Great... We Have Ticks!

Not the wildlife I would have preferred to encounter... but we seem to have a tick problem.  The dogs have picked up a couple of them.  I found one in my hair, thankfully still unattached.  And tonight there was one crawling across the blanket we keep on the couch for evenings that are a little cool for comfort.

I'm ready to end the meet and greets with yucky insects that I've never seen before!

The dogs have been treated with flea and tick medication so hopefully they are probably safe.  Although I did find one attached to that soft belly skin a couple days after the treatment and that does give me some concern.

male     female
http://www.tickinfo.com/TICKIDPAGE.htm

The identification guide I googled makes me think they are American Dog Ticks which are closely related to Rocky Mountain Wood Ticks and Gulf Coast Ticks.  And, sadly, can be carriers for the same diseases:  Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Tuleremia and may carry Human Granulocytic Ehrlichiosis.  (I'm not even sure what those last 2 are but guessing they are bad.)

The picture is 2-3X larger than the real life ticks I've seen.  And even the couple that had attached were still unengorged and going by the picture all have been male.  The engorged females look even more unsavory...

Left to Right: unengorged female, 1/4 engorged, 1/2 engorged and fully engorged
http://www.tickinfo.com/americandogtick.htm

Our brushy and wooded lot is their perfect habitat.  They live, in large numbers, in tall grass and jump off onto any warm-blooded creature that wanders by.  As I said, the dogs have had a flea and tick treatment.  But we still check them, and us, daily.  And I'm exploring ways to kill and/or repel them even more.  What I've found so far says that if we treat our clothing with permethrin it will kill any who try to hitch a ride there and that DEET-based skin repellent helps repel them.

So what is permethrin?  Where do I get it?  How do I use it?  And is it safe?

Wikipedia has this to say:  "Permethrin is a common synthetic chemical, widely used as an insecticide, acaricide, and insect repellent. It belongs to the family of synthetic chemicals called pyrethroids and functions as a neurotoxin, affecting neuron membranes by prolonging sodium channel activation. It is not known to rapidly harm most mammals or birds, but is dangerously toxic to cats and fish."  And that in agriculture, "its use is controversial because, as a broad-spectrum chemical, it kills indiscriminately; as well as the intended pests, it can harm beneficial insects including honey bees, and aquatic life."

That's not sounding like a very safe to use chemical.  And DEET comes with its own set of reasons to avoid it.

So far the only more natural controls I've found are to mow the grass as close to the ground as possible to eliminate their habitat and to spray the yard with citronella oil.

Off to find citronella oil!

Just talking about ticks is making me itch and imagine crawling sensations all over my body.  Ewwww...

A Chance Encounter With Local Wildlife

Today has been more than a little nerve-wracking... It's awfully hard to be at the mercy of someone else's mortgage lender who seems to have less than an appropriate level of interest in getting this deal closed.  Someday I'm sure all the stress they are causing will be the makings for a funny story.  But that day is not today!  So a chance encounter with some local wildlife was a welcome, if short, distraction.

I walked outside to get some papers out of my car and noticed a small lizard sunning itself on the rocks of a retaining wall between this and the neighboring property which sits a bit higher on the hillside.  It wasn't very happy to pose for my picture taking pleasure but I was able to snap this with my cell phone before it scurried off and after getting some friends to take a look we decided it was probably an Eastern Fence Lizard (a.k.a. prairie lizard, fence swift, gray lizard, or pine lizard depending on your locale).

The skin was sort of a mottled gray and from nose to tail tip I'd guess it measured about 4 inches long.  As it scooted along, the underbelly appeared light, almost white.  (Which may mean it was a female... everything I found online said the males are browner and have blue-colored bellies.)

Google confirmed the identity and came up with some other facts about this cute little reptile.

Wait.  Did I just say "cute" and "reptile" in the same sentence?

I did not see that coming!

Wikipedia gives the genus name as Sceloporus undulatus.  Sceloporus is derived from the Greek word "skelos" (meaning leg) combined with the Latin word "porus" (meaning hole) in reference to this lizard breed's large femoral pores.   "Undulatus," Latin for wave, refers to the transverse dark crossbars on their backs.  And it says this 4-7 1/2 inch long lizard is found in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, Southern Indiana, Tennessee, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, Mississippi, Delaware, northern Florida, and southern New Jersey and that there's also an isolated population in southeastern New York.

