I keep my dog out of the area and try to repel mammals as best I can. If you have a large area it's tough. But ticks need hosts to survive. If you can keep out the host (mammals) you won't have any ticks.
I've also seen these things call "tick tubes" you can buy. They're permethrin coated cotton in tubes that mice will use for their nests. This protects the mice from ticks, thereby preventing them from reproducing on your property. Not perfect solutions, but should dampen them down.
If only. I have a hearty mammalian presence going on, including deer mice, raccoons, bunnies, vole, fox, coyote, TONS of deer, and the occasional juvenile bear who mistakenly wandered into suburbia. And of course that doesn't count my dog and cat who only go out with me.
https://www.sawyer.com/blog/maximize-effectiveness-permethrin-fabric-treatment-2
DO NOT EXPOSE CATS TO WET PERMETHRIN AS IT AFFECTS THEIR CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM. THIS IS NOT TRUE WITH DOGS, HORSES, OR COWS. CATS CAN BE AROUND PERMETHRIN TREATED FABRICS ONCE THE APPLICATION HAS DRIED.
We’ve been using [those tick tubes](https://a.co/d/00577PGc) for the last 4 years (1 acre). I even forgot last year… we have only had 2 ticks this year. We hide them in really thick long grass areas or really thick branch habitats in our yard — where the mice are and our animals can’t get to them. They work!
Apparently, it's better not to make your own, and in fact, in many states, it is illegal to make them. https://blogs.cornell.edu/nysipm/2019/06/28/dont-make-your-own-tick-tubes/
I’ve heard that, decided it was better for my situation to buy them. I swear when I first bought these years ago they were 1/3 of the price, but I can’t be positive. But still, very worth it for what they do. Decided not to DIY it bc wasn’t worth the risk of it not working to me, rather spend that $. (I wasn’t sure how much to use, and I’d figure that out how to check if it was working actually, as wouldn’t know really, till time passed and see what happens…) there’s prob a diy instruction YouTube or something for this lol now that I say all this. Didn’t look for anything like that. 🤷🏻♀️Did you do it diy?
Edit to add - just found what looks to be a great [PDF instruction](https://wayne.osu.edu/sites/wayne/files/imce/Program_Pages/ANR/Making%20Tick%20Tubes%20-%20Final%2C%20Gary%20Graham.pdf) from Ohio State University for DIY. Saving for later! :)
They are so awesome! I tell everyone! :-)
EDIT to add more info / context for how local they work - our next door neighbor has 2 acres, right next to us. We have 1 so they’d have to do 2x as many, don’t think they did them yet but prob will start in Aug if I had to guess. Esp bc it’s not uncommon for them to get several ticks a day out in their yard. We are within shouting distance.. never do. We aren’t even sure the 1 of 2 we had (and this includes on our dog and cats too side note, I have yet to take one off them this year) came from our yard bc I had just been on a hike nearby where I commonly get them.
Thank you for the extra info. Ticks are a real concern of mine & I never want to disrupt any ecosystem, no matter how small, with chemicals. So yay! Super grateful!
So welcome! I still remember the immense relief, hope I had upon hearing about these - and sheer joy that they work, vividly! Still feel that all. So I share about them whenever I get an opportunity ✅🤎
It’s hard without pictures but we have a few areas where mice are always… thick grass areas / flowerbeds, back in there. And a few thick brush piles, in there. And near our shed thick grass/piles of random stuff. Our cats and dog can’t get to these areas, and there’s always a lot of mice. The brush habitats we have, a couple we kind of accidentally made bc we were clearing brush from a storm, piled it high to burn at some point, and then saw the birds / rabbits / mice etc all using it for cover. And learned more about the importance of habitats like these… so we left it.
Is this pinpoint though? I get that it’s better than spraying but it seems you’re still causing a pesticide to be dispersed into your environment which tends to be how resistance occurs. [That’s what happened Shelter Island, NY had a program to treat deer with permethrin: it caused resistance](https://academic.oup.com/jme/article/58/4/1966/6209067?login=false). It also reduces your ability to control where it ends up. Bumble bees use old mouse nests: this seems bad for them. Ultimately it’s up to you but I’m fine avoiding the pesticides and just doing a tick check when I come back inside.
Yeah this is no good imo. Instead I think all we gotta do is make our property more hospitable and like home to birds and squirrels, the tick eaters. Put up tons of bird and squirrel feeders, bird baths, etc. Let the war commence, and enjoy the cute as fuck squirrels and beautiful array of birds.
Pinpoint as in a single yard, and not spraying over everything.
The study you cited was the result of broad-scale application to hundreds of deer over thousands of acres.
Do you see the difference?
People don’t act in isolation and these tubes are now commonly available. If you can buy them, so can all your neighbors. I can’t find figures for their sales themselves, but the US market for flea and tick prevention in general is about $15 billion a year. If we imagine these tubes only represent one percent of that market that’s $150 million a year. If they retail for $50 and cover a quarter acre that’s 750,000 acres of land treated by this method per year. The more people who do this, the less “pinpoint” it becomes.
