How to Reduce Ticks in Your Yard Without Chemicals

Ticks are most prevalent in overgrown and wooded areas, but also live in lawns and shrubs and in areas around your home. Learning how to decrease ticks in your lawn and surrounding areas will help protect your family and pets from potentially harmful tick bites. A few years ago, I found a tick on my daughter's neck. Needless to say, we were scared. Fortunately, she was not harmed, but the incident was enough to make me aware of the need to do something to prevent further instances with my family and ticks.

Ticks may be small, but they often carry very serious illnesses. Some types of ticks carry organisms of diseases such as Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and typhus. Ticks are certainly not the kind of visitors parents and pet owners want to find lurking around the yard or home. Following the steps listed below will decrease the likelihood of you, your children and your pets being bitten by a tick. These chemical-free methods of eliminating ticks present no danger to humans or their pets.

Note: Not only will these tricks provide fewer places for disease-carrying ticks to hide out, they also discourage an infestation of tick hosts such as rodents, squirrels, chipmunks, bats and raccoons.

* Keep grass mowed and weeds cut short. Ticks thrive in wooded, overgrown environments, so keeping your lawn trimmed low will detract from the appeal and discourage them from taking up residence there.

* Clear out brush, leaves and nesting material left behind by birds or rodents, especially around wood piles and stone walls. Always make sure the birds nests are abandoned before removing them.

* Keep wood piles and bird houses away from the house.

* Seal and screen small entry points and cracks around your house and other structures in the yard.

* Use plants in your yard which don't attract deer or install fences to keep them out. Deer are hosts to deer ticks, which are carriers of numerous diseases, such as Lyme disease.

* Trim back trees and shrubs to allow more sunlight into the yard. Ticks prefer a cool, shady and damp environment. Sunlight and hot weather will help dry them out.

* Place children's equipment like swing sets, slides and sand boxes away from wooded areas. Also, use a mulch or wood chip ground covering underneath them.

* Carefully watch pet activity. Keeping dogs and cats away from wooded areas will help reduce the ticks brought into your home.

More from this contributor:
How to protect your family from ticks and Lyme Disease
10 spring cleaning tips to save you time
Camping in the Catskills

Resource:
"Stop Ticks" from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention