Epidemic of tics this year!!!! ewwwwww

 This could be the most important thing that you see me post! Its an epidemic this year, and these things are as lethal as a venomous snake in the wrong scenario! Please not only read it, but share it! Make sure we get the word out about these tics and the disease they carry!

It's summer! Time for camping, hiking and getting outside to play. Don't let those pesky annoying ticks stop you. Here's how with a simple homemade solution!

Repellent for your pets:

For pets, add 1 cup of water to a spray bottle, followed by 2 cups of distilled white vinegar. Ticks hate the smell and taste of vinegar, and will be easily be repelled by this ingredient alone. Then, add two spoonfuls of vegetable or almond oil, which both contain sulfur (another natural tick repellent).

To make a repellent that will also deter fleas, mix in a few spoonfuls of lemon juice, citrus oil, or peppermint oil, any of which will repel ticks and fleas while also creating a nicely scented repellent. Spray onto the pet's dry coat, staying away from sensitive areas including eyes, nose, mouth, and genitals. When outdoors for an extended period, spray this solution on two to three times per day.

For you and your family:

In a spray bottle, mix 2 cups of distilled white vinegar and 1 cup of water. To make a scented solution so you do not smell like bitter vinegar all day, add 20 drops of your favorite essential oil.

Eucalyptus oil is a calm, soothing scent that also works as a tick repellent, while peppermint and citrus oils give off a strong crisp scent that also repel ticks.

After mixing the solution, spray onto clothing, skin, and hair before going outdoors. Reapply every four hours to keep ticks at bay, and examine your skin and hair when back inside to make sure no ticks are on the body.

If you have ever shared anything, please click share on this! WE must get the word spread about the dangers of Ticks and how to avoid them!
~share~share~share~share~share

HOW TO KILL ANTS!

I was blog hopping one day and found this at My Frugal Adventures.com so thank you for the info...

Here is something kind of random but I was dealing with this the other day and thought some of you might be interested as well.

If you have any of those pesky little ants wandering around the house or yard you might try this little trick to get rid of them.

My Dad taught me this a few years ago when we had a trail of ants marching across the front stoop of the house.  Call me a terrible person, but any sort of rodent, bug, snake comes along and I am ready to put the house up for sale.

In California, ants can really be a problem and I absolutely can not stand them for even a second and this tip has worked like magic for me many times.

Even better you don’t need to buy expensive products, dump all sorts of chemicals around the house or mix up complicated DIY recipes.

Just grab a standard box of corn starch- my box was $1.00 at Walmart so you can certainly be generous in applying this.

And dump it all over the ants.  You want to be sure the corn starch is in the path they walk because you want them picking it up and carrying it back home with them.

I just went out side two days ago and found a bunch of ants crawling around the garbage can (BLECH!).

Now I wasn’t that interested in becoming close friend with these things so it is hard to see but we had a bunch of them climbing all over in the trash and just under the trash.

So I followed the crack in the pavement and dumped the cornstarch generously over the path they made, where they came from and the spot on the ground under the trash. 

 If this is in your home you can just put the cornstarch in a measuring cup and pour it right over the path they are marching in.

I had a pretty good size patch so I just used about 1/3 of the box and dumped it everywhere.  You need a bit of patience to allow them ample time to carry the cornstarch back.  So I would wait at least 24 hours.

Next get the ants wet.  The cornstarch will become like a cement mixture and will kill the ants.  If this is outdoors- turn on sprinklers or use a watering can to get the cornstarch piles nice and very damp.  If this is indoors, you might try a spritzing bottle or something.

I spread this on Monday and we were actually not home yesterday.  I did check it out this morning (Wednesday) and we still have a little pile of corn starch to be rinsed away but not an ant in sight!

So this is worth a shot- just note they will still slug around in the corn starch for awhile but they should be gone within a day or two.

UPDATE: This has worked many times for me since posting a few years ago.  This year we actually had a MOUNTAIN of ants that suddenly popped up in the backyard.  Like I initially thought there was an oil spill or something because the pavement was totally black. I put down a box of Cornstarch and allowed the sprinklers to come on as usual.  I repeated with a second box of cornstarch the next day and again the sprinklers just hit the spot to get the cornstarch wet.  Every single ant was gone within a few days. Booyah!