Tick-Proofing Your Backyard Adventures

12 Ways to Ensure Your Yard is Safe from Ticks

Nearly 900 tick species roam the earth, which is enough to make your skin crawl, but only a fraction of them bite humans. However, the eight species that call the Garden State home are among these dreaded human bloodsuckers.

The good news is there are ways you can guard your property and keep your family and beloved pets safe. Here are 12 efficient tick-proof tactics to consider.

1. Maintain Your Lawn Regularly

How you maintain the exterior of your home and your lawn is the first thing people notice when passing your house. A well-manicured yard creates curb appeal that welcomes family and friends alike. It also pulls up the welcome mat for unwelcome pests like ticks.

These revolting arachnids depend on overgrown grass, weeds, and brush as their temporary hideouts, waiting to latch onto unsuspecting hosts. Ticks have no hiding spots when you regularly mow your lawn and clear out any overgrowth. They’ll move on to higher vegetation and are less likely to camp out on your lawn.

2. Create a Tick-Proof Barrier

An easy way to make your lawn more attractive with fewer weeds is with simple landscaping materials. Create beds of fresh mulch or rocks at least 3 feet wide around the perimeter and pathways of your house.

Ticks actively avoid direct sunlight, gravel, and other rough materials that could dry out or crack their exoskeletons, causing certain death. Gravel and mulch are lovely in the yard, easy to maintain, and keep biting ticks at bay.

3. Install a Fence

Not all ticks invade your yard on their own. Some have hitched a free ride on mammal pests that enjoy munching on your flowers, fruit trees, and garden vegetables. When you build a fence around your property, you save it from the midnight raids of deer, groundhogs, and other pests. At the same time, you are blocking the entrance of the nasty ticks they may be carrying.

4. Use Tick-Proof Repellent Plants

The Garden State lives up to its name with its stunning gardens and parks. Perhaps you enjoy planting fragrant flowers, herbs, and shrubs around your property or in breathtaking beds. But did you know that some of your favorite plants are repulsive to ticks? These include fragrant herbs like rosemary, lavender, and mint.

Plant these in your herb garden to send those bloodsuckers packing. Farmers have planted bright and cheery marigolds around their vegetable gardens to repel pests, including ticks, for generations.

5. Apply Tick-Proof Control Products

Fortunately, several effective tick-control products are available in stores and online. These include sprays and powders for clothing and for your yard. Most contain an insecticide called permethrin. Not only will it control ticks, but it will repel mice and other rodents that often carry them.

If you’d rather take a natural approach, consider using some of your favorite essential oils to drive ticks far away. Lavender, lemon, clove, and citronella smell heavenly to you but are nauseating to pesky ticks. Pour some vodka into a small spray bottle and add a few drops of essential oil. Spray a bit on your skin or clothing whenever you go outside to stay bug-free.

6. Rid Your Yard of Rodents

If you need another reason to be disgusted by rats and mice, remember that they are common hosts for ticks and other nasty parasites. While these revolting rodents will snack on ticks, they will only do so when they have no other food choices.

So, the rat and mouse population will coexist with the ticks and isn’t a deterrent. If you want to keep ticks as far away from your property as possible, make it less attractive to rodents.

1. Clear your property of brush and woodpiles that can act as comfortable lodging and hiding places for mice and rats.

2. Cover your trash cans and dumpster tightly, and promptly clean up any litter.

3. Consider adopting an outdoor cat to control any rodent problems.

7. Create a Dry Environment

One way that ticks protect their delicate exoskeletons is to hide in moist and humid places. Add a humid environment to overgrown vegetation, and these gross bloodsuckers are in paradise.

Pull the plug on their virtual vacation and avoid overwatering your garden and lawn. Remove any standing water and provide ample drainage so water doesn’t pool anywhere. Keeping your lawn cut and weeds trimmed allows for more sunlight and air and creates a less-than-desirable habitat for ticks.

8. Implement Tick-Proof Control Measures for Pets

You see your cats and dogs and precious fur babies, while ticks only see them as free lodging and minute sips of bloody cocktails. Since your pets are fur-covered, they can easily pick up a few freeloading ticks while playing outside.

Protect your pets’ health by visiting your veterinarian for effective tick treatments. It may come in monthly pills, ointments, or medicated collars. When your four-footed friends are tick-free and safe, it gives you peace of mind.

9. Create Tick-Safe Zones

No matter how hard you try, you’ll have a rogue tick lurking in the bushes. However, you can designate spaces in your yard that are less inviting to ticks. Decks and porches with minimal vegetation are a safe bet, especially if you plant a few tick-repelling plants around them. The ticks would be out in the open without much hiding space, so they’re apt to stay clear.

10. Conduct Regular Tick Checks

Even if you’ve done your best to use as many repellant tricks as possible, never assume you’re immune. After you, your family, and your pets have been outside, always thoroughly check.

