Do chickens eat deer ticks?

[CritterHill]

I am looking for something that will eat deer ticks. They are the tiny, tiny ones that carry lyme.

My daughter was just diagnosed with lyme and I pull those tiny nymph deer ticks off her constantly. Wondering if free ranging my chickens periodically will help?

Will guinea hens eat them?

They are so small, I can't imagine any bird bothering to eat them!

 

[warcard]

GUINEAS!

They love, love, love ticks. We went from pulling 20 ticks a day off our dogs if we let them run the full acerage to maybe one or two a week.

 

[CritterHill]

Quote:
Do you think they could eat deer ticks though? They are so TINY! You can hardly see them.

I'm wondering if spraying is my only option

I don't want to do that...

 

[chicks for better health]

I have been wondering the same thing. We have a 6 month old golden retriever who i always running around getting ticks. I want to keep him safe.

 

[Katy]

In the years since I started keeping guineas I hardly ever have to pull ticks off my dogs and cats. I got some guineas for my son and DIL for their new place because they were over-run with ticks. 2 months later, they hardly are finding any ticks on their dogs anymore.

 

[chicks for better health]

I guess I am gonna have to order some keets soon

 

[Cayuga]

Hi I am new to this forum. So is the consensus that chickens do not eat deer ticks, but guinea hens do? I have heard that guineafowl are very effective for deer ticks, but have also heard they can be very loud. Any thoughts or experience with this?

 

[pkeeler]

Chickens will eat any bug they come across. I've heard that chickens are better for tick suppression since they will hang out in your yard. Guineas might wander away.

 

[spook]

Quote:
Oh yeah, from the time these birds are chicks on up through, they love anything that moves and they can swallow! If they cant swallow it, they will find a way to get it down! lol....We have only had 2 ticks this year, last year the neighbors dog was taken from Lyme's disease and our Vet took a deer tick off our cat. So, yes, they most definately help in our area! Good luck to you!

 

[Rogue_Woman]

I pulled a tick off of my oldest daughter every night for a week straight until I started letting the chickens out for a few hours each day. I haven't seen a tick in my yard or on my kids since.