DIY Tick Tubes

Here in the desert, we don't give much thought to ticks.  My husband and son think about them a little bit more when they go camping, because they are apparently tick magnets.  (Rhymes with chick magnet, but apparently not nearly so exciting.  My husband might not appreciate it, but I'd rather have him be a tick magnet than a chick magnet.)
Anyway, if we happened to find ourselves living back East again, or anywhere where ticks abound, we'd be making loads of these little tick tubes.  Sure, you can buy them on Amazon, but eventually Amazon may quit delivering.  And they're so easy to DIY with materials you probably already have on hand.

What you'll need:

• cardboard toilet paper or paper towel tubes (cut paper towel tubes into two or three pieces)
• cotton balls (or dryer lint)
• permethrin

Dilute your permethrin with water so that it is a 7-7.5% solution.  (Commercially manufactured tick tubes use a 7.4% solution of permethrin.)  How much water you will need depends on the concentration of permethrin you are using.  If you are using 36.8% permethrin, you want about one part permethrin to five parts water.

Spray the cotton balls well with your permethrin solution and then let them dry.  Now stuff the cardboard tubes with your permethrin cotton balls.  Place the tubes in discreet areas around the perimeter of your yard.  Mice will take the cotton balls to build their nests.  The ticks, which reproduce in mice nests, are killed on contact with permethrin.  The mice remain unharmed.

Unfortunately, permethrin also kills beneficial insects like bees and butterflies, so it's really not something to be used indiscriminately around the yard.

Links to related posts:
Permethrin--Don't Bug Out Without It  
TEOTWAWKI Tick Bite Prevention
Tick-Borne Illnesses  

For more information:
DIY Tick Tubes
More DIY Tick Tubes
Yet More DIY Tick Tubes

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1 july 2021