Rid Your Lawn of Ticks
Certain types of ticks may find their way onto your property through wildlife and tall greenery. These pests carry various diseases that could harm you and the people in your care. Follow these preventative tick tips to keep them out of your yard.
1. Mow Your Lawn Regularly
Areas with tall grass and branches may cast a shadow over your garden, giving disease-carrying deer ticks a shady environment to call home. To avoid having these pests seeking shelter in your yard, mow the lawn so the grass is only a few inches high. You may need to trim it at least once every two weeks to keep it short, but keep in mind that cutting it too much will make it grow back quicker.
Keeping the yard trimmed eliminates places where ticks can hide. As you mow the yard, use the bagging attachment on the lawnmower to collect clippings instead of letting them pile on the grass. It also helps to trim low-hanging branches and tall weeds with the appropriate tools to reduce shady spots in the yard.
2. Clean and Remove Piles of Debris
Ticks like to hide in dark places that are out of sight. About twice a month, inspect your yard for discarded pots, bricks, lumber and stones, and move them far away from your property, paying attention to any insects underneath them. If your house or business is an attractive area for a large tick population, you should clean the fallen leaves and grass clippings off your property instead of letting them pile up on the yard.
After mowing the grass, you can bag it and blow leaves into piles to keep your yard clean, reducing possible hiding places for pests. Try to keep compost piles for eco-friendly yard treatment as far away from your home or business as possible. You should also keep piles of wood and brush away from your property because these components provide an ideal environment for pests.
3. Choose Yard Plants That Repel Pests
Some plants may be attractive for pests, but others tend to keep them away from your yard. Consult your local garden center or nursery to discover which trees, plants and shrubs may be attracting deer and other hosts onto your property so you can remove them from the area. Planting eucalyptus, thyme, citronella and geraniums may help repel ticks, arachnids and other common critters. Besides preventing ticks, these plants are also visually appealing and give off a pleasing aroma.
Even though planting repellant flowers is an effective pest control method, you shouldn’t use it as a primary method for dealing with ticks in the yard. You’ll have to use other methods along with strategic plants to eliminate ticks from your property.
4. Add a Protective Border Around Your Yard
Deer ticks that transmit Lyme disease prefer woodlands over a trimmed yard, so if your property is near a woodsy area, it may be prone to ticks. To prevent ticks in nearby woods from wandering into your yard, consider adding a complete protective barrier around it. Use dry wood chips, bark or pea gravel to repel ticks and provide a visual border around the area.
You could also use an eco-friendly tick repellent around the perimeter of your residential or commercial space. If you know the areas that potentially have ticks on your property, you may want to move play and meeting areas away from those spaces so people won’t bring ticks inside.
5. Keep Wildlife Away From Your Property
In addition to looking for shade and shelter, ticks also prefer to travel on furry creatures — such as squirrels, feral cats, rabbits, raccoons and mice. Ticks use these hosts to survive, find nourishment and develop. If you can prevent these creatures from coming onto your property, you can likely also reduce your insect population.
Consider what animals are common in your area, and take the appropriate preventative measures to keep them out of your yard. It helps to dispose of trash in a sealed container and leave it a safe distance away from the building. You can also control the fruit you have on your trees and bushes and limit the shrubbery that deer and other animals like to eat.
6. Care for Your Pets
Even if you create a protective perimeter and try to keep debris and tall grass under control, it’s also possible for your cat or dog to carry ticks throughout your property. Pets can be bitten by ticks and suffer from diseases, but they can also bring these insects inside. When your dog or cat goes outside, watch the areas where they like to play. Ticks know they can travel farther distances by latching onto your pet, so they may congregate in spaces where your pet regularly visits.
You can apply tick treatment to shady areas, under porches and along the fence line to keep these areas clean. Use tick treatment along your dog runs or kennels, and give your pet a monthly treatment that could keep ticks off of them. To protect your cat or dog, you can put a tick collar on them and spray them with pet-safe insect repellent. If the issue persists, your veterinarian can recommend effective pest-control treatments.
7. Call Pest Pros
If you have a persistent tick problem on your commercial or residential property, it might help to consult a professional. The pest control specialists at Pest Pros use various methods to treat the ticks in the yard, depending on your surrounding environment and your employees’ or family members’ habits.
When you schedule an inspection with us, a specialist will inspect your yard and tell you how to get rid of ticks and other pests on your property. Besides a one-time treatment, we also offer preventative maintenance treatments every month in the spring and fall, when ticks are most active, so you know they won’t come back.
Schedule an Appointment With Pest Pros
Treating the ticks in your yard is essential for preventing disease and protecting your valuables. If you have a tick problem or want to take preventative measures to control ticks, contact Pest Pros for a free inspection to remove ticks. After our initial appointment, you can also sign up for tick control treatments to provide peace of mind about the safety of your home or business. For more information about our services, you can call us at (508) 888-0999 today.
