The grass is green and the trees are in full bloom.  The sun is always out and we spend most of our time outdoors.  Mowing, planting flowers, trimming trees, doing chores, working the horses and most anything else you can think of.  Each trip outside brings a tick or two back in.  So many, the 2-yr old no longer fears them.  She simply removes them herself.  The dogs always have one or two and even 3 attached or crawling upon them.  Each day-end brings a stove burner with 10 or 12 dead ticks that have been burned throughout the day.  Of course there is the nightly tickle of a tick sneaking around on you while sleeping –several times a night!  Removing the ticks & tossing them on the floor or placing them on the Frontlined dog doesn’t seem like a viable option so I make several trips to the toilet each night to drown the little buggers.   ~My life in 2004 and 2005

Ticks are more than a nuisance, they transmit disease –Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Babesiosis, Colorado tick fever, Tularemia, tick paralysis, and more.  There are oodles and oodles of tick species –deer tick, brown dog tick, lone star tick, etc.  The bottom line is that it mostly doesn’t matter the type of ticks you have, the steps to tick control are nearly identical.

Now I could just tell you the normal things like to wear light colored clothing, wear pants tucked into socks, and use a DEET based repellent but these are just temporary fixes that don’t actually get RID of the ticks.  And that is our goal.

Steps to Tick Control

1. Get chickens or guineas.  Let them free range (free range = non-caged or free roaming birds).  There are differing opinions on the actual amount of success the birds will give you.  If you like farm-fresh eggs then why not try it?  There is a lot more to think about when selecting this option, so return to my blog often for further information on this topic.
2. Spray.  A chemical spray in May or early June will help control ticks in the nymphal stage (the tiny ones).  Another spray in October can be used to control the adult population.  Head to Menard’s, Lowe’s, or WalMart to find plenty of chemical choices.  Just be sure the chemical you choose lists ‘ticks’ as one of the bugs it will kill.
3. Mow.  Ticks love tall grass/weeds.  You should keep all vegetation sufficiently mowed down in a perimeter around the house to help in keeping a ‘tick-free zone’.  Ticks do not travel far (unless traveling on a host) so by keeping the perimeter of your house trimmed the ticks will not willingly travel to this area.  Time for a tick myth:  Ticks don’t fly, jump or fall from trees.  They hang out on the ends of tall grass, shrubs and such with their front legs extended out to grab a passer by.  Ticks must make direct contact with their host.
4. Keep bird feeders away from the house.  Birds & rodents often have ticks on them – keep feeders away from the house.
5. Rake leaves.  Ticks can live underneath fallen leaves throughout the winter.  Remove fall leaves to reduce the areas that some nymphal ticks will hibernate under during the winter.
6. Create a buffer zone.  A buffer zone is a path-like structure (approx 3 ft wide) that surrounds the perimeter of your ‘tick-free zone’.  The path can be lined with landscape stones, pine bark wood chips, small stones or gravel. 
7. Enjoy your summer!

As you can imagine and are perhaps experiencing, tick infestations are incredibly frustrating.  I personally experienced dramatic success with these tips.  I completed each step except item numbers 4 and 6.  After two years of this system, I had only one tick on me the entire year last year!  Ahhhh.

Tick removal

To remove a tick, use pointed tweezers & grasp the tick as close to the skin surface as possible.  Pull the tick straight upward with steady even pressure.  We used to collect our ticks in a baby food jar so in case a future disease showed up we would know what ticks had been in our household.  ♥