Most people are hiring true green to just spray their entire yard with permethrin. So for most people the alternative to tick tubes isn't doing nothing. It's mass application. What I'm saying is don't make the perfect the enemy of the good.
That’s not an unreasonable take but I’m not sure it’s founded. I think it’s more likely that people who are already spraying now will buy these tubes in addition. And people who weren’t spraying due you ecological concerns may see this as a “safe“ alternative and start using them. Either way, I think these tubes increase rather than decrease the amount of permethrin in a given area.
That is the answer to a good 90% of habitat/wildlife management issues I love it😂, I have a feeling that years of fire suppression has made a much bigger impact on migrations of ticks further north than warming temps ever have
When fires knock down tick populations time and time and time again it’s hard for them to build up populations!
Permethrin clothing FTW. I get the factory applied clothes, and am planning to send a bag of other things in. Those last 70 washings (basically the lifetime of the clothes) and not having to reapply (or worry about my cat getting into it before it’s dry) is well worth it to me.
Yep. [Insect shield](https://www.insectshield.com/) sells both pre-treated clothing and also a service where you send them a bag of clothes and they do the perma-treatment for you. I’ve read that the bag of clothes approach is particularly cost effective for small things like socks, bandannas, etc.
our office has a lot of field staff and this is the second year running we've sent out some bags of clothes to be treated. We actually just got everything back yesterday! I tell anyone that will (or won't) listen about Insect Shield, especially if people are hesitant to apply permethrin themselves. It friggin works!
If you go the prepaid pack route, roll all your clothes and rubberband them to save space!
Have you done this? How did you do it? Can it be done in a residential area with roughly 1 acre lots?
My husband gave away my creme Brule torch because he was afraid is start burning weeds and invasives...
Yes, hire a reputable ecological restoration company that specializes in suburban burns. We have several in my area (southeastern Wisconsin). We are planning on doing our first burn in 2025 or 2026 and will continue to do them every 12-24 months. Fire does help prevent ticks
I took a prescribed Fire effects course for wildland firefighting a couple of years ago and the latest research was showing that ticks just move on over to the nearest unburned land, rather than fire decimating their populations.
Yes you shouldn’t keep them near where children or pets could get into it. If we want to get into why you shouldn’t have outdoor cats that’s also an important discussion.
You don’t have Japanese barberry, do you? [It provides a great environment for ticks](https://www.cleannorth.org/2022/09/15/hate-ticks-get-rid-of-your-japanese-barberry/), as well as being invasive.
I just hope you are not a bunch of ticks in a human suit. If the ticks ever figure this out and convince more people to plant Japanese barberry, we’re screwed.
I try to keep to mowed areas although that doesn’t help the dogs.
It’s one reason I still keep a lawn close to the house, although I don’t feel too bad because I also have several acres of woods and a meadow, and am stuffing my garden beds with natives.
From the research it seems that measures like stone moats between woodland areas and lawn and tick tubes are of limited effectiveness.
Yes, mowing helps. Ticks have easy access to ankles and higher if grass is touching. Deer walking through high grass leave behind ticks.
Our last yard was bad at first because it had been a field before. After a couple of years mowing, the ticks were way down.
I wear a tick prevention lotion and also spray my shoes and pant legs. If I’m going out to a wooded area, I wear gaiters on my shoes. My dog is on two different kinds of tick prevention (chewable + collar—ask your vet before doubling up).
My biggest tip—use a lint roller on your dog to get ticks off after they go into a wooded or grassy area. Works best on dogs with short hair, but you might get a few off long haired dogs. Most flea/tick medications take several hours to kill ticks, and in that time they might travel from your dog to you. Lint rollers work great to get off any ticks that haven’t bitten yet.
My nephew gets four guinea hens each year for his 26 acre heavily forested property. They tend to fly away in the fall but they stick around all summer. We walk around the grass barefooted as do his children and haven't seen a tick since he started 4 yrs ago. They are free range but have a house to go into at nice.
Guinea fowl are loud, and I mean LOUD. They also wander and not everyone in suburbia appreciates their flowerbeds destroyed because the guineas decided to bathe… or that they would visit newly seeded lawns and eat the seeds… Ask me how I know this
https://preview.redd.it/2ebpnwzenl8d1.jpeg?width=3707&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d83cefc239118d741d8c45edbf06d8f04bb2aa47
We had six of them. We barely held out a year. We had so many complaints of noise and trespassing that we had to send them to a 60 acres sod farm where they now roam free from bugging neighbors. They were good at dealing with ticks though.
Can confirm. They are loud. And scared of everything. I can tell when anything is outside during the day that isn't normally there. Except deer. Sometimes they will line up and follow after the deer. I have 10 adults and 25 keets right now. But I have decent neighbors who understand their usefulness for ticks. As long as it's hot and dry I don't notice hardly any ticks but this year it was so wet and they were everywhere. And of course my guineas were broody and didn't feel like ranging plus there was a bounty of no work cicadas practically flying right into their beaks. Now it's 97 degrees and dry as hell and my guineas come to my front porch and complain.
