How to Manipulate Environment for Better Tick Pest Control

The numbers of ticks that are found on a property are influenced by the amount of favorable habitat that is found there, i.e. brushy, grassy areas, and the number of animals, especially whitetailed deer and whitefooted mice, that are present. You can reduce tick numbers through landscape modification that creates a less favorable environment for ticks and their animal hosts.

• Keep grass and vegetation short around homes, where it borders lawns, along paths, and in areas where people may contact ticks. Ticks are less likely to survive in short grass.
• Remove leaf litter and brush, especially from buffer areas, i.e. where the lawn borders grassy, brushy areas. Also prune trees and shrubs in these areas to allow more sunlight through as ticks are more common in shaded areas.
• You may be able to reduce the number of ticks adjacent to your home by reducing the number of deer that are nearby, although this usually very challenging. Do not encourage deer into your yard by feeding them. Fences can help reduce the number of deer that enter into your yard, but will have to be sufficiently high enough, about 8 – 10 feet tall. Try to avoid plants that deer particularly like to eat.
• It is generally not an effective pest control to treat large areas of woods, brush, or grass with insecticides as insecticides do not always reach into areas where ticks are found (e.g. in the leaf litter). Ticks can also be reintroduced into areas when animals and birds carrying ticks move into previously treated areas.
• It is not necessary to treat your lawn for ticks as ticks rarely infest maintained yards.
• In cases where high numbers of ticks are present in areas adjacent to home yards, treating the edges of wooded or brushy areas and paths can help to reduce tick numbers. Use an insecticide labeled for a turf area, such as those containing permethrin, cyfluthrin, or carbaryl. Do not spray such an area more than once a year.

The numbers of ticks that are found on a property are influenced by the amount of favorable habitat that is found there, i.e. brushy, grassy areas, and the number of animals, especially whitetailed deer and whitefooted mice, that are present. You can reduce tick numbers through landscape modification that creates a less favorable environment for ticks and their animal hosts. Pesticides for ticks, known as acaricides, can reduce the number of ticks in your yard. 

Learn what ticks prefer by way of habitation. Ticks can be found in grassy, bushy areas often sheltered with trees and shade. They like high humidity. They also favor the same places favored by one of the tick's favorite meals––deer. So any time you're out in tall grasses, or hiking in the woods, you're in enemy territory. The first thing to do is discourage ticks from taking up residence in your home territory.

 Destroy tick habitats. Start by getting rid of any tick-friendly foliage. The best way to do this is keep your yard trimmed regularly and to remove all dead, scraggly and overgrown vegetation. Avoid allowing grass to overgrow, and remove vines and other plants that tend to create bushy, clumped or grass-like environments. Moreover, since ticks are like vampires—they drink blood––they also hate the sun. Use that as your guide when removing plants, so as to the let the sun into as many parts of your yard as possible

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