a doc in the box for 2 pills of doxycycline last summer. Living in New England has it’s perks, ticks just aren’t one of them. đ
But this year, this year I am ON TOP of things.
And thanks to a bunch of your suggestions on how to fight the tick problem in our backyard, I am taking a few early and proactive measures this season. One of which, is making a boatload of tick tubes and tossing them all around our backyard.
If you want to get ahead of the tick game, this is the time to do it. When ticks first hatch, they are super tiny, too tiny to latch on to humans, or dogs or other large animals.
So what do they do? Well, ticks will usually latch onto mice due to their small size. And if you live in a wooded area, then chances are you’ve probably got plenty of field mice scurrying about your property.
Apparently, a single mouse can play host to up to 100 ticks. Yikes!
That’s where tick tubes come into play.
What are tick tubes? Well, basically tick tubes are any sort of cardboard tube that has been stuffed with a permethrin-coated cotton {or in this case, dryer lint}.
Permethrin is a natural pesticide made from chrysanthemums. It’s highly effective against ticks, flies, lice, fleas, mites, ants, mosquitoes. {According to the label on the bottle, permethrin is regarded as safe for humans, dogs and mice. It is not safe for cats when it is wet, but okay for cats to be around it once itâs dry.}
By simply placing permethrin on a piece of lint and then stuffing it in a cardboard tp roll, the idea is that the mice will find the lint and bring it back to their nest to use as a bedding material, and thus the permethrin will kill any ticks that the mice are hosting. Go Team!
You can actually buy ready made tick tubes online, but the price {for what you get} is absolutely crazy when you can made your own for pennies.
Supplies Needed to Make Your Own Tick Tubes
- Cardboard toilet paper tubes
- Lint from your dryer
- A small bottle of permethrin {we bought the concentrated form and diluted it}
- Spray bottle
- Gloves, Mask and a cardboard box or other container
Directions
- Put on the gloves, then the mask and then place the dryer lint in a cardboard box {we used an old galvanized bowl}
- Spray lint generously with diluted permethrin
- Stuff lint into cardboard toilet paper tubes
- Scatter tick tubes around your property {one every 5 yards is recommended}
- Repeat every 6 weeks {We plan to put ours out in early April, Mid May, Early July, and Mid August}
This year, we are placing our tick tubes around the perimeter of our fenced backyard. We are also placing them in the general areas we like to hang out in during the summer months. Areas like the back patio and side yard. As well as around the wood pile and barn area.
This will be our first year using tick tubes. But thanks to all your suggestions, and I’m hopeful this DIY remedy will cut down on the tick population around our property significantly. With so many people recommending it, it’s worth a shot.
Do you live in an area with ticks? Do you have any tried and true remedies? If so, we’d all love to hear about them.
Have a great Thursday everyone,
~Mavis
Jennifer says
I guess we are lucky here in NC as I have only found one tick on our dog in her 6 year life. Glad there is an inexpensive response to help out those of you who are not so lucky.
Diana says
This is intriguing. I use Nexgard for my doggo, but this extra layer of protection might be worth trying. We have ticks here in KS, but thankfully not to the degree you have to worry about them.
Mim says
In the last few days, i have pulled three ticks off the dogs here in Vermont, so you are not too early getting at this!
Mary Ann says
I’ve never seen a tick where we live in So Cal, but remember having to deal with them for the 3 years we lived in Massachusetts with 2 dogs. Awful.
I love how this will actually benefit the mice, too!
Linda says
I wonder if planting chrysanthemum borders would prevent ticks in the garden area?
Mel says
I was wondering this as well.
Amy says
I am wondering what effect this has on birds. Many birds build nests around our 8 acres, and I have put out dryer lint for them in the past. Will the permethrin hurt them, if THEY take the lint? Many thanks in advance.
Earlene says
Tried these and it was a bust for us! If I were you, I would invest in some Guinea hens to help get rid of them! But good luck!