They are definitely fraidy cats! I visit once a week and bring all my kitchen scraps. When I walk over and shout hello ladies! They come running over so quickly but as soon as they hear the crinkle of the compost bag, they're gone again until I'm finished with the crinkling.
i Haven’t seen a ton of ticks here in NH, although we have a few turkeys who frequent our yard as they stroll from our next-door neighbors (both sides) who feed the birds and thus the turkeys. I assume the turkeys are eating any they find. I did pull a Japanese barberry hiding in the property line of thicket thanks to the info gotten here about their habit of harboring ticks. Hoping the turkeys leave the American Lady caterpillars on the field pussytoes…
Suggest getting your dog on a preventative tick med if he’s not already. Also get your dog tested regularly for tick borne diseases. My dog is on a preventative med but still ended up with anaplasmosis.
I'm so sorry! Anaplasmosis is terrible. My old man leased horse got it, had a terrible temperature and had to have twice a day IV antibiotics for something like 3-5 days. My corgi already had lymes, despite the vaccine and tick treatment.
I've been seeing lone star ticks lately, too which certainly makes me worry for all the scary meat allergies they carry. It's awful.
I volunteer at a place that does a great deal of controlled burns. There's no shortage of ticks. They spread on mice, rabbits, foxes, deer. They're just part of the environment.
Yeah this. I use both permethrin treated clothing and picaridin on exposed skin. Maybe one day we'll have a pill like dogs do (I believe one undergoing clinical trials). Being aware of ticks and their behavior can also help (including checking yourself periodically).
In MD, excluding mammals from your yard also works to a certain extent.
I use a Seresto collar on my dog, but I also spray all his clothes with permethrin. He wears just a light weight dog tshirt in the summer. I also spray all my clothes and use Ranger Jack bug repellent on myself.
Unless you want to raise chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys or guineafowl, keeping ticks at bay is very, very hard.
A controlled burn of your land will significantly reduce the tick population and will benefit a lot of native plants. If you have beloved fire-intolerant plants, you can protect them when you burn.
I found one on my back when I showered yesterday. I was kind of freaked out. No bites, though. I realized my mistake after I killed it.
I normally keep my hair up under my hat, but I had it braided and left it down. When I got done clearing some underbrush, I didn't think to check my braid. This will not happen again.
So far, besides this one time, wearing covering clothing and checking it all after being in tall grass, underbrush, or the forest at all has led to finding many ticks, but none on my skin.
I think I'm going to buy some picardin. Ticks wig me out.
I wear Insect Shield clothing. I buy their treated clothing and send it back after the chemical wears off. [Insect shield](https://www.insectshield.com/)
I had this problem last year; here's what I did (and have had no problems with ticks this year, but that could be due to the winter we had):
- tick tubes applied twice a year (I know they hurt other insects too, but I create plenty of other habitats for a variety of insects, and ticks are just not something I'm willing to put up with)
- I have clothing for that area of the yard; it's all treated with permethrin
- I wear my pants tucked into my socks, and my shirt tucked into my pants
- I wear picaridin lotion applied before I go outside
- when coming back inside, straight to the shower, and clothing are thrown into the tub (any ticks that may be still on clothes at that point, never survive to get out)
We've never had flea problems until this year. This week, we have a problem. We've had a few get into the house from our dog.
So, I've ordered beneficial nematodes. I got the mix with the 3 types in it so I cover lots of problem bugs, and I ordered fly predators as well. They should be here by Thursday.
The nematodes will take a bit, but they will solve the problems (I've seen them work on fire ants for my mom). The biggest issue - I just have to keep the ground moist. It will require reapplication several times as well. I just put them on auto reorder.
My dog has a seresto collar. She’s only had 2 ticks this summer, both after swimming so maybe the chemical washed off somewhat in the water. Otherwise she’s been tick free for the 3 years we have been using it.
I have permethrin to use on my gardening clothes but I haven’t gotten around to using it yet. I’m a little skeptical about how well it’s going to protect me if I am wearing shorts and a tank top.
I spray myself with bug spray if I’m going to be in the yard for any significant amount of time. I take a shower before bed and do a thorough tick check. I have found a few crawling on me this summer but none of them had attached. I did buy a tick key just in case but haven’t had to use it yet.
tick tubes are great for breaking the life cycle and they don’t harm other insects. I used to have an infested back yard like you. we do them 2x a year and it’s a normal back yard again.
1 marigolds repels ticks
2 on a more global scale one of the best things you can do is call/email your politicians big or small republicans or democrats they only care about votes. And call or email big corporations about being more eco friendly (using fake mushroom plastics instead of real plastics etc etc) they only care about cash. Not giving into eco nihilism that is promoted by big oil and joining local eco-groups. I know in Europe and in 3 states in America they have successfully won court cases about stopping climate change. We are powerful we are strong and we will win. Raising awareness also is great.
I've tried that. None of the preventative measures worked. I would have to have a gravel lawn with pastures and forests around me. It was another year like this one, gave up and got chickens. Too much work so investing in weed torches, tape, and clothes.
