How To Reduce Ticks In Your Yard

How To Reduce Ticks In Your Yard

Modify your landscape to create Tick-Safe Zones. Some ticks, such as deer ticks, need moist environments to survive; they die quickly where it is dry. Thus, there are a few tricks you can use to keep ticks away from areas of the yard where you spend the most time. Laying down wood chips or gravel where lawns butt up against wooded areas can reduce the number of ticks on grassy areas by creating a drying barrier between the more heavily tick-infested vegetation areas and the grass.

Control vegetation and maintain a clean yard. Mow the lawn, clear brush and leaf litter. Keep the ground under bird feeders clean, and stack woodpiles neatly in dry areas.

Provide a vegetation-free play area. Keep play areas and playground equipment away from away from shrubs, bushes, and other vegetation.

Use a chemical control agent. Effective tick control chemicals are available for use by the homeowner, or they can be applied by a professional pest control expert. If you use the household products, be sure to follow the instructions carefully to provide the appropriate amount and distribution of the chemical.

Please do not forget that another prime spreader of ticks are the cute rabbits that seem to be everywhere in the country.

Use bait boxes to treat rodents. “Bait boxes” that treat wild rodents with acaricide (pesticides that that kill ticks) are now available for home use. Properly used, these boxes have been shown to reduce deer ticks around homes by more than 50%. The treatment is similar to products used to control ticks and fleas on pets and does not harm the rodents. Bait boxes are available from licensed pest control companies in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Prevent deer from bringing ticks into your yard. Deer can carry ticks that spread Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, ehrlichiosis, and Southern tick-associated rash illness. Removing plants that attract deer and constructing physical barriers may help discourage tick-infested deer from coming near homes.

Keep in mind that rodents are prime causes of ticks around the home.