It’s essential on hot summer days and if you’ve been in the woods. Check your and the children’s scalps and do a check on arms and legs. Run your fingers through your pet’s fur for roaming or embedded ticks. Before bath time, check around your body to ensure nothing has attached.

If you find a tick crawling on any of you, crush it with tweezers or cut it in half with dental floss. If the tick is embedded, use a pair of tweezers and use upward pressure to remove it. Be sure that you have the head. Apply triple antibiotic ointment to the bite and watch for any signs of infection.

11. Employ a Tick-Proof Eater

Yes, the thought is revolting, but many woodland creatures consider ticks tasty treats. The colorful birds visiting your feeders and birdbaths are happy to peck away at invading pests.

Frogs, toads, and lizards will also nosh on these nasty bloodsuckers if they have nothing else to eat. Possums are quite fond of tick treats. Although many woodland mammals and birds eat ticks, they can also carry them. It just depends on the balance of beneficial animals and pests.

12. Knowledge is Power

Avoidance is the best way to keep ticks away from your family and pets. Teach your children about best practices for outdoor activities, such as using safe repellants and wearing the proper clothing for being in the woods. Teach them to avoid going through overgrown brush and be diligent about checking after playing outside.

Why Are Ticks So Dangerous?

Not only do ticks have that perpetual “ick” factor, but they pose a significant health risk to people and animals. They are often difficult to see and can usually attach themselves without you even feeling it. While they steal your life’s blood, they can contaminate your body with dangerous microbes. Here are some compelling reasons to avoid ticks as much as possible.

1. Disease Transmission

Ticks may be small, but they are a cesspool of nasty germs, viruses, and parasites that may cause severe and lethal diseases in people and animals. One common tick-borne illness is Lyme disease, which can cause long-term joint pain and irregular heartbeat. Another worrisome disorder they can carry is Rocky Mountain spotted fever, which can be deadly if not treated. Ticks are a serious threat to you and your pet’s health.

2. Wide Distribution

As with most pests, you can find ticks just about anywhere in the world, especially in wooded areas and jungles. No matter where you live or visit, your chances of encountering a freeloading tick are high. There’s hardly ever a place or time to let your guard down when you’re outdoors.

3. Long Feeding Period

Ticks are greedy monsters, and they take their time feasting and digesting the blood they’re stealing from their host. Depending on the species, they can feed for anywhere from a couple of hours to two weeks while attached.

The whole time, they are becoming grossly engorged with blood, pumping their putrid saliva laden with harmful microbes. That’s why it’s imperative to remove any attached ticks as soon as possible.

4. Multiple Hosts

Freeloading ticks aren’t picky about feeding on stolen blood. Most tick species will gleefully embed in the skin of mammals, birds, reptiles, and humans. Since most ticks prefer a new host for each life stage, they’ll draw blood and cause potential infections on several different food sources. Such habits increase the chances of tick-borne diseases.

5. Co-Infections

Another complication of tick-borne illness is that one tick may carry microbes that cause more than one disease. When the doctor or vet checks people and pets for one symptom, they must consider co-infection symptoms. No wonder ticks are so dangerous, and time is of the essence once they’ve bitten someone.

6. Emerging Tick-Borne Diseases

Unfortunately, experts have discovered new pathogens that ticks can potentially spread to their hosts. One of these is babesiosis, a severe disease that can affect red blood cells.

Babesiosis is carried by the notorious deer tick and may mimic the symptoms of other disorders, like Lyme disease. Doctors say cases are on the rise in the US, and the disease is particularly dangerous for seniors and those with immunity disorders.

7. Challenges in Diagnosis and Treatment

It’s also unfortunate that tick-borne illnesses are often misdiagnosed or not addressed. As stated above, some of these disorders may present like the flu or another sickness, but the underlying cause remains.

Some disorders, like Lyme disease, are often not diagnosed early enough and can lead to chronic pain and other symptoms. The good news is that experts continue to discover new ways to diagnose and treat these sicknesses.

8. Impact on Livestock and Wildlife

Ticks are a threat to pets and prey on livestock such as cattle, hogs, and even poultry. Farm animals also require proper care and prevention of ticks and possible diseases. Most wildlife in rural and urban settings is at risk for ticks and can carry them into your yard.

Calling for Professional Help Tick-Proof Your Property

The Garden State has many beautiful forests and green areas for residents to enjoy. Consider using these 12 suggestions to repel ticks from your yard and keep your family and pets safe. Sometimes, a tick infestation may be overwhelming, and you need professional help.

Call our team of professional exterminators today to find out the best plan for your needs. Our caring and knowledgeable technicians can get rid of those nasty ticks so you can have peace of mind when you walk through your yard this season.

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