With Lyme’s Disease so much in the news, I want to spread the good news of how to repel ticks, thus preventing tick bites, that my great-grandfather taught our family long ago. A tiny dab of sulfur introduced into the human system early in spring is all that’s needed.
Some pharmacists still keep some sulfur mixed up for sale. Many in the Pacific Northwest always had some for sheepherders, whose job required them to live among the ticks. As a forest lookout for six seasons, in a cabin overrun with ticks each summer, I kept wafers of sulfur mixed with cream of tartar on hand. Sometimes I could feel ticks crawl on me, but they never stuck — or bit me.
When I was growing up in East Texas, my dad, following my grandfather’s recipe, mixed dry sulfur with wild honey or molasses and we all ate some. You have to mix it with something because sulfur tastes really icky.
Mix one-eighth teaspoon of powdered sulfur with a little honey or molasses. Take this mixture once a day for a week in early spring. The next week take it every other day. The next week take it every three days. Thereafter take the mixture once a month through tick season.
There were plenty of ticks around, but when we used this prevention, they sure didn’t stick to us.
Sulfur is related to ingredients found in certain antibiotics, so people who are sensitive to sulfa drugs might have a reaction to eating sulfur. Because of its antibiotic properties, women can develop yeast infections from ingesting too much sulfur. Also, those sensitive to sulfur might develop diarrhea from ingesting it, so even though the amount Jo mentions is tiny, go slowly until you discover how your body tolerates the stuff.
