Hi 5sandown
I think the best thing to do is contact your local hog carer/rehabilitator and ask them re. quantities. Some have different ideas of amounts than others, but they might also give you a lesson on how to remove the ticks yourself as well. Don’t follow any of the old wives tails about how to remove them. But just bear in mind that the bigger a tick looks the nearer it is to dropping off the hog.
I would also check in feeding boxes, etc. for any adult ticks which may have dropped off. They may almost immediately lay eggs. The places the hog goes are as important as what is on the hogs. No point removing them all from the hog, if it immediately goes and picks up a load more.
I think the main problem with sharing is if one hog moves in straight after another one and there hasn’t been time to clean out the box in between. Because the eggs get dropped in the hog house, hatch out and attach to the next hog. But if two are sharing and one has ticks, it seems likely the other one will pick them up as well. Ideally, if you are absolutely certain that a hog house has been vacated and not reinhabited, you would clean out the box. Use boiling water to kill the eggs, not chemicals. Pay special attention to cracks and joins in the wood.
Hope that helps.
