My Experiment To See Which Oil Is Best For Ticks

Note: Not all essential oil brands are the same, and you get what you pay for. If you expect to achieve results similar to those described in this testimonial, then ensure that you are using oils from pesticide-free plants. Also, the brand should use 100% pure, high-quality essential oils that do not contain any synthetic additives. Do your own research or ask a trusted friend to find a brand that is reputable. Buyer beware.

---

Informally experimenting and observing ticks and essential oils is something I've been doing for the past 4 years. These results are based on numerous embedded ticks on me and my dog.

I've heard that the Purification oil blend will cause an embedded tick to dislodge and so I tried that with no positive results at all, no matter how many drops of Purification I applied to the embedded tick.

I tried Thieves Waterless Hand Purifier, about 2 TBSP on an embedded tick - it did not dislodge or die either.

I tried Peppermint oil, same deal, did not dislodge or die.

I tried Palo Santo oil and the tick did one of two things: either died, or dislodged and then died.

My baby food jar experiment...

In three separate jars I placed 3 drops of essential oil: one jar with Peppermint, one with Purification, one with Palo Santo.

With each live but un-embedded tick I found on myself and dog, I placed them in a jar. Consistently, within 15 minutes the ticks that were placed in the Palo Santo jar died.

In both the Peppermint and Purification jars the ticks were still VERY MUCH alive after two weeks. Even after I placed these two jars in direct sunlight on my deck (they had direct sunlight shining on them for a minimum of 4 hours a day, the ticks were STILL very much alive. It actually took them about a month to finally die.

This year, 2013, I've done a little experimenting with the Thieves essential oil blend. I have found it kills the ticks within about 15 minutes. So I have added it to the Palo Santo as being one of my go-to essential oils for ticks.

Now, I have heard others say that the trick to making Purification work is to draw a circle around the area where the tick is embedded on the dog and it will dislodge within 24 hours.

The part that we all need to keep in mind regarding ticks is that when they are embedded and let go, during the letting go part they inject a fluid that is in fact the fluid that contains the Lyme Disease (assuming the tick is carrying it).

I personally am not comfortable with letting a tick stay embedded for any longer than is absolutely necessary because I feel that removal of the tick and then applying Purification or Thieves to the location would be more likely to kill the Lyme Disease it injected.

I cannot prove scientifically that this is how it works, or even that it does work. But I personally do not feel that doing nothing to the site after a tick has un-embedded is probably more harmful than good, just my personal feeling on the topic.

Last year I spent several hours reading comments and testimonials on another site regarding the FrontLine-type products for tick and fleas. I spent time there because I had heard that ticks had become resistant to those products. Sure enough they have, as I discovered a few weeks ago (June 2013) over at Mercola Healthy Pets where Dr. Becker, DVM wrote about this and also spoke about a 'new' form of Lyme Disease that is showing up in the southeastern US.

I speculate when I say I am almost certain this mutation is the result of the commercial tick and flea products on the market that are applied to the back of the neck of cats and dogs. I liken it to the resistant strains of bacteria to antibiotics.

I have nothing yet to share on what we can do to prevent ticks from getting on us and our pets. A couple years ago I made a VERY strong dilution in water of Palo Santo and Purification combined to use as a spray for myself and dog to keep ticks off of us in the first place. I believe it was successful. However, it was so strong that it was extremely expensive to use every morning before going for our walks.

At this time I have no real solutions. Only unscientific experiments I've tried and information I've read. My feeling is that we all need to be extremely diligent and proactive on what combination of oils or products we can use to prevent ticks from getting on us and our pets in the first place.

I wish someone in science would do a study to find out which oils are best suited after an embedded tick pulls out and how much time we have afterwards to apply a specific essential oil to combat such things as Lyme Disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. I would like to know the answers.

In the meantime, I hope this information is helpful to some of you and helps us all continue in our search for something more magical against these tiny beasts.

---

Additional keyword(s) assigned by the editor: xxxx.