#fleas and ticks

[budgetpetcare]

Attention pet parents! May is National Lyme Disease Awareness Month, and protecting your furry friend is a top priority. Don't miss our amazing sale on flea and tick products! Buy one and get 25% off on the second product. Keep your pet safe from these dangerous parasites and prevent Lyme disease. Order now and take advantage of this fantastic offer!

[reality-detective]

All natural flea spray recipe, safe and effective for dogs and cats. 🤔

[leloup2007album]

Stupid. ass wolf and bat.happy Halloween :)

[totally-not-peter-parker]

Just the naming really when it comes to wasps, both are correct and can be used interchangeably. In general, parasites don't usually kill their hosts. Parasitoids do.

i would like to propose a trade. i get: a random fact. you get: a random fact.

i will go first. did you know that the reason french has so many silent letters is because back when scribes were widely used, while most countries--like england, germany, italy, etc--paid scribes by the word, the french king paid by the letter. so french scribes would basically just stuff words with letters in order to get more money. similarly, part of the reason we have so many hyphenates in english is because (pre-hyphens) they split up words to get paid more.

now. bug fact pls?

-@thebestofwaynes

Despite parasitic wasps being generally deemed the most "scary" kind by the public, parasitoid wasps are actually some of the most beneficial bugs for the environment being both an essential pollinator and pest control for the local agriculture

[unremarkablehouse]

Bed Bug Check

Do you think Scully does bed bug checks at these crappy motels? Is this part of their check in routine, Scully making Mulder help check mattresses in both rooms? I can just see them both with latex gloves and mag lights efficiently inspecting the rooms after a long trip and Mulder wondering what their game plan will be if they ever do run across a bed bug.

I feel like they’ve both been bitten by fleas and Scully uses a lotion with citronella or some natural deterrent while Mulder just keeps getting bitten and itches his ankles like the puppy that he is. Maybe Scully’s attentive hair scratches are also part of her regular lice checks on Mulder. The practicality and domesticity of them working as a team to ward off these things while traveling fascinates me.

[bonefall]

Herb Guide: Basic Hygiene

A quick aside for @kingmystrie​ who has a stinky Clanmate

[Image ID: sketch of a cat licking its outstretched leg]

For the most part, a healthy warrior can be expected to keep themselves perfectly clean. Cats have special tongues with ridges on them perfectly evolved to keep their coats shiny and healthy.

When a Clan cat is long-furred, sick or elderly, or displaying signs of mental distress, the Clan will give them special attention to keep them clean. This is not just a job for the medicine cat; allo-grooming is a social behavior, close to the heart of a collectivist cat culture.

Herbs only come into play when hygiene becomes a health problem. The two most common issues are Mats and Fleas.

Mats

Time to clear up a common misconception; a mat is not a knot. A mat is what happens when a knot tangles with a bunch of other knots, wrapping up dead skin, dirt, layers of shed fur, and other gross debris into a solid mass. If a mat has formed, there’s been a breakdown in proper care!

When they do form, they are likely to form where the cat has trouble reaching, like the lower back.

Not only are mats filthy, but they can also pose a health hazard by weakening and pulling painfully on the skin below, allowing infection to take root. Mats must be removed as quickly as possible, before they become too large. Taking care of mats can take several painful, time-consuming days.

Oil made from flax seeds can be use to lubricate and loosen them, if the mat is not too large to be a lost cause. Carefully brush with claws, teeth, or a bone comb, if your Clan is capable of simple carving.

The best treatment is to carefully shave the area. A sharpened mussel shell, or a flint or stone blade will do. Take care to not cut the skin below, which could be thin and sensitive from bearing a mat.

Fleas

Aside from ticks which are treated with the infamous canonical mouse bile, fleas are another concern to Clan cats. While they’re only annoying to adult cats, they can sicken elders and kill kittens if they become a camp-wide infestation.

Prevention

Fleas can’t be completely eliminated, but Clans go to great lengths to keep them at bay. Cedar chips are used as den flooring, especially in the nursery, producing a fresh pine smell that insects can’t stand.

