- Tick Tubes (instructions

[Frederick W. Schueler]

* here's Aleta's foundational document on Tick Tubes.

fred.
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---------Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad ------------
Fragile Inheritance Natural History - https://fragileinheritance.ca/
6 St-Lawrence Street Bishops Mills, RR#2 Oxford Station, Ontario K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44.87156° N 75.70095° W
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[Aleta Karstad]

I made tick tubes yesterday and gave them out free this morning from my tick info table at the North Grenville Sustainability Fair, and the main issue for folks making their own is the inaccessibility of Permethrin in this country. Amazon.ca does not list a product for applying it to clothing, like the spray I used, purchased in Ogdensburg several years ago, even though there is a search prompt for it. So some of the folks I talked to are planning to bring it across the border it seems. I don’t know how effective the mixtures of insecticides for spraying on lawns would be for tick tubes.

I’ll keep you posted if I learn more.

Aleta

> On Apr 26, 2026, at 5:01 PM, Frederick W. Schueler <bck...@istar.ca> wrote:
>
> * here's Aleta's foundational document on Tick Tubes.

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> <Tick Tubes.pdf>
> <Attached Message Part.txt>

[Bev Wigney]

Aleta and all,

I was going to ask you about the Permethrin as I knew that Sawyer's tick spray is not available in Canada.  Alternatively, I have been using a product called "OnGuard Pro-Perm Insect Killer 3.78L, Bed Bug Spray, Fast Action, Residual (24/7), Non-Flammable, Water-Based Solution, Indoor and Outdoor Use" available from Amazon.   I use it to spray my outdoor work clothes, and to make anti-tick bandanas for my dogs, and spray the covers of their dog beds.  It is a weaker concentration that the Sawyer's spray for clothes.  Sawyer's is .5 percent Pemethrin, and On-Guard is 0.25%.  I recently noticed that Canadian Tire is selling a Permethrin product called Dokter Doom Tick Killer Plus for yards and buildings.  It is also weaker at 0.25%. 

Anyhow, I have been using that as mentioned above and it does seem to work.  I apply it a couple of times rather than just once -- I spray everything outside on a warm, dry day.  

Regarding the tick tubes, I have never made them, but planned to do some this week using the On-Guard permethrin.  This is anecdotal info, but a couple of weeks ago, my vet was telling me that she has a client who has been making tick tubes for a couple of years and keeping track of ticks around their place.  They say that the tick numbers have declined a lot since starting to do this.  Anyhow, anything is worth a try.

On that note, I thought I would do some experimenting with cedar oil this year, and also with balsam fir oil as researchers at Dalhousie and Acadian Universities here in Nova Scotia discovered that balsam fir needles seem to kill ticks when the temperature is at or below freezing -- and it worked even better with balsam fir oil.  I'm thinking that even if it didn't kill them, it might repel or disable them in some way, so I ordered the oils.  They should arrive this week.  I'll be doing some experimenting with them.  Some of the cedar oil makers claim that a bit of cedar oil on dog collars will keep the ticks off - and same goes for clothing - and that you can spray it around your garden to keep ticks away.  I'll be experimenting with all of this once I have some of these oils to work with.

bev

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[Steve Marks]

What’s especially ironic (moronic?) about that is that the greenhouse farms in Essex County atomize Permethrin on our food every single day. 

I love your idea! 

💚

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[e.g. g]

P.S. available for anyone to buy at Home Hardware etc and at horse/feedstores:  Ultrashield bottle spray "for horses only" is .5% permethrin (plus other stuff), is "pleasantly scented with Citronella" and will doubtless leave your socks and gaiters shiny and conditioned with aloe and lanolin.  

A commonly sold bottle is 950ml of liquid which cd be used for dipping nest material

Elizabeth G

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[e.g. g]

...assuming you dry and air out thr treated nesting mayerial to lower the Citronella scent, or if your rodents aren't repelled by lemon (the mice in my house weren't)

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[rmb...@istar.ca]

Thankyou. I shall give it a try, I certainly have plenty of mice.

I shall also grow more pots of catnip, I've read that catnip also
deters ticks.

Rose-Marie