Both dogs are on sentinel which is a tick preventative, so I'm the only family member that isn't protected. My entire body feels all crawly at just the thought of these things in my house. Ugh!
I usually don't have much trouble with ticks, but I've found three this year so far - one on Tucker that had just attached and two on ME which were crawling loose. The ones on me were found after I was outside doing yard work. I try to keep the dogs away from brush/shrubbery, etc. I've always heard that wet weather promotes fleas and dry weather promotes ticks but I have never researched to see if this is true or not.
First of all, Sentinel does nothing for ticks - it is only for heartworm and fleas - and it doesn't kill fleas, it just makes them sterile so they can't reproduce. This insures that you won't have a flea infestation in your home from fleas laying eggs, but it doesn't kill the fleas that are on your dog and of course does nothing for dogs that have flea allergy.
http://www.sentinelpet.com/product_page.html
As far as treatment in the house, ticks are pretty resistant to all but the strongest chemicals, and I'm not willing to use them in the house. Yet I've never had an infestation problem of fleas or ticks in the house. Vacuuming thoroughly frequently and emptying bin/changing bag are helpful. The main worry in the house is if a tick lays eggs somewhere and they hatch - happened to several people I know and you have hundreds of baby ticks.
Ticks will only lay eggs after they have had a blood meal - so the main thing is to check your dogs over thoroughly every day to remove any ticks that are attached. An engorged tick will stay on a dog for several days so if you are consistent, you should find any ticks pretty early before they are engorged. I keep a jar of isopropol alcohol and drop ticks in the jar if I find any. Also, tick borne diseases aren't transmitted until a tick is attached for a day or so and has fed that long, so a thorough daily tick check will go a long way toward preventing TBD.
If a tick has a blood meal and drops off, she'll look for a quiet dark cool place to lay eggs. This could be in storage boxes under your bed (happened to one friend) or between mattress and box springs (happened to me when I was a teenager still at my parents' house) or in shoe boxes in a closet or similar. So - when you clean be sure to check under beds and places like that - dark cracks and crevices, etc.
I don't use flea/tick products on my dogs, but I do keep Frontline Plus on hand and would use it as needed if I saw an alarming number of fleas or ticks. (Despite other threads on Frontline problems, I believe that's the safest product - I won't use Advantix or tick collars or anything that contains permethrins or pyrethrins because I am convinced those are dangerous and they absolutely kill cats and I have a cat.) A very thorough daily check of all dogs will tell you if you have a serious flea or tick problem.
I use my fingernails or tweezers to very carefully and SLOWLY remove an attached tick and I've never had a problem after removal on myself or the dogs. Maybe I've just been lucky.
Pat
My vet recommended RIP Flea spray for the house as it works against ticks as well. It only needs to be sprayed once a year. I'm not sure if you can get it in the US, but there will be other products. Ask at your vets, they should be able to suggest something. And good luck with getting rid of the horrible little things.