Mint can be planted around the camp and rubbed into fur to repel fleas and prevent them from leaping onto a patrolling warrior; but this is kept away from the nursery as mint is extremely poisonous and babies have a bad habit of putting things in their mouths.

Treatment

“barkface what do if flea outbreak bad TIME SENSITIVE“ -Kestrelpaw, desperately texting StarClan

For a VERY bad flea infestation, an herbal bath is an easy but detested solution. A large clay bowl (or, in SkyClan, a stolen birdbath) is filled with water for soaking, vinegar for killing, and a blend of mint and lavender for repellent. From there, the unfortunate warrior is plunged in, usually yowling and crying, and forced to soak for an hour.

Repeat for every. Single. Infested warrior. Even if they are WAILING LIKE BABIES.

They must be prevented from licking clean after this bath. Licking the bathwater off will poison the Warrior from the mint. Since it’s only a repellent, the mint could be optional, but WILL be included if the camp is actively infested... in spite of the soaked warrior’s grumblings.

The number one flea-killer, bar none, the GOLDEN KING of bug eradication, is none other than SALT. In addition to being a seasoning, having as much salt as possible in the medicine cat den is invaluable for controlling flea breakouts. Salt will be added to the herbal bath when it’s available.

In the Forest Territories, there was no salt. In the Lake Territories, collecting salt takes a long journey to the beach, and a patrol capable of carrying it home. As far as the Clans are concerned, salt works miracles so these trips are scheduled visits.

[lesserknowncryptids]

Today's lesser known cryptid is: What's Eating Your Dog

[budgetpetcare]

Keep your furry companion safe from pesky fleas and ticks with our highly-rated spot-on treatments for dogs. Our top picks will not only protect your dog from these annoying pests but also promote their overall health and happiness.

[thagoldennugget]

"..How bad is it?"

"Surprisingly, with that long hair of yours, I only got five fleas off of you so far."

"Alright, just make it quick."

"Rodger, you told me to get every single one out of you and fleas are nasty jumping little freaks, I can't rush it dumbass. You're so impatient sometimes, I love that."

"..Yeah."

[ruinoussigil]

ur arisen has fleas :(

(just pretend that frontline exists in-universe)

[evolutionsvoid]

When it comes to getting into places that you are not allowed, there are two options: trying to do it yourself, or employing a little helper designed for the job! Small and discrete, easy to hide in a pocket or slip up a sleeve. No need to even reach the door or chest yourself, simply point to the stubborn lock and see them scurry with eagerness! With special tools and sensitive clockwork mechanisms, they can navigate any lock, any obstacle. Give them a few moments, and all doors will open to you! They are the perfect helper for any thief, spy or saboteur!

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"Locktick and Skeleton Flea"

I got nothing more to say on it. It exists purely for the puns!

[papayathesecond]

And as the vermin crawls, we lay in the foundations of decay

[snarp]

How to explain to animal that it will feel better if it lets me give it medicine so it should stop running and trying to hurt me and breaking things and such

-- question asked 1,000,000 times/day every day for millennia

[souptomatostar]

Now it's not for the faint of heart, the path of a webweaver. Did I come up with that name myself? Yeah! Pretty clever, right? Of course I'm not weaving the webs myself.

They're not called Cat Webs.

Obviously, there's the spiders. That's a given. It's literally in the name, for Starclan's sake! (You'd be surprised how many cats don't get it through their heads that knowing spiders intimately is part of the lifestyle) But it takes a couple generations of living with a cluster of spiders for them truly treat you as their ally. It helps having the scent of them all over your pelt but I understand that's not the ideal for Some Reason. But hey, the ticks and fleas have to go somewhere and I haven't met an orb weaver yet that turned down a nice tick to feed her hundreds of eggs. Yeah, yeah. You don't have to get acquainted with them like I do. Just shake out your fleas and mites over there and take the webs from the ferns. I promise there's no spiders occupying those webs. Probably.