Ticks are a familiar risk in the Kansas City area, especially during spring and summer. Protecting your home against tick infestations is important for your family’s health, as they carry many dangerous diseases that can affect both people and household pets.
If you’ve dealt with a tick infestation in the past that seems to come back every summer, the issue may be your tick control approach. Understanding the tick life cycle — and the most effective professional, long-term treatments — will help you find lasting relief against these dangerous pests.
The Tick Life Cycle: Why Do Infestations Rebound?
Ticks go through four stages, each requiring a blood meal to progress to the next. Ticks start their lives as eggs, which adult females lay in shaded, damp areas like beneath yard debris or under wood piles. When these eggs hatch, the emerging six-legged larvae (also known as “seed ticks”) will seek a small rodent, like mice and rats, for their first blood meal. Bats and squirrels are other possibilities for this first meal, so long as they’re smaller and accessible to the larvae.
Once the larva has satisfied its thirst, it will drop off the host and molt, becoming an eight-legged nymph. Ticks are hardier in this third stage of the life cycle and will look for a blood meal from a slightly larger mammal, like cats, small dogs, or raccoons. After this feed, the nymph molts and becomes an adult tick.
Adult ticks are especially problematic for two reasons. First, they go after larger hosts like big dogs and humans. Second, this is the life stage when they search for a mate to continue the life cycle with a new clutch of eggs. A female adult tick can lay thousands of eggs, which can become a large problem if they hatch in your yard. The whole life cycle can take up to two years, with ticks going dormant in winter and becoming most active from April through July.
Why “One Product” Approaches Fail to Eliminate Ticks
A tick infestation can be challenging to tackle, especially if you’re trying to do it yourself without professional help. Ticks are very mobile because of how they latch onto a host and stay until engorged, dropping off in a new location. While many treatments are available to keep your pets from bringing ticks home, ticks may still arrive via other wildlife entering your yard and delivering ticks.
Many over-the-counter tick prevention products won’t work for every tick species or life stage either. