Ugh... I haven't found anything that works for ticks...
We are in tick heaven, by early March I had already pulled two off of me, and one off of each kid and of course the dogs too. Poor Breez had one in the corner of her eye - attached! That one was a pain and a half to get off!
We have tried both essential oils, frontline, advantix, chanting... Nothing works. And to top it off, the topicals really bother Bates. To the point that he'll go hide in a corner and shiver after we put it on. Not doing that to him every 4 weeks.
The only solution I've decided is a nightly tick check. Everyone gets checked before bed. Dogs & kids. It's a routine now, brush your teeth, check each other for ticks like a bunch of apes LOL!
Fortunately the dogs have minimal hair so it's not that big of a deal. We've already had a bout with ehrlichia, and from what I gather, most tick diseases need days to transmit, so if you make sure to get the tick (even if attached) in the first few hours, you should be okay.
Interestingly, we do really well with fleas. The dogs get MSM and I swear that keeps them down. No flea issue here in years. Bates did pick some up at a show over the summer and I dosed everyone with comfortis, and haven't had any issues since. *Knocks on wood*