How to Prevent Ticks to Thrive Indoor

Ticks can be a big problem. Do not think that ticks are nothing to worry about. Deer ticks actually cause Lyme's disease, which will kill animals and you in the long run. Deer ticks are a lot smaller than your average tick and they are common. If you ever find a tick in your home, flush it down the toilet or wash it down the drain in your sink.

If you have a lot of long grass around your home, you might want to consider chopping down this grass so that the ticks do not get on your pets. The ticks will sit in the grass and wait for a dog or cat to come by. If you live by a greenbelt, make sure that your pets do not go into the greenbelt because they can get a lot of ticks from the shrubs and plants in the green belt. If you take your dog for walks in the woods, make sure to check you and your dog for any ticks.

The best thing that you can do is make sure to check your home, your pets and yourself for ticks. Cut down long grass around your home and keep pets away from these areas.This is because ticks are outside, in grassy areas and on trees. If you go walking or jogging in the woods or long grass, make sure to check yourself before you come inside. Ticks usually start at your pant legs or your shoes and work their way up. Check your scalp for ticks as well. When ticks get full of blood, they will drop off of you. Deer ticks will embed themselves in your body and can cause Lyme's disease.

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.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. It is generally not effective 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.
5. It is not necessary to treat your lawn for ticks as ticks rarely infest maintained yards.
6. 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.

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