Frontline Due And So Is The Snow

[riverbosun]

Both of my guys are due for Frontline on the first. I usually stop after this application until the spring. We are due for a Nor'Easter in NE. Can I skip the last dose? By the end of this week they are t/a temps in upper 50's if not 60. Will the ticks be gone with the snow? Thanks for any advice.

[BauersMom]

I will bet $ that ticks will be back when the temps warm up! I don't skip until we're in the dead of winter.

 

This year has been really bad for ticks, too. Ugh.

[PrairieProf]

Yup, I've seen ticks on Beth in New York state in late December. I just skip January and February in Iowa in the deep freeze.

[KF_in_Georgia]

I'm in the Deep South, and I don't actually skip. I just spread out the doses, so they get 11 a year instead of 12. It'll be 1 November, 15 December, 1 February, then back to the first of the month until next winter. And if we start having warm spells, I can go ahead and give a dose.

[Batmom]

I too do pretty much year round. I might go to 45 days instead of 30 for Jan-March if the weather is consistently cold.

[riverbosun]

Thanks everyone for your advice. I'll go ahead and administer the Frontline and see what the rest of season brings.

[GeorgeofNE]

This weather isn't going to kill off the ticks.

 

Those rat bastards are VERY hardy! I use Frontline year round anyway. Given I take George to Nantucket, and they had a HORRIBLE flea season, and who knows if the ferry has fleas, or even if Mom's new apartment has fleas! Better safe than sorry.

[Guest KsFrets]

This has become an interesting subject for us. With economy tight, Frontline is something we watch closely. We only use it if ticks are present. Last winter/spring we were using it monthly, and STILL picking ticks off the dogs! Then for some unexplained reason, they disappeared. We haven't seen a tick, or used frontline since June! The reason this is interesting, is because in the past, I would have believed that the tick-free dogs would have been because of the diligent Front-line use. But then that's what Frontline would have wanted us to believe too! But now I'm leaning more towards a seasonal/cyclical/environmental thing, and our own habits as dog owners. It was very hot and dry in Kansas, and that could be why? I don't know.

 

One of the things that I think is even more effective than Frontline, is daily tick inspections. They were so bad last spring, that we began diligent daily inspections of our dogs. Especially between their toes, and in their ears. We became very good at spotting and removing them. Every night before bed we went over each dog. As summer approached, we stopped finding them, and stopped using the Frontline. I'm now beginning to wonder, if the Frontline was even doing anything? And one less chemical that they are exposed to, and we have to spend money on, is fine by me. As an interesting comparison, growing up on the farm, the only time we worried about ticks is when we found them and removed them from our dogs... and we never heard of Frontline. We've also come to learn that ticks hang out in brush and bushes and over grown weeds/tall grass and trees etc, and we don't let our dogs "hang-out" unattended in the back yard at all anymore, lay around in the grass, and we avoid such areas on our walks, and that makes a big difference. I used to take the dogs along a creek and let them tromp around in the weeds... and oh baby... they picked up ticks there! Diligence and a little common sense has really made a difference.

 

Another thing that we do do, when we do use frontline, to help save some $$, is buy the large dog dose (I believe up to 150 lbs) and split it between two dogs. If we find a tick (or of course a flea) on one of the dogs or cats... we'll get the frontline out, but until then, not.

 

Oh yeah... and one more thing that could or could not make a difference! Last year we ripped up all the (13 year old) carpeting in our house, revealing a nice hardwood floor in our old house. The difference between bugs (fleas/ticks/no-see-ums/spiders) and ESPECIALLY pet smells, has been almost Heaven sent. I can't help but wonder how much carpeting harbors the nasties that we hate so much!

[Hubcitypam]

Thankfully we don't have ticks in my part of Old East Dallas and just use Advantage for fleas. I wait until I see a flea, then dose everyone and clean beds, etc. That is maybe twice a year.