We live in SE Pennsylvania and our horse pastures border the woods, so ticks are a given and I got really sick of constantly finding them on my horses (and myself). Here are some of the things I did:
1. Remove trees and brush-If it hasn't been obvious from previous posts our property was very overgrown when we first got it. An important way to reduce ticks is to reduce tick habitat, this involved the removal of trees, brush, and hedgerows in and around the pastures.
2.Create a 10' buffer zone- It was not possible to remove all the trees and plants around the pastures, so the next step was to create a 10 foot area between any remaining sections of woods or brush and pasture edges. I maintain these 'buffer' areas by weed whacking (a lot) or mowing to keep the vegetation height down and tick habitat to a minimum.
3. Clean up!-Piles of dead leaves, branches, firewood, etc. are all great tick habitat. We store all firewood far away from the horse pastures and areas frequented by us or the dogs.
4. Spray- I spray the edges of brush/tree areas with an insecticide labeled for killing ticks on grass/trees. I also spray my horses with an oil-based fly spray labeled to repel ticks. The oil based sprays stick to the hair better and last longer than water based repellents. If you are using a fly spray concentrate be sure to check the label and mix at the dilution recommended for ticks (it is sometimes stronger than the dilution for repelling flies only). **Always read the label directions for insecticides/repellents you are spraying**
5. Check horses often-I check my horses daily in the evening. the most common places I seem to find ticks are: under the chin, in/under the mane, the tailhead, and between the front legs (these are also the areas I focus on when applying repellent). If you find a tick on your horse don't freak out...just grasp it firmly near the head and pull it off...then you can light it on fire! and continue checking.
So there you have it, my tips for battling ticks on horses.
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