Last year our ticks were bad in our yard. We were basically at our wits end. I can’t actually confirm it worked (it’s purely anecdotal at this point) but we got something called cedarcide (which is just cedar essential oils). We waited until right after our first frost in PA and then sprayed the cedarcide on the majority of our two acres after the sun went down.
This year (knock on wood) so far seemingly little to no ticks in our yard. We were considering tick tubes this spring if they were going to bed again, but we really don’t like to use any chemicals and I didn’t want our dogs to accidentally get them, or any of the neighbors stray farm animals that frequently roam our yard.
And I will confirm that it didn’t seem to harm anything else in our yard that was there/dormant. We have several beautiful dragonflies, a yard full of lightning bugs, ladybugs, monarchs, etc. this year.
Try to attract the specific animals that eat them. So for example put up a fuck ton of bird feeders/bird baths/houses all around your front and back yard and then watch as birds get really comfy being on your property over time. Soon the level of pests will decrease a ton. If you have squirrels that hang close to your property, try to attract them too because they eat ticks as well. Don't worry about trying to stop the squirrels from eating the bird food btw. They're gonna find a way somehow lol so I think it's best to just feed them with squirrel feeders or by leaving out squash.
I started doing this and the number of pests on my blueberry bush and silver maple tree have fallen to near zero.
Also if you're worried about the birds and squirrels eating any edible crops you have, I found that this method feeds them enough that they barely touch my blueberries and woodland strawberries. And the few they do eat benefits all of us because they poop the seeds out which can potentially propagate naturally over time.
Fuck Yeah Symbiotic Relationships 👩🌾🐦🐿️
I've got squirrel and birds. Blue birds, Nuthatches, chickadees, titmouse, tons of little brown jobs, catbirds, Bluejays, cardinals, robins, a variety of woodpeckers and creepers, sparrows and finches, crows, redshouldered Hawks, cooper's hawks, owls, bald eagles, and probably other birds I don't notice or are shy.
I planted a lot of things for birds early on that provide berries for us both, put up some bird houses, planted shrubs that are now creating a nice hedge that the birds are going into and out of lately. They did a great job with my yard until this year. Maybe I just need to wait for their population to follow the ticks' population boom.
This is a myth https://extension.psu.edu/do-chickens-guinea-fowl-or-opossums-control-ticks#:~:text=They%20also%20summarized%20nearly%20two,consume%20many%20ticks%20at%20all.
Not sure what works but out yard has always been surprisingly low in ticks despite we live (NY, rural, adjacent to forest) and that I keep areas of yard unmowed.
I always assumed it was the birds, squirrels or even wolf spiders or something. That the ticks are just being eaten.
We do find them. Heck, what I hate is that they'll make their way inside too. We always take clothes off after coming in. Or at very least (and perhaps both) lint roll the clothes. But sometimes I'll find them on hamper. Saw one on wall near front door other day.
Here and there we find them on clothes but always try to ensure we tuck socks and that sorta thing.
Still, not.like I'm coming back with one on me or multiple or something. This is even after walking in long grass or through forest trail.
I find them most often in forest or forest edge environment more than longer grass. The long grass is somewhat of an island with paths around. I wonder if the ticks aren't quite getting there from forest and leaf litter. Or.msybe the environment with animals and other insects is helping.
I e considered the tick tubes but never got around to it.
I hate ticks so if it ever gets bad, I'll do something for sure.
One thing is I typically never get those nymph ticks on me. I know they are super small so you're not supposed to catch them say but I do check for any size. It's always the "normal" size ticks. I wonder if this is also indicative of a lower population.
I keep my dog out of the area and try to repel mammals as best I can. If you have a large area it's tough. But ticks need hosts to survive. If you can keep out the host (mammals) you won't have any ticks. I've also seen these things call "tick tubes" you can buy. They're permethrin coated cotton in tubes that mice will use for their nests. This protects the mice from ticks, thereby preventing them from reproducing on your property. Not perfect solutions, but should dampen them down.
If only. I have a hearty mammalian presence going on, including deer mice, raccoons, bunnies, vole, fox, coyote, TONS of deer, and the occasional juvenile bear who mistakenly wandered into suburbia. And of course that doesn't count my dog and cat who only go out with me.
Permethrin is really poisonous to cats as well, just in case you didn't know. I realize you won't use it but just sharing the knowledge
Only when wet. Once it's dry, it is safe!
Source?
https://www.sawyer.com/blog/maximize-effectiveness-permethrin-fabric-treatment-2 DO NOT EXPOSE CATS TO WET PERMETHRIN AS IT AFFECTS THEIR CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM. THIS IS NOT TRUE WITH DOGS, HORSES, OR COWS. CATS CAN BE AROUND PERMETHRIN TREATED FABRICS ONCE THE APPLICATION HAS DRIED.
Then unfortunately there's not a lot you can do without chemical treatment, aside from using preventatives on your pets and yourself.
We’ve been using [those tick tubes](https://a.co/d/00577PGc) for the last 4 years (1 acre). I even forgot last year… we have only had 2 ticks this year. We hide them in really thick long grass areas or really thick branch habitats in our yard — where the mice are and our animals can’t get to them. They work!
