Ticks are more than pests; they’re disease carriers, able to infect people with Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and more. To protect your home and the people in it, you need safe and effective tick control solutions.
You can incorporate tick-repelling plants, such as garlic, mint, sage, rosemary and marigolds into your landscape. You can raise domestic chickens that happily eat ticks, keeping them away from you. One of the biggest keys to backyard tick control is making your property uninhabitable for the host pests on which ticks thrive, such as deer and mice. Even birds can carry ticks to your yard!
Unlike traps, poisons, or catch-and-release methods, preventing the host animals from ever entering in the first place will prevent any ticks from migrating off an animal into your home or business. When you find a way to discourage tick-carrying wildlife from your property, you eliminate one of the biggest factors for what attracts ticks to your yard.
The Yard Gard, Solar Yard Gard, and Deer Gard were designed with tick-carrying animal prevention in mind. Silent-to-humans, ultrasonic frequencies make an area inhospitable to deer, rodents, squirrels, bats, feral cats, dogs, opossums, skunks, raccoons, and other pest animals that may carry ticks.
Keeping ticks away is extremely important to human health and comfort. A Deer Tick does not need to be in contact with a human very long to transmit Lyme Disease, so even a small bite can result in transmission – and humans do not always realize they’ve been bitten.
Ticks are most commonly found on mice, rats, bats, squirrels, deer, and migratory birds, thus are found everywhere in the world. Lyme Disease has also been reported worldwide in over 80 countries, including every state in the U.S. and across North and South America, Japan, China, Russia, Europe, Africa, India, and Australia.
Over 14,000 cases of Lyme Disease are reported annually in the United States alone. Scientists estimate this number is much higher, with only about 1 in 10 being reported, since the infection is so frequently misdiagnosed as the flu.
Ticks are most commonly found in wooded and grassy areas including lawns, fields, and trees, but because they travel from animal to animal, may be found anywhere. Be aware when walking your dog, venturing into the woods, or walking under branches. Be especially careful to check through hair and skin for ticks.
In addition to host pest prevention listed on this site, the Lyme Disease Association offers additional tips to minimize exposure to ticks at home. In the U.S., The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) also offers helpful information on different species of ticks and their general locations.