Pecking Order: Guinea Hens Enforce Tick-Free Yards
Local family solves tick problem with an extremely natural solution: Guinea fowl.
The sound of clucking doesn't carry too far on Livingston Road, where residents Jeremy and Meredith Roy have set up a coop for a small flock of Guinea hens. The couple and Robert Connor, Meredith's father, acquired the hens to control their backyard tick problem. Whenever the couple's two children played in the back yard, they would have to be checked for ticks on the way back in. So, the parents started researching various non-chemical methods to curb the pests. Chemicals weren't an option because the property is close to a vernal pool, not to mention concerns for their kids. Herbal treatments and Damminix tick tubes didn't quite cut it. "They worked okay." Meredith Roy comments, "It was better than nothing." Then a friend from Dover …
brux
6:20 pm on Sunday, May 20, 2012
In this case, I think I would rather have the the `poop`than the ticks. The worse that can happen with poop is `dirty shoes`-- ticks can cause serious health problems for you and your pets. more ›