When it comes to ticks, it can seem like there is almost no help besides your friends over at East End Tick and Mosquito Control®. Deer, mice, squirrels, and even dogs, man’s best friend, can aid in the spreading of ticks. However, there are a few animals that can live on Long Island that actually eat ticks. With the spread of Lyme Disease, these animals can be extremely beneficial to the residents of Long Island.
You may have seen these bizarre, even ugly, animals at night while driving your car. They look almost like a rat and almost like a weasel; they’re about the size of a cat, but they are more closely related to koalas and kangaroos. Opossums are North America’s only marsupial; they are mammals that keep their young in a pouch on their body. Opossums are nocturnal, which is why most of the time, they are seen on the road at night. Opossums are omnivores; they’ll eat both plant and animal life. They’re opportunistic as well. Meaning they will eat whatever is easiest to find. This brings us to how they end up eating ticks. Opossums seek their food on the ground, often eating insects and mice. While searching for food, ticks will latch on to opossums, as they do with other animals that cross their path. Opossums, however, are very clean animals. They regularly groom themselves, and in this grooming often find and eat the ticks they find. So while these animals might be ugly, they do aid in keeping those pesky ticks away, which should make their presence not only tolerable but welcome.
Many people have begun to own chickens, and for good reason too. Many see them as pets that give the added benefit of providing breakfast in the form of eggs every few days. It can also be a rewarding experience to raise a chicken from a chick to a full-grown chicken. They are relatively easy to raise once they have a coop built for them, as they eat nearly everything, and many chicken owners feed them with table scraps. They will also roam around where they are allowed and eat any bugs they can catch, including ticks! Yes, your egg-producing chickens can also keep disease-spreading ticks out of your yard.
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The Guinea Fowl is a species of bird in the same family as the peacock. Guinea Fowls originated in Africa; however, they are hardy and can survive in most places. While they are not commonly seen as pets, they can be seen once in a while on a farm. Guinea Fowl are much more adept at eating ticks than chickens, as more of their diet is bugs. Guinea Fowl will roam around an area actively seeking bugs to eat.
While we can’t recommend relying on opossums or pet birds to rid your property of ticks completely, it is nice to know that we can get a little help from the animal kingdom. The best way to keep your property clear of ticks is to make it inhospitable to ticks by keeping the grass short and raking up leaves. This, in conjunction with tick spraying from East End Tick and Mosquito Control®, will keep your property free of disease-spreading ticks and mosquitoes.
Give us a call today to learn how we can help. For those living near Southampton, please call (631) 287-9700. If you live closer to East Hampton, please call (631) 324-9700. And if your home is near Southold, please call (631) 765-9700. You can always email us as well. We look forward to hearing from you!Air Date: Week of July 26, 2019 Guinea fowl like to forage for ticks, mosquitoes, fleas, beetles, spiders, and more. (Photo: Scott Hess, Flickr, CC BY-NC 2.0) Deer ticks can carry Lyme disease, a debilitating disease if left untreated, and one that’s becoming more common thanks to the warming climate. Now some homeowners in the thick of tick country are turning to guinea fowl to control ticks. Living on Earth’s Jenni Doering reports from Exeter, New Hampshire about one family’s experience with these tick-eating machines.
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BASCOMB: It’s the height of tick season, which means if you spend any time in the woods, you might become a meal for the tiny blood-suckers. And if you’re in the eastern U.S., beware of the blacklegged or deer tick, which can carry Lyme disease. If left untreated, Lyme can spread to the joints, the heart, and the nervous system. More than 40, 000 new cases of Lyme were reported in 2017, and climate change could make it even more common. A recent study found that a temperature increase of just 2 degrees Celsius could result in a 20 percent increase in Lyme disease cases in the U.S. Luckily, there are proven ways to reduce your risk of getting Lyme disease: wear long sleeved clothing, use repellents, and do a thorough tick check after you’ve been in the woods. And for those who share a backyard with tick-infested woods there are other, more unconventional ways, to protect your family. Living on Earth’s Jenni Doering reports from Exeter, New Hampshire.
Sarah Koff with daughters Suzy, 6, and Hazel, 3, in front of the guinea fowl coop in their backyard. (Photo: Jenni Doering)
KOFF: We love going outside playing in the woods. We have this great big yard that they play in and we have a sandbox out here and slack line and all sorts of things; we like to make fairy houses, and we like to garden together. So, yeah we’re outside pretty much every day.
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KOFF: I was so, just, overwhelmed by the ticks in our yard. I’m a big gardener and my daughters – I just feel like it’s really important for them to spend as much of their time outside as possible. And you know, we live in the woods. And so in April and May, they were just coming in with ticks every day on them – and my husband was and I was – and it was just getting too much; I was so overwhelmed and I just, I’m such a big gardener, there’s no way I was willing to spray anything on the lawn or use any sort of chemicals at all, so I thought I would try this biological control…
DOERING: Native to Africa, guineas are rather awkward, football-shaped birds with a tiny head, and a voracious appetite for ticks. And unlike chickens, guinea fowl won’t peck at your garden greens. So Sarah decided to give them a try.
KOFF: Yeah, I just went on Craigslist and I pretty easily found… there were actually a lot of different ads for people selling guineas but we wanted a certain amount and we wanted them to be babies, so it was a perfect guy who had them and raised them and told me a lot about them.
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From left, the larvae, nymph, adult male and adult female forms of the blacklegged or deer tick, which can carry Lyme disease. (Photo: CDC)
KOFF: As soon as we started letting them out they were immediately interested in pecking, pecking and pecking. So yeah, they were just sort of tearing up all the bugs! [LAUGHS]
DOERING: Sarah and the kids showed me to a cute little wooden coop with a tin roof, and a single, black and white speckled guinea fowl inside. Sarah unlatched the door and with Hazel’s help, tried to coax the timid bird outside.
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The Koffs’ coop keeps the guinea fowl safe from predators at nighttime, but they’re vulnerable during the daytime when they roam around eating ticks and other bugs. (Photo: Jenni Doering)
KOFF: I don’t think he’ll go very far. He doesn’t usually go very far. Yes, there he is. And we could also give him some scratch. You want to give him some scratch?
KOFF: Well, we used to have eight, but then earlier this week, unfortunately, seven of them disappeared; and we don’t know what happened but we think that they were either killed or ran away; were definitely spooked by some predator, because we did find one dead hen, so... yeah it’s really sad.
Redbilled Oxpecker Pecking On Zebra's Neck Getting Rid Of Ticks And Fleas Stock Photo, Picture And Royalty Free Image. Image 12000440
Guinea fowl are native to Africa. Above, a wild guinea fowl in Kenya’s Maasai Mara National Reserve. (Photo: Marc, Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
KOFF: I haven’t seen any ticks on the kids since we’ve let the guineas go roam around. And my husband I think has found one on himself so far.
Researchers placed guinea fowl into tick-infested areas and found that they significantly reduced the adult tick population within the enclosures. But Howard Ginsberg, a research ecologist with the Department of Interior, points out a problem with timing.
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GINSBERG: Most people get Lyme disease during June and July when the nymphs are out, and the nymphs are in the woods. The adults, which are the stage that’s targeted by these birds, is out in the fall and spring, out in open areas like people’s lawns; and some people get Lyme disease that way but not most people. So there may be some effect, but in general it’s not going to solve a disease problem.
DOERING: In fact, another study
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