So I notice that my dogs have a tick outbreak. I do 3 things. Front line spot on, physically pick them off and follow up with a bath. I also wash everything. Anyway for 3 nights I was waking up several times a night to find these little bastards stuck to me. I am happy to say I have it in check now and lucky for that because I was starting to develop a sleep disorder. Just wanted to mention this because there are several tick born diseases. I had never even seen a tick before I came here(I lived in Canada) so trying to grab a bite to eat from me while a I was slepping came as quite a SHOCK!
Better to do the flea/tick shampoo first. Then Frontline, then pick them off. Frontline works its way into the blood stream, and that’s how many of the ticks are killed. Giving a bath after treating with Frontline beats the purpose, unless you re-apply after the shampoo.
I don’t know about Taiwan ticks, but there is a variety in Canada that can cause severe illnesses in people, permanent neurological damage, and even death.
You could also spray a frontline barrier around your bed after you clean the bedding, and do not let your dogs into your bedroom at all.
get rid of anything that your dogs sleep on/come into contact with in terms of clothes. if they sleep on sofas, you may want to consider new ones. basically anything that they can get burrowed into.
cleaning with bleach will NOT kill them, but will piss them off enough that they come out of hiding so that you can smush them into a pulp. our old vet gave us some kind of sick smelling liquid that had to be sprayed all over the rooms that our mutt used to be in.
even with doing all of this (and shampoo + frontline in the correct order), we still found ticks a few months after our pooch passed on. they did not make it upstairs (bedrooms), but they were all over. we had to toss out all dog blankets and a sofa. DON’T think the problem is over before you do bleach cleaning for two weeks without seeing one.
good luck.
I meant I bathe them about 3 or 4 days after the frontline. What about the eggs? I run my hand across the dog and feel several bumps(just like a tick), but when I look there is only a bump and the skin is reddish/pink. I am hoping it’s like that only because the ticks were lodged there. Is it possible for the eggs to be under the skin? I also found this huge tick on my ceiling, he was like the size of my baby finger nail and a real fat bastard too.
Basically all ticks, worldwide, carry disease and could kill you … I guess
We’re encountering a similar problem, but Frontline has proven uneffective (kills them, but too slowly). BTW, you can’t give Frontline until several days after a bath, either, as it needs the skins natural oils to work its way to the hair follicles - this may be what happened here. as the dogs get bathed quite often.
So, no bath two days before or two days after applying Frontline.
We’re now going the natural route - one that has proven very successful in the past - and are giving all dogs over 5 kg one clove of raw garlic per day (two cloves for our big guys over 35 kg).
[quote=“Stray Dog”]
We’re now going the natural route - one that has proven very successful in the past - and are giving all dogs over 5 kg one clove of raw garlic per day (two cloves for our big guys over 35 kg).[/quote]
maybe that’s why we never were bit. can’t get enough garlic …
The raw garlic seems to work. Our dog gets about a dozen cloves mixed into his BARF mix each week.
garlic users:
Do you still have to use Frontline or other un-natural treatments, plus garlic every day,
or is garlic alone enough to keep the vermin at bay??
In my experience, garlic alone is enough. No need to drench your dog in parasiticides. Give it a try. 
I’m on board with the garlic as a preventative measure now. It’s been 2 weeks and my dog is 99% tick free. However I am still at war with them in my house. I used a common Raid bugspray in all the cracks and baseboards, now I am killing about 25 a day when I get home from work and in the morning. One more week and we should be good to go!
what about for dogs coming straight off the streets, with fleas and whatnot swimming in their fur? is the natural route enough, just start feeding them raw garlic and the fleas and ticks will leave (and go where???)? or is it recommended to use chemicals on newly rescued animals just once in the beginning, so no new fleas and ticks are introduced into the home environment? (I need to know, as I got another wretched little creature today.) I would love to stay away from the chemicals; but I would hate to start a flea and tick epidemic.
Also, do antibiotics kill or repel fleas? a recently rescued dog here arrived off the streets w/ a bad flea problem; tho his fleas were numerous I gave him garlic only (which he refused to eat); but after his operation and after a few days on the antibiotics his fleas disappeared. Since he wasn’t eating the garlic I can only guess it was the antibiotics. At the time he was seperate from my other dogs so I don’t think the fleas left him for them. (anyway all my other dogs seem to relish their garlic and have been on it since I heard about it here and are hopefully all quite bad-tasting to bugs by now.)
[quote]Do not throw out your pet during your flea treatment, if you are in a full blown flea cycle(fleas biting).
It does take a couple of weeks to break the cycle .
The food source of fleas is blood, preferring your pet’s blood.
If the pets are not available, you may be the new meal source.
You may discover after coming home from a vacation for example, you get swamped with fleas the minute you walk in, they are very hungry.
The fleas may not have had source of food.
Flea pupae can hold up a long time without food, up to a year in the carpet.[/quote]
If fleas or ticks or lice are present on arrival, we use Frontline spray to kill them (outside, before coming onto the premises, as many simply jump ship).
Garlic really does work for keeping ticks at bay, and (in my experience) dogs don’t seem to get fleas when they’re healthy. All our dogs eat natural food (raw, meaty bones plus supplements) and none have fleas - ever. It may be that the antibiotics are giving your dog’s immune system a boost, and that is somehow keeping the fleas under control (this is purely speculation).
Anyway, good on you for the rescue - let us know how it works out. 
Thanks for the tip about the garlic; we’ll have to try it!
We’ve used the Frontline spot-on, and though your dog may smell funny for a few days (no baths for about a week before and after application), we’ve found it effective. It kills the ticks (albeit slowly) and keeps them from reproducing. Our dogs seem healthy while using it (we only do it in spring/summer, “tick season”), and we have yet to have an infestation. Bonus: it also gets rid of fleas and breaks the cycle because it’s effective in the long term.