A little more digging around other websites uncovered much the same information but I also learned that they are non-venomous.  Most people who were posting pictures and comments and articles weren't overly concerned when their kids caught these little lizards or the cat drug a mortally wounded one home and left his gift of prey on the doorstep.

Not poison... maybe things are looking up for that cute factor!

In fact, they are among the good guys in the garden as their favorite meals include spiders and other pesky insects that we don't want nibbling on our tender and expensive plants.  So I say welcome to my world, and munch on little lizard, munch on!!

People who've lived here for awhile tell me to expect to see lots of them.  They say there'll be gray ones and  brown ones and green ones... oh my!

Roachly Encounters

Photo from:  http://kezj.com/magic-valley-cockroaches/

I know.

But set your shivers of revulsion aside for a moment...

It's actually quite interesting!

Shortly after moving to Georgia, I began seeing these quarter-sized flying bugs that I thought looked an awfully lot like a giant cockroach but my fiancés family called a Palmetto Bug.  After putting in hours of research, I've learned that the big bugs look a whole lot worse than they really are.  And that what we have here isn't really a Palmetto Bug (aka Water Bug and officially a Florida Woods Cockroach), but rather an American Cockroach.

Yup, that great big beasty on the far left of the photo (above) showing some of the varieties of cockroaches that have found their way to the United States is what I've seen occasionally scurrying across the floor.

Interesting factoid:  Despite names that hint at locational evolution, all of these roach species seem to have originated in Africa and were transported here beginning as early as 1675.

The little (usually under 1/2-inch in length) German Cockroach shown center right is by far the most common.  They are found in all 50 states and it's the one whose preferred habitat is most identified with the public perception of cockroaches and filth.  It gravitates to unclean homes... sink full of dirty dishes, food scraps and trash lying around, pantry shelves with open containers.  You get the picture, right?  Those easy food sources and the relatively even temperature of a house are the conditions it finds hospitable once transported, most often unknowingly, inside furniture or as eggs on product packaging into a home.

In contrast, American Cockroaches are outdoor bugs who crawl in under doors and through openings (plumbing, electrical, etc.) in the foundation of a building seeking warmth and water.  Their preferred diet is rotting plant material like wood mulch or broken shrubbery branches in foundation plantings.  Water-rotted wood in homes with structural damage are also especially attractive.  In the absence of other food sources, they will munch on paper products because of the plant cellulose those items are made from but a ready source of water is by far their most critical requirement.

All roaches can cause health problems in two ways.  Most often it's an allergic reaction triggered in either pets or people as they shed their outer skin to accommodate growth and broken bits spread, for example, by forced-air heating systems are inhaled.  The reaction can range from minor sniffles to a life threatening asthma attack depending on a person's sensitivity.  Less common, but more feared, they pick up bacteria on their legs which is then deposited into foodstuffs they disturb and you then consume.  E. coli and salmonella are the prevalent bacterial infections spread by roaches.

Control seems to be pretty much the same no matter what type of cockroach it is.  First and most importantly, take preventative action and keep your house clean and bathrooms, laundry and food prep areas dry.  Boric acid kills them.  Most people simply sprinkle a bit along the threshold of outside doors, in under-sink cabinets, on pantry shelves and behind appliances.  Boric acid is generally considered non-poisonous to pets and people but loses its ability to kill ants and roaches when mixed with water.  It is an odorless white granular powder sold in most places that offer pest control products at a relatively inexpensive price.

Interesting factoid:  The borax sold on the same grocery isle as laundry soap and commonly used as an additive in the wash to whiten and brighten clothes contains boric acid.  And yes, it can be used for roach control exactly the same way.

German Cockroaches reproduce prolifically so if you're unlucky enough to find yourself inhabiting space with them, boric acid needs to be a supplemental control to professional spraying until you are free of them.  Serious infestations of American Cockroaches will also need to be dealt with professionally.  Usually an exterminator will spray the perimeter of the foundation outside and around the baseboards and cabinetry inside with a powerful insecticide not available to the general public.

So, knowing all this, I guess I can get over my freak out and stop hyperventilating to the point of nausea when I see one of these big bugs.  There's a good chance the encounters will continue to be very sporadic and control is rather simple and cheap.  Being armed with the right information is always a good thing!