Pittsboro, NC – I just found my first tick this season on my dog. You need to be careful removing them so that you don’t leave part on the dog as someone recently did. Here is a cheap device that is better than tweezers.
There used to be available cheap Spot-on products for killing fleas and ticks on dogs such as Freedom 45; thanks to the EPA’s over-regulation, they are no longer available.
These products typically contain Permethrin which is known to be very safe and effective on dogs but is not safe on cats. It is closely related to a natural ingredient in chrysanthemums. There are few alternatives such as Advantix II which happens to have permethrin as its main ingredient but is very expensive. Permethrin is widely available in farm stores and is very cheap. I now use 4cc of 38% permethrin on my 59lb dog once a month; I think I have enough to last 500 years.