advice pls? Snakes, chiggers, ticks, poison ivy + (sold, water)

[chattyme]

Originally Posted by lifelongMOgal

As long as I don't have to watch for them hanging out of trees when I am in the woods.

My b/f says you're safe from them being in trees in regular woods - where there is no water they won't be hanging from trees. He lives by a lake - that's part of the reason there are so many on his property.

[Curmudgeon]

Originally Posted by kshe95girl

LOL!
When I was a girl, we had a summer house in Greenville, part of the morning routine was to go play tennis while it was still cool.
Mom would pass out razor sharp hoes that she kept in an umbrella stand by the front door, with admonitions to chop the heads off of any snakes we encountered.
There would always be at least one snake on the asphalt of the tennis court.......they didnt live long.

Ah, the memories. Bagged my first cottonmouth in our back yard in North Carolina with a child's, metal hoe when I was five. I'd watched my mother do it with a regular hoe several times before but she was inside so I went for it. She was horrified and I was soundly lectured about keeping my distance and calling for her.

[kshe95girl]

Originally Posted by Curmudgeon

Ah, the memories. Bagged my first cottonmouth in our back yard in North Carolina with a child's, metal hoe when I was five. I'd watched my mother do it with a regular hoe several times before but she was inside so I went for it. She was horrified and I was soundly lectured about keeping my distance and calling for her.

There was always a herd of us at the summer house (it was enormous), myself, my older sister, plus at least a 1/2 dozen various and assorted cousins at any given moment.
There were just too many of us for Mom to ride herd on.....I was 6 when the ritual of the hoes began!

[GunnerTHB]

My first cottonmouth was shot with a bow...then it wrapped itself around the arrow & me and a buddy stomped its head about 10 times before he died. He was a little pissy to say the least lol

[stepka]

Eh, I've been dealing with that stuff all my life and it's just part of the scenery.

1. Poison Ivy--ditto on the jewelweed soap and Burt's Bees used to make it, not sure if they do now. I made my own with the weed blended and then melted into castile soap. The weed looks a lot like garden impatiens and grows everywhere. Also goats consider PI a delicacy. Whatever you do--don't burn piles of brush.

2. Ticks--also vote for the guineas and chickens and keeping things mowed and not wading thru brush in the summer time, though I've even seen them in the winter. I react badly to these critters so I make a homemade salve with garden plantain and I cook it down in oil and add some beeswax to firm it up. It works better than tea tree oil but if you don't desire to make your own salve, tea tree oil works well too--besides most people don't react as badly as I do. This has the built-in advantage that no tick will ever be embedded in me for more than 24 hours, though lyme disease is not common in MO.

3. Chiggers--don't sit in the grass and wear bug spray on hikes

4. Snakes--weren't that much of a problem that I can recall. Yes I saw them sometimes but they were most likely to be out on the road at about sunset and they were usually just water snakes, not the poison variety though.

And despite my best efforts, I am just immured to the fact that summer time is itching time.

5. Oh yeah, and brown recluse spiders. Had an exterminator tell me that the best way to keep them down is to go around weekly and sweep under your eaves as it will discourage them from being near your house--they eat other spiders so if you get rid of the daddy longlegs and such by doing this, that will help. Also, for the ones that do get in, the glue traps are most effective he said. Put them in dark corners. I have used the osage orange balls but impossible to know if it helped as I only had one real influx of them and the glue traps solved that.

[kshe95girl]

Originally Posted by stepka

Eh, I've been dealing with that stuff all my life and it's just part of the scenery.

1. Poison Ivy--ditto on the jewelweed soap and Burt's Bees used to make it, not sure if they do now. I made my own with the weed blended and then melted into castile soap. The weed looks a lot like garden impatiens and grows everywhere. Also goats consider PI a delicacy. Whatever you do--don't burn piles of brush.

2. Ticks--also vote for the guineas and chickens and keeping things mowed and not wading thru brush in the summer time, though I've even seen them in the winter. I react badly to these critters so I make a homemade salve with garden plantain and I cook it down in oil and add some beeswax to firm it up. It works better than tea tree oil but if you don't desire to make your own salve, tea tree oil works well too--besides most people don't react as badly as I do. This has the built-in advantage that no tick will ever be embedded in me for more than 24 hours, though lyme disease is not common in MO.

3. Chiggers--don't sit in the grass and wear bug spray on hikes

4. Snakes--weren't that much of a problem that I can recall. Yes I saw them sometimes but they were most likely to be out on the road at about sunset and they were usually just water snakes, not the poison variety though.

And despite my best efforts, I am just immured to the fact that summer time is itching time.

5. Oh yeah, and brown recluse spiders. Had an exterminator tell me that the best way to keep them down is to go around weekly and sweep under your eaves as it will discourage them from being near your house--they eat other spiders so if you get rid of the daddy longlegs and such by doing this, that will help. Also, for the ones that do get in, the glue traps are most effective he said. Put them in dark corners. I have used the osage orange balls but impossible to know if it helped as I only had one real influx of them and the glue traps solved that.

Yep, I would say that 99% of us born and raised in SE MO feel the same way.

[SW Missouri Dave]

Originally Posted by kshe95girl

.I was 6 when the ritual of the hoes began!

Good heavens girl!!

You were just one of a herd of hoe's at 6 years of age!!

Your mother should be ashamed!!

[kshe95girl]

Originally Posted by SW Missouri Dave

Good heavens girl!!

You were just one of a herd of hoe's at 6 years of age!!

Your mother should be ashamed!!

What can I say?
I come from a long line of hoe'ers.
(I've been waiting for a whole day to use that line!)

[SW Missouri Dave]

Originally Posted by kshe95girl

What can I say?
I come from a long line of hoe'ers.
(I've been waiting for a whole day to use that line!)

Good grief. I better un-friend you quick like.

My wife checks on here and finds I am making nice with a hoe-er, well .... it would be bad, just really, really bad

[kshe95girl]

Originally Posted by SW Missouri Dave

Good grief. I better un-friend you quick like.

My wife checks on here and finds I am making nice with a hoe-er, well .... it would be bad, just really, really bad

Bahahahahaha!!!!!!!!
Dontcha just love puns?
People say they are the lowest form of humor, but I adore them!