Pigs with Ticks

We have had pigs for a while, but this is the first year we have ever noticed ticks on them. We first noticed them on our pink pig (actually, my brother and his girlfriend did), crawling around as bold as day, on his back.

Then we thought we'd better check the piglets who by this stage were only about 3 weeks old - not crawling - but actually STUCK on - 40 or so per leg. POOR WEE THINGS.


Being New Years Eve and the shops closed for another two days we thought 'What are we gonna do', these poor babies. So naturally I Googled natural alternatives to ticks. I found A LOT of information about how to remove them with a pair of tweezers... yeah - far too many for that I'm afraid... would've been there all week.

Next up - essential oils. I found out that ticks are repelled by:

• Citronella 
• Lavender 
• Lemongrass 
• Tea Tree 
• Eucalyptus and a few other oils

I had the oils mentioned above and although some of them were around 15 years old, I thought what the heck, we'll give it a go.  At the very least it'll repel new ticks.

The spray I made up, had around 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of each oil above in 1 litre of water. We decanted some into a 500ml bottle and sprayed them on the piglets. (after testing on my own skin). Holy cow, we couldn't have been more surprised or happier with the result. Within 20 seconds they were detaching themselves and running for the 'hills' - well the long grass again anyway.

When we checked them the next day the areas we sprayed were completely clear - with a few DEAD ticks I might add 'stuck' - through sticky shells rather than sucking on.

We sprayed the remaining areas and concentrated our efforts for 4 days - spraying in bulk.

After that we left it for four days - to see how many would reappear.

NONE!!!

Since then I have sprayed 'sparingly' on the piglets and the ticks have not returned.

Mummy pig and Pink pig (currently turned into sausages for escaping his paddock too often) were also sprayed. We did not find any ticks sucking on the larger pigs. Their skin is quite hard. But we did concentrate spraying as best we could on their under sides as their softer skin is there.  The ticks that were crawling around in their hair disappeared after two days and have not returned. We are treating them the same as the piglets - every 4 days.

Infact - it's now been two weeks since the last application and no return of the horrid little bugs.

Needless to say I am impressed beyond belief and thrilled to be sharing this natural tick remedy with you.

Please be aware: in New Zealand, we do not have particularly lethal ticks, so please feel free to try this remedy and let me know how successful it was on your animals.