TICKS (and flies) on cows

[canesisters]

Flies aren't a problem yet, but I'm picking ticks off the cows like crazy. Daily spray-on isn't practical since I leave the house before the sun is up & the cows are usually still asleep in the woods.
I've tried Ulta Boss pour-on, but haven't seen much of a change in the number of ticks. I'm considering a back rubber. That's a decent chunk of change, that I would gladly give - IF it works.
My concern with a back rub is that most of the ticks I find are underneath. Under their jaw, on their throat, behind front legs and between back legs and A LOT around their tails.

Do you have something that you would recommend?

 

[farmerjan]

Have never had a tick problem on the cattle... just an occasional one or 2. I just do not have any suggestions except to fence them out of the woods part?
The backrubber won't help with the actual ticks, but if you get one that has the associated jug that slowly feeds the rubber with an insecticide, it will keep the animals with a dose of something to help to keep the ticks off... we have back rubbers of some sort on every mineral feeder so when they put their heads in, they will rub against it and gets a little bit of insecticide around the head, ears, face... helps with face flies and slows down some of the pinkeye infections from the flies.... we mix ours with diesel fluid or old oil which makes it a little oily but it sticks to their hair better. Not like they will be dripping or anything...
The ones we use have a center tub, with an "arm" that extends to one side to a long pipe leg... looks like a laying down triangle on the side... it is made out of a heavy canvas type material and actually a couple of them have a chain like covering along one side so they can scratch against it . There are pictures of them.... you can get real fancy or fairly plain... but we like the ones they can actually lean their body into and scratch against... and they do use them.
NOT CHEAP... but they do last a long time.... has a little jug at the top that you fill with an insecticide liquid and it feeds down into the heavy canvas type material and then they just rub against it.... lasts for weeks and weeks.

 

[canesisters]

..so now my brain is trying to MacGyver together some way to get a backrub to work upside down.......

... Loooong flaps from a standard back-rub.. more like a curtain.....
... something stiff but bendy covered in fabric.. about 3' tall... that they have to walk over/through......
... but the oily stuff won't want to wick UP.... will it????
... if the 'curtain' strips were stretchy and attached at the bottom so they wrapped around more.......

This is going to have me distracted ALL DAY now

 

[farmerjan]

No, not going to wick UP.... simple fly type strips hanging down from a mineral feeder will still get the stuff on the animal... it works through absorption on the skin and will travel thoughout their system... so using some sort of fly strips for them to reach through into a mineral feeder... will get in on them and will get on the skin..
Try a back rub hung across a doorway..... and put an insecticide/oil/diesel concoction on it once a week... many of the rubs have strips hanging down to also get some of it on their sides... some work with powders.. some work with an oil type rub...
Valley vet carries a back rub for under $30... if you get the additional strips that hang down it's about $50 total.... the back rubber is made for cattle, strong, and you can't make it for that and have the material last through the season with an insecticide/diesel pour on... TSC carries one also but reviews are not as good. These just hang between 2 trees or a doorway so they have to go under them... and believe me once they get to try them, they do use them. Ours are more involved using a mineral feeder but I have used just the back rub. You can hang it on a bit of an angle so the calf can get it too, but the soaking will run towards the lowest spot... I used to have 2 at one place so the hogs could take advantage of getting under one and the cows the other.

 

[mysunwolf]

Definitely try the back rubber. Also, injectable and pour on ivermectin kills ticks, but they have to latch on first.

When I worked at a dairy, they had a "doorway" that was cow sized and the cows had to run through after milking every day. There were strips hanging down that could be continuously coated with fly spray that the cows had to run through. The strips were so long that a few definitely "whipped" the belly as the cows ran through.

Good luck, VA is a nightmare as far as ticks! I've have lyme disease multiple times as have most of my friends and neighbors. We get ticks on all the animals. Biggest help has actually been 1. dogs to chase off the deer and 2. guineas to eat as many ticks as possible (we have a combined herd of 30-50 for about 40 acres of neighbors). Downside to this is both of those animals are loud!

 

[canesisters]

Might have found a starting point. This kit is less than than the sock & 1st bottle of product individually at my local T.S. and I'd get a handy tub too.
What are the face strips made of?? I'm super frugal (cheap!), do you think any cotton fabric would work??? Like... maybe legs of old jeans cut into 3" strips????

Then to find the best spot to hang it....
The BEST spot would be at either end of the passage from the paddock to the pasture, but there is a very wet area RIGHT there along the side of the passage and it's FULL of frogs.. I'd hate to poison them with runoff...
UGH, the idea of pesticide just dripping makes me cringe. I've been so careful to not use anymore than necessary. Then again - that's probably contributing to WHY I have such a bad tick problem - and flys once summer gets going.

Has anyone used this product? Does it smell terribly??? Perhaps I can hang it indoors so they pass it when they come in to eat?

 

[Baymule]

Running the deer off is a real good start. A good farm dog could do that for you. I’m looking forward to getting my place under fence so the dogs can keep the danged deer out. Deer walk the front field at night and the dogs go mad.

Guineas for ticks also is a good idea, but they are stupid and on the menu of every predator out there. You will need a big flock, as they go wild and you can’t call the danged things to a coop at night.

Possums eat ticks too. Little known fact.

 

[farmerjan]

Possums also carry some diseases that are fatal to horses and will get into grain bins, eat eggs, kill chickens at night sitting on roosts, get into chicken feeders.......and carry diseases that can be transmitted to people. They are NOT to be encouraged.
Agree Guineas are as dumb as a rock... they will roost out in the open on a fence at night and are perfect bait if you want to attract owls...... But they are comical... and they are LOUSY mothers....

 

[canesisters]

I attempted guineas.
20 chicks Spring 2021. By fall 2021 I had 4. Every one of them committed 'guinea-cide' in the most ridiculous ways they could dream up. Falling off the perch... .. the ONLY birds in the coop that can actually FLY and they die falling 3'.... scalping themselves by shoving their heads into the holes in bricks... crawling into a roll of wire - NOT into the hole in the middle - but from the end, going around and around the roll until they've shoved themselves so far into the roll that they suffocate.... TWO somehow died in feed bags. Open, empty feed bags. ????
Over the next year 3 of the 4 got themselves 'Darwin Awarded' so now I have 1. Most days she flies out over the fence and immediately spends the next 8hours running back and forth along the same 3' of fence trying to shove herself back in through the fence wire....
They are NOT my favorite foul.

I'm still toying with how I could make flappy, hanging-down things on a back rub that would get their legs a little bit.

Many, many years ago when I was working at a vet's office, they had just come out with the 'new' technology of a collar that used a chemical that was absorbed into the animal's system & distributed all over. It was prescription only at the time and had different sizes per pet's weight. When the rep came out to educate us all about it, I asked how many collars I would need to protect a horse. I - literally - got stunned silence for a long, uncomfortable length of time, then he changed the subject. Seemed like a good idea to me... collars around their fetlocks or braided into their manes to lay against their necks....????

 

[farmerjan]

A little bit pricey, but there is a company that makes something called cattle curtain... has a real good endorsement from a couple guys on a cattle forum I go on... the dangling ropes are replaceable... and it is something that even shorter animals would get some benefit from since they hang down longer. I am seriously considering trying one.....