Jenny Smith says
Buy some guineafowl. They eat ticks and are âwatch birds.â They make very interesting sounds.. and roost in trees. I bought 5 at an animal auction few weeks back. Four ran off.. so one remains. Anytime someone comes on to the property they will alert you. I love them. But youâll have to decide
Mary says
We have never had ticks here in northern Vermont until recently – a good solution if you can stand all of their noise – Guinea hens – and they are marvelous layers!
MarieR says
Looks very much like an Easter egg hunt but for mice and with lint đ … Glad I don’t have to deal with ticks in TX.
Stacey says
Actually there are ticks in Texas. Not as much as where Im from. Ticks are migrating to California’s beaches. Dont be surprised if one day they’re all over Texas.
MAUDE LAFOUNTAIN says
We do have ticks in Texas just not that bad ….
Susie Janov says
Guinea hens are good for killing snakes as well, even rattlers.
Carolina says
We don’t deal with ticks in Phoenix either, but what about using diatomaceous earth as well. We use it for mites on ground bothering our chickens and all insect control around house and garden. Just extra protection.
Tracy says
Keep in mind that birds will take the dryer lint to help make nests, and in addition to what the chemicals can do to baby birds, dryer lint is a terrible nest liner as it dissolves once it gets wet. And Iâm not so sure permethrin is so harmless to baby mice, baby birds, or humans and dogs. Round Up continues to be marketed as safe…despite being a known carcinogen. Take care with these things, please! I hate ticks as much as the next person, but clearly they serve some purpose. Better to use physical barriers (net gaiters or socks, long sleeves and pants, etc.), and do careful checks after you come inside.
Greg says
Here in MA, the ticks can carry Lime disease which if you get it, can be very serious, and can cause brain damage. I have chickens and a dogs. I only have an acre or land but have ticks too. I wouldnât take the lives of baby birds for granted, but my childrenâs lives come first in my backyard.
nancy from mass says
my one concern about the toilet paper tubes and dryer lint is that is exactly what i use as fire starters. dryer lint is flammable (hikers/backpackers sometimes carry some in a tube to use as fire starter when camping) and ticks suck (pun intended). some companies will spray your yard against ticks. we used to do that until my neighbors 2 doors down got chickens. the year the chickens started visiting my yard was the first year we didn’t spray. My son was a tick magnet and we would find multiple ticks on him until the chickens arrived. you may need chickens again Mavis!!
Debbie - MountainMama says
Wow, I never heard of tick tubes – we are in upstate NY and unfortunately the ticks love my youngest dog – she’s got long fluffy hair and even though she is treated with flea/tick prevention they still get on her more than either of my other two dogs (Jack Russells, short hair.) Geranium oil is supposed to help repel them – I dab some behind my neck when I’m working in the garden. Like you, I pull white socks up over my pants also, and usually when I’m done in the garden I take a good long soak in the tub – I feel like it’s more effective than a shower, any ticks that got on me will drown. It’s a nasty problem, one of the downfalls of living in the country!
Bernice Koelzer says
Guinea hens love to eat ticks…they are also very entertaining…
Donna Jantzer says
I’ll add my two cents to others–Guinea fowl are great. They are very friendly and love ticks. I loved ours. They don’t love the winter weather so much, but will house amicably with chickens. They fly, though, so the run has to be covered, then in the spring let em loose. I don’t suppose you have opossums there, but they also eat many ticks. We have ticks here in Eastern Washington, but no dogs. My husband works in the wild, so he’s the one who brings them home. One of the few bugs that really gross me out, ticks. Yuck! I don’t even like to see pictures, so thanks for not putting any on your blog today! Best of luck fighting them off!
Sage says
I have been looking at tick control methods and was looking into those expensive tick control boxes. The trick with those, though, is that they have bait inside them, then once inside, the rodent is sprayed with a pesticide. With the homemade tick tubes, I really wonder how much is really brought back to the nest and effective. Would love to see some research on it.
Claudia Parisi says
I participated in a study by UCONN where they did exactly this. Placed tubes w treated lint like fibers in tubes all around my property. (3 acres) The next year they put actual boxes that were metal every 6â. The third year they changed out the filling and put more treated filling out.
It definitely cut down on the ticks in my yard over time. I would recommend a plastic tube to be more weather resistant. Any help w these suckers is in-the plus column.