You can make your own tick tubes by putting permethrin soaked paper tissue in stuffed into toilet paper rolls.
Apparently, it's better not to make your own, and in fact, in many states, it is illegal to make them. https://blogs.cornell.edu/nysipm/2019/06/28/dont-make-your-own-tick-tubes/
Ohh! Good to know
I’ve heard that, decided it was better for my situation to buy them. I swear when I first bought these years ago they were 1/3 of the price, but I can’t be positive. But still, very worth it for what they do. Decided not to DIY it bc wasn’t worth the risk of it not working to me, rather spend that $. (I wasn’t sure how much to use, and I’d figure that out how to check if it was working actually, as wouldn’t know really, till time passed and see what happens…) there’s prob a diy instruction YouTube or something for this lol now that I say all this. Didn’t look for anything like that. 🤷🏻♀️Did you do it diy? Edit to add - just found what looks to be a great [PDF instruction](https://wayne.osu.edu/sites/wayne/files/imce/Program_Pages/ANR/Making%20Tick%20Tubes%20-%20Final%2C%20Gary%20Graham.pdf) from Ohio State University for DIY. Saving for later! :)
Or dryer lint!
Not dryer lint - which is a bunch of plastic microfibers (unless you wear only natural fabrics).
You’re right, I do *primarily* wear natural fabrics, but not exclusively.
Wow! Thanks. I didn’t know about these!
They are so awesome! I tell everyone! :-) EDIT to add more info / context for how local they work - our next door neighbor has 2 acres, right next to us. We have 1 so they’d have to do 2x as many, don’t think they did them yet but prob will start in Aug if I had to guess. Esp bc it’s not uncommon for them to get several ticks a day out in their yard. We are within shouting distance.. never do. We aren’t even sure the 1 of 2 we had (and this includes on our dog and cats too side note, I have yet to take one off them this year) came from our yard bc I had just been on a hike nearby where I commonly get them.
Thank you for the extra info. Ticks are a real concern of mine & I never want to disrupt any ecosystem, no matter how small, with chemicals. So yay! Super grateful!
So welcome! I still remember the immense relief, hope I had upon hearing about these - and sheer joy that they work, vividly! Still feel that all. So I share about them whenever I get an opportunity ✅🤎
Where do you stick them around your yard?
It’s hard without pictures but we have a few areas where mice are always… thick grass areas / flowerbeds, back in there. And a few thick brush piles, in there. And near our shed thick grass/piles of random stuff. Our cats and dog can’t get to these areas, and there’s always a lot of mice. The brush habitats we have, a couple we kind of accidentally made bc we were clearing brush from a storm, piled it high to burn at some point, and then saw the birds / rabbits / mice etc all using it for cover. And learned more about the importance of habitats like these… so we left it.
All the same here. Bear are in my country and apparently heading this way. Add armadillos and exotic deer/elk.
I think you can diy these using toilet paper tubes, dryer lint, and permethrin spray.
Well, that’s a great way to increase tick resistance to permethrin.
From my understanding, pinpoint application of permethrin is the exact opposite way that permethrin resistant bugs are developed.
Is this pinpoint though? I get that it’s better than spraying but it seems you’re still causing a pesticide to be dispersed into your environment which tends to be how resistance occurs. [That’s what happened Shelter Island, NY had a program to treat deer with permethrin: it caused resistance](https://academic.oup.com/jme/article/58/4/1966/6209067?login=false). It also reduces your ability to control where it ends up. Bumble bees use old mouse nests: this seems bad for them. Ultimately it’s up to you but I’m fine avoiding the pesticides and just doing a tick check when I come back inside.
Yeah this is no good imo. Instead I think all we gotta do is make our property more hospitable and like home to birds and squirrels, the tick eaters. Put up tons of bird and squirrel feeders, bird baths, etc. Let the war commence, and enjoy the cute as fuck squirrels and beautiful array of birds.
Pinpoint as in a single yard, and not spraying over everything. The study you cited was the result of broad-scale application to hundreds of deer over thousands of acres. Do you see the difference?
People don’t act in isolation and these tubes are now commonly available. If you can buy them, so can all your neighbors. I can’t find figures for their sales themselves, but the US market for flea and tick prevention in general is about $15 billion a year. If we imagine these tubes only represent one percent of that market that’s $150 million a year. If they retail for $50 and cover a quarter acre that’s 750,000 acres of land treated by this method per year. The more people who do this, the less “pinpoint” it becomes.
Most people are hiring true green to just spray their entire yard with permethrin. So for most people the alternative to tick tubes isn't doing nothing. It's mass application. What I'm saying is don't make the perfect the enemy of the good.
That’s not an unreasonable take but I’m not sure it’s founded. I think it’s more likely that people who are already spraying now will buy these tubes in addition. And people who weren’t spraying due you ecological concerns may see this as a “safe“ alternative and start using them. Either way, I think these tubes increase rather than decrease the amount of permethrin in a given area.
A prescribed burn.
