More things that BUG me....

It's about bugs! Ticks mostly. Living where I live (Southern CA suburbia) I only had to worry about ticks during the few summer vacations we took to Missouri. Oh, and there was that Barn Party in Meridian MS, but we won't go there right now. But, in the true tradition of "no good deed goes unpunished", I have ticks in my house. A living legacy from my first foster dog I suppose. Poor sweet little girl. She had been owned by a drug dealer who apparently got arrested and neglected to tell anyone that there was a dog in his back yard. By the time she was discovered and picked up by AC she was so thin it's a wonder she was still alive. I don't know where she picked up the ticks, probably at the shelter. The San Bernardino animal shelter is not the best. We get dogs out of there with ticks, fleas, parvo, distemper...you name it. I must have picked 20 fully engorged ticks off of her, but apparently I missed some because ever since then I've had ticks. And, since I won't put poison on my dogs or anywhere that my dogs and I reside, I have to resort to other means of tickicide.

This is what I use:
Diatomaceous Earth It must be food grade, not the stuff they sell for pool filters. The only problem I have is that I get complacent when I haven't seen any fleas or ticks for six months and I forget to use it.

This is poor little Dolce when I first brought her home. Everything that isn't pure white on her in this picture is dirt. I was so afraid that she would croak on me. But, a week of good (raw!) food, a couple of baths with Dr. Bronner's castile soap, and....

She lived! And ended up being adopted by a very neat family who adores her.

My next foster dog gave everyone sarcoptic mange.

It's a wonder I still do this.

And then there's the flies. Another foster dog pushed the patio screen door off its rails. I can't fix it. I've tried numerous times. (I really need to have a brief affair with a handy man who can also do plumbing.) So I have flies. Again, I won't use poison in my house, so I have good old fly paper hanging all over. In the kitchen, in the bathroom, by the patio door, in the bedroom. It works pretty well, except that it's a bit disturbing when a fly is stuck but not quite dead yet. The pitiful buzzing almost makes me feel badly for the pain and suffering my fly paper is causing.

Then I snap out of it. It's a FLY! Nasty flying disease carrier, mother of maggots. Die, die, die!