Quote Originally Posted by brummievet View Post
Ticks require a high humidity (>90%) to survive off a host so are not likely to set up an infestation in the home (although there are reports of Rhipicephalus sanguineus (Brown Dog Tick) infesting homes in the US. The most common tick to attach to people and pets in the UK is Ixodes Ricinus. They mate on the host (be that farm animal, hedgehog, dog, you) and then the female stays attached to suck blood before laying eggs up to 14 days later. Chances are you would spot this female before she laid any eggs anyway so you won't have an issue with them in the home.
We've been looking into what's best to repel them. They are belligerent blighters as everyone knows and our standard pet products (Fipronil and imidacloprid based) don't always seem to repel them. Seems DEET on the legs is the best thing (although OK for us we don't recommend this on pets).
In the vet world we have a real worry about the introduction of more exotic tick species due to relaxation of the PET travel scheme. If travelling abroad vets still recommend tick treatment and you should always carefully check your dog before coming back to the UK. A recent random study of pet dogs showed that 15% of them were carrying attached ticks without their owners' knowledge!
That's interesting info brummievet. In terms of repelling them on humans, I think IDP has the right idea, it needs some form of barrier and, to some extent at least, it doesn't seem to matter what it is. I've even found suncream has some effect.

I'm not surprised that 15% of dogs carry ticks without their owners' knowledge - a lot of people still aren't fully aware of the risk and prevalence of ticks plus they do seem to hide themselves away well, despite always checking over our collie after a trip out on the hill.

It really looks like it's going to be a bad year for them. Even walking Sammy along the lochside (where he wanders through the grass verges), he's picking up ticks. Out on the hill, we both come back with ticks on us. Listening to local knowledge, a good part of the problem up here is the deer population is relatively large, but the sheep, which "hoovered" up the ticks and stopped so many getting on humans, are no longer farmed so the problem is exacerbated.