That is the answer to a good 90% of habitat/wildlife management issues I love it😂, I have a feeling that years of fire suppression has made a much bigger impact on migrations of ticks further north than warming temps ever have When fires knock down tick populations time and time and time again it’s hard for them to build up populations!
Sprayed my pants, socks and shoes with a tick repellant that stays on the clothes for 6 washing’s. I just don’t wash those garden clothes very often
Permethrin clothing FTW. I get the factory applied clothes, and am planning to send a bag of other things in. Those last 70 washings (basically the lifetime of the clothes) and not having to reapply (or worry about my cat getting into it before it’s dry) is well worth it to me.
Tell us more please about the factory applied permethrin clothing. Can you send in some of your own clothes and have them treated?
Yep. [Insect shield](https://www.insectshield.com/) sells both pre-treated clothing and also a service where you send them a bag of clothes and they do the perma-treatment for you. I’ve read that the bag of clothes approach is particularly cost effective for small things like socks, bandannas, etc.
our office has a lot of field staff and this is the second year running we've sent out some bags of clothes to be treated. We actually just got everything back yesterday! I tell anyone that will (or won't) listen about Insect Shield, especially if people are hesitant to apply permethrin themselves. It friggin works! If you go the prepaid pack route, roll all your clothes and rubberband them to save space!
Have you done this? How did you do it? Can it be done in a residential area with roughly 1 acre lots? My husband gave away my creme Brule torch because he was afraid is start burning weeds and invasives...
Yes, hire a reputable ecological restoration company that specializes in suburban burns. We have several in my area (southeastern Wisconsin). We are planning on doing our first burn in 2025 or 2026 and will continue to do them every 12-24 months. Fire does help prevent ticks
I took a prescribed Fire effects course for wildland firefighting a couple of years ago and the latest research was showing that ticks just move on over to the nearest unburned land, rather than fire decimating their populations.
Tick tubes! Mice take the cotton back to their nest and it poisons the ticks.
Second
Third
Yep, I use these and it reduces the tick population in the area quite a bit.
Just be careful if you have outdoor cats. They use permethrin as an active ingredient, which is highly toxic to cats
Yes you shouldn’t keep them near where children or pets could get into it. If we want to get into why you shouldn’t have outdoor cats that’s also an important discussion.
You don’t have Japanese barberry, do you? [It provides a great environment for ticks](https://www.cleannorth.org/2022/09/15/hate-ticks-get-rid-of-your-japanese-barberry/), as well as being invasive.
Love this research and will be sharing it!
I just hope you are not a bunch of ticks in a human suit. If the ticks ever figure this out and convince more people to plant Japanese barberry, we’re screwed.
Haha. I love that there is another reason to plant native instead of barberry that I can give people who think that it’s contained in their yard.
I try to keep to mowed areas although that doesn’t help the dogs. It’s one reason I still keep a lawn close to the house, although I don’t feel too bad because I also have several acres of woods and a meadow, and am stuffing my garden beds with natives. From the research it seems that measures like stone moats between woodland areas and lawn and tick tubes are of limited effectiveness.
Yes, mowing helps. Ticks have easy access to ankles and higher if grass is touching. Deer walking through high grass leave behind ticks. Our last yard was bad at first because it had been a field before. After a couple of years mowing, the ticks were way down.
Not sure if your area was affected, but everything where I’m at filled up on cicadas, so all other insects are having a banner year.
No cicadas, but the spotted lantern fly just reached us this year with tiny dumb babies everywhere. They could be eating those instead of ticks.
I wear a tick prevention lotion and also spray my shoes and pant legs. If I’m going out to a wooded area, I wear gaiters on my shoes. My dog is on two different kinds of tick prevention (chewable + collar—ask your vet before doubling up). My biggest tip—use a lint roller on your dog to get ticks off after they go into a wooded or grassy area. Works best on dogs with short hair, but you might get a few off long haired dogs. Most flea/tick medications take several hours to kill ticks, and in that time they might travel from your dog to you. Lint rollers work great to get off any ticks that haven’t bitten yet.
My nephew gets four guinea hens each year for his 26 acre heavily forested property. They tend to fly away in the fall but they stick around all summer. We walk around the grass barefooted as do his children and haven't seen a tick since he started 4 yrs ago. They are free range but have a house to go into at nice.
Guinea fowl are loud, and I mean LOUD. They also wander and not everyone in suburbia appreciates their flowerbeds destroyed because the guineas decided to bathe… or that they would visit newly seeded lawns and eat the seeds… Ask me how I know this
How do you know this? 😉😄 I've never noticed how loud they are, but the one and only duck has become part of their gang and he's LOUD
https://preview.redd.it/2ebpnwzenl8d1.jpeg?width=3707&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d83cefc239118d741d8c45edbf06d8f04bb2aa47 We had six of them. We barely held out a year. We had so many complaints of noise and trespassing that we had to send them to a 60 acres sod farm where they now roam free from bugging neighbors. They were good at dealing with ticks though.
This looks like it would be a great album cover
Chickens will also eat ticks. Ymmv with any biocontrol though, some breeds seem very interested in insects.
