How to get rid of ticks and knats

[Woodbutcher]

This may be common knowledge to some but I had never heard of it before. I was on a Jeep trip last weekend. Spent 2 days in the woods. The trail guide had a bottle of pure vanilla diluted with water. We put a little in our hand and rubbed it on our necks. Not sticky, smelled good and we were hever bothered by the knats. He said knats are attracted to the smell of your breath. The vanilla covers it up. Worked real well.
The second tip he told us was to remove a tick that's attached. Take a cotton ball soaked with softsoap and hold it over the tick. It will back out. Now this one I have not tried yet so I can't say for sure it works, maybe someone else has heard of this. If so let us know.

[Miriam C.]

Thank you for that timely tip. I hate biting bugs and they love me.

[martha24]

Thanks for the tips.
I don't know about the soft soap, but I wouldn't be surprised as soap in general breaks the air pocket making it so a bug can't breath. Not that I know how a tick breaths with it head burried. Anyway that how it supposed to work with fleas and soap, break the air bubble, then they drown while you wash the dog providing they get caught in the soap.
Martha

[Mary K]

Ohh, good Tip.

Isn't it Gnat and not Knat? Not that I am trying to correct your spelling. I don't care how anyone spells, cause I am the dislexic queen of bad spelling. But it just made me start thinking about how crazy the English language is. They must have been smoking Crack when came up with it! I mean really, one would think "I Know that Knat is on my Knee" Why the G in this case???

Anywho.... I will have to try the Vanilla them Knats drive be Knuts!!!!


Mk

[Mary K]

Oh, and Martha, this is interesting too...insects breath or absorb oxygen though their skin.

Millions of years ago when the oxygen levels were much, much higher on the planet. Insects where GIGANTIC!! Yup, There used to be dragonflies with wingspans of 3 Feet. Wow, huh?

So thats why the soap suffocates the tic even though its head is buried.

Ya gotta love the Discovery Channels.

[Geron]

To remove ticks -- Will have to try that one.

JUST DON'T LET YOUR DERMATOLOGIST REMOVE IT.

Went to my Derma for the annual "look me over for skin cancer" exam and he found a tick. Asked, "you want me to take it off?" Not really thinking I said, "Sure!" He dabbed a little petroleum jelly on it, left it for about 5 min., came back and pulled it off.

Got the bill and it was $180 for "removal of a foreign object"

I wrote him a "funny" letter about raising 4 boys and all the ticks I had removed from them and something about being a multi-millionaire just from tick removals.

I INCLUDED A CHECK FOR THE BILL IN THE LETTER AND HE REFUNDED MY MONEY

So, Don't let the Derma. guy take the tick off

[Laredo]

vaseline will also cause ticks (and fleas) to let go. NEVER squeeze them while they're attached -- you risk pushing bacteria and toxins from the bugs into the tissues.

I carry a chapstick, but I"ve also got one of those vaseline tubes for lips in my fannypack 1st aid kit.

The bugs are attracted to the carbon dioxide in exhalations (mosquitoes as well as gnats).

[mentallychllngd]

I am an eagle scout and have spent a decent amount of time in the outdoors and one thing that i have learned is to never do the Vaseline soft soap tick removal. it works but, at the expense of the tick releasing an infectious coating to remove its head from the skin. this ejaculate (could not think of a better word, LOL) contains diseases such as lyme disease. A doctors instructions were that the only way to remove a tick is using tweezers and to make sure you remove the head of the tick.

[Laredo]

Scouting manuals used to show a very different tick removal technique.
Light a match, blow it out, touch the hot end to the tick. The bug will back out instantly, and you can then kill it.
Obviously this will not work on dogs or cats.
The vaseline works, and so does the softsoap, but both take much longer than the match.
Granted, these scout manuals were from the 60s and 70s, and the source for matches was the scoutmaster, because it was assumed they'd smoke.

[Kurt (Indiana)]

JUST DON'T LET YOUR DERMATOLOGIST REMOVE IT.....


Got the bill and it was $180 for "removal of a foreign object"


So, Don't let the Derma. guy take the tick off

Does the term TICKED OFF!!! ring a bell???

[wolfy]

I neverever went to all the trouble of removing a tick that has been described here. We live in tick country and encounter them as a matter of fact whenever we go morel hunting, raspberry picking, asparagus plucking....jus' pick the sunzabiches off when ya' feel them crawlin' on yer' bod If they're stuck, just use yer' thumb and index fingernails to pinch them as close to the skin as possible and wiggle 'em out. They don't puke their pizen' into you or anything of the like. It's just a matter of checkin' out yer shorthairs more than anything else. They'll glom on to you at the base of yer' skull above the hairline and in yer' pubes, but you can usually find them after a quick shower and in toweling off. The shower slows them down and they're not as scary as they're made out to be....they ain't a scorpion fer' cryin' out loud

[SteveH]

I've found if you spray your shoes and up your legs a ways with Off, ticks and what we have more of, chiggers, will not get on you.

[dmb90260]

I've found if you spray your shoes and up your legs a ways with Off, ticks and what we have more of, chiggers, will not get on you.

That sure beats the smell of kerosene that we used when I was a junior blackberry picker long long ago.

[Joseph]

The Lyme Disease Foundation has IMHO the best advice on tick removal. Note that they say:

Do not prick, crush or burn the tick as it may release infected fluids or tissue.
Do not try to smother the tick (e.g. petroleum jelly, nail polish) as the tick has enough oxygen to complete the feeding.

The tweezers on a Swiss Army Knife are perfect for tick removal.

Joseph

[M B Hamilton]

As Joseph says, tweezers work for tick removal.

Another thing that works is a modified plastic spoon: Make a narrow Vee-notch into the spoon's bowl. Put a bevel on the notch (the bevel is widest in the bowl of the spoon). Ok, that's it for the construction phase.

Once a tick attaches itself to you, or some other person/dog/cat, take your modified spoon and slide the Vee-notch underneath the tick until it's head/neck is trapped at the bottom of the length of the notch. Lift. Ok, that completes the tick removal phase.

I'll leave the tick disposal phase to your imagination. It will still be alive, you haven't crushed it to death (which, reportedly, can inject any disease the tick is carrying into the victim).