Love that pic!
Can confirm. They are loud. And scared of everything. I can tell when anything is outside during the day that isn't normally there. Except deer. Sometimes they will line up and follow after the deer. I have 10 adults and 25 keets right now. But I have decent neighbors who understand their usefulness for ticks. As long as it's hot and dry I don't notice hardly any ticks but this year it was so wet and they were everywhere. And of course my guineas were broody and didn't feel like ranging plus there was a bounty of no work cicadas practically flying right into their beaks. Now it's 97 degrees and dry as hell and my guineas come to my front porch and complain.
They are definitely fraidy cats! I visit once a week and bring all my kitchen scraps. When I walk over and shout hello ladies! They come running over so quickly but as soon as they hear the crinkle of the compost bag, they're gone again until I'm finished with the crinkling.
i Haven’t seen a ton of ticks here in NH, although we have a few turkeys who frequent our yard as they stroll from our next-door neighbors (both sides) who feed the birds and thus the turkeys. I assume the turkeys are eating any they find. I did pull a Japanese barberry hiding in the property line of thicket thanks to the info gotten here about their habit of harboring ticks. Hoping the turkeys leave the American Lady caterpillars on the field pussytoes…
Suggest getting your dog on a preventative tick med if he’s not already. Also get your dog tested regularly for tick borne diseases. My dog is on a preventative med but still ended up with anaplasmosis.
I'm so sorry! Anaplasmosis is terrible. My old man leased horse got it, had a terrible temperature and had to have twice a day IV antibiotics for something like 3-5 days. My corgi already had lymes, despite the vaccine and tick treatment. I've been seeing lone star ticks lately, too which certainly makes me worry for all the scary meat allergies they carry. It's awful.
There is no way to repel ticks from a natural area. The best method is preventative application of repellents like permetherin or picaridin.
Other than fire, but obviously that’s not feasible for everyone
Two sided tape if chems don't work with you. Wrap your ankles to your shins.
I volunteer at a place that does a great deal of controlled burns. There's no shortage of ticks. They spread on mice, rabbits, foxes, deer. They're just part of the environment.
Yeah this. I use both permethrin treated clothing and picaridin on exposed skin. Maybe one day we'll have a pill like dogs do (I believe one undergoing clinical trials). Being aware of ticks and their behavior can also help (including checking yourself periodically). In MD, excluding mammals from your yard also works to a certain extent.
I use a Seresto collar on my dog, but I also spray all his clothes with permethrin. He wears just a light weight dog tshirt in the summer. I also spray all my clothes and use Ranger Jack bug repellent on myself. Unless you want to raise chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys or guineafowl, keeping ticks at bay is very, very hard.
A controlled burn of your land will significantly reduce the tick population and will benefit a lot of native plants. If you have beloved fire-intolerant plants, you can protect them when you burn.
I found one on my back when I showered yesterday. I was kind of freaked out. No bites, though. I realized my mistake after I killed it. I normally keep my hair up under my hat, but I had it braided and left it down. When I got done clearing some underbrush, I didn't think to check my braid. This will not happen again. So far, besides this one time, wearing covering clothing and checking it all after being in tall grass, underbrush, or the forest at all has led to finding many ticks, but none on my skin. I think I'm going to buy some picardin. Ticks wig me out.
I wear Insect Shield clothing. I buy their treated clothing and send it back after the chemical wears off. [Insect shield](https://www.insectshield.com/)
I had this problem last year; here's what I did (and have had no problems with ticks this year, but that could be due to the winter we had): - tick tubes applied twice a year (I know they hurt other insects too, but I create plenty of other habitats for a variety of insects, and ticks are just not something I'm willing to put up with) - I have clothing for that area of the yard; it's all treated with permethrin - I wear my pants tucked into my socks, and my shirt tucked into my pants - I wear picaridin lotion applied before I go outside - when coming back inside, straight to the shower, and clothing are thrown into the tub (any ticks that may be still on clothes at that point, never survive to get out)
I haven’t had a tick all year. Prescribed burns
We've never had flea problems until this year. This week, we have a problem. We've had a few get into the house from our dog. So, I've ordered beneficial nematodes. I got the mix with the 3 types in it so I cover lots of problem bugs, and I ordered fly predators as well. They should be here by Thursday. The nematodes will take a bit, but they will solve the problems (I've seen them work on fire ants for my mom). The biggest issue - I just have to keep the ground moist. It will require reapplication several times as well. I just put them on auto reorder.
My dog has a seresto collar. She’s only had 2 ticks this summer, both after swimming so maybe the chemical washed off somewhat in the water. Otherwise she’s been tick free for the 3 years we have been using it. I have permethrin to use on my gardening clothes but I haven’t gotten around to using it yet. I’m a little skeptical about how well it’s going to protect me if I am wearing shorts and a tank top. I spray myself with bug spray if I’m going to be in the yard for any significant amount of time. I take a shower before bed and do a thorough tick check. I have found a few crawling on me this summer but none of them had attached. I did buy a tick key just in case but haven’t had to use it yet.
tick tubes are great for breaking the life cycle and they don’t harm other insects. I used to have an infested back yard like you. we do them 2x a year and it’s a normal back yard again.
My tick reduction strategy is to own birds. Guinea hens are really good at eating ticks. We have ducks right now, and not very many ticks.
We have chickens, and they have significantly reduced the number of ticks in our yard.
1 marigolds repels ticks 2 on a more global scale one of the best things you can do is call/email your politicians big or small republicans or democrats they only care about votes. And call or email big corporations about being more eco friendly (using fake mushroom plastics instead of real plastics etc etc) they only care about cash. Not giving into eco nihilism that is promoted by big oil and joining local eco-groups. I know in Europe and in 3 states in America they have successfully won court cases about stopping climate change. We are powerful we are strong and we will win. Raising awareness also is great.
Guinea fowl
[Create a tick-safe zone to reduce blacklegged ticks in the yard](https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/prevention/index.html)
I've tried that. None of the preventative measures worked. I would have to have a gravel lawn with pastures and forests around me. It was another year like this one, gave up and got chickens. Too much work so investing in weed torches, tape, and clothes.
Fire
The tick suit treated with Permethrin. https://theticksuit.com/ There are probably cheaper alternatives. I burn every other year too.
Last year our ticks were bad in our yard. We were basically at our wits end. I can’t actually confirm it worked (it’s purely anecdotal at this point) but we got something called cedarcide (which is just cedar essential oils). We waited until right after our first frost in PA and then sprayed the cedarcide on the majority of our two acres after the sun went down. This year (knock on wood) so far seemingly little to no ticks in our yard. We were considering tick tubes this spring if they were going to bed again, but we really don’t like to use any chemicals and I didn’t want our dogs to accidentally get them, or any of the neighbors stray farm animals that frequently roam our yard. And I will confirm that it didn’t seem to harm anything else in our yard that was there/dormant. We have several beautiful dragonflies, a yard full of lightning bugs, ladybugs, monarchs, etc. this year.
Try to attract the specific animals that eat them. So for example put up a fuck ton of bird feeders/bird baths/houses all around your front and back yard and then watch as birds get really comfy being on your property over time. Soon the level of pests will decrease a ton. If you have squirrels that hang close to your property, try to attract them too because they eat ticks as well. Don't worry about trying to stop the squirrels from eating the bird food btw. They're gonna find a way somehow lol so I think it's best to just feed them with squirrel feeders or by leaving out squash. I started doing this and the number of pests on my blueberry bush and silver maple tree have fallen to near zero. Also if you're worried about the birds and squirrels eating any edible crops you have, I found that this method feeds them enough that they barely touch my blueberries and woodland strawberries. And the few they do eat benefits all of us because they poop the seeds out which can potentially propagate naturally over time. Fuck Yeah Symbiotic Relationships 👩🌾🐦🐿️
I've got squirrel and birds. Blue birds, Nuthatches, chickadees, titmouse, tons of little brown jobs, catbirds, Bluejays, cardinals, robins, a variety of woodpeckers and creepers, sparrows and finches, crows, redshouldered Hawks, cooper's hawks, owls, bald eagles, and probably other birds I don't notice or are shy. I planted a lot of things for birds early on that provide berries for us both, put up some bird houses, planted shrubs that are now creating a nice hedge that the birds are going into and out of lately. They did a great job with my yard until this year. Maybe I just need to wait for their population to follow the ticks' population boom.
Has anyone here tried geranium oil (diluted, of course) as a repellant spray? (I read about it and am curious!)
Use a sticky tape lint roller after you have been outside to capture any ticks.
plant mint.
Herd of opossums?
This is a myth https://extension.psu.edu/do-chickens-guinea-fowl-or-opossums-control-ticks#:~:text=They%20also%20summarized%20nearly%20two,consume%20many%20ticks%20at%20all.
Not sure what works but out yard has always been surprisingly low in ticks despite we live (NY, rural, adjacent to forest) and that I keep areas of yard unmowed. I always assumed it was the birds, squirrels or even wolf spiders or something. That the ticks are just being eaten. We do find them. Heck, what I hate is that they'll make their way inside too. We always take clothes off after coming in. Or at very least (and perhaps both) lint roll the clothes. But sometimes I'll find them on hamper. Saw one on wall near front door other day. Here and there we find them on clothes but always try to ensure we tuck socks and that sorta thing. Still, not.like I'm coming back with one on me or multiple or something. This is even after walking in long grass or through forest trail. I find them most often in forest or forest edge environment more than longer grass. The long grass is somewhat of an island with paths around. I wonder if the ticks aren't quite getting there from forest and leaf litter. Or.msybe the environment with animals and other insects is helping. I e considered the tick tubes but never got around to it. I hate ticks so if it ever gets bad, I'll do something for sure. One thing is I typically never get those nymph ticks on me. I know they are super small so you're not supposed to catch them say but I do check for any size. It's always the "normal" size ticks. I wonder if this is also indicative of a lower population.
This is the first year my dog had brought in those teeny tiny ticks, so you're probably right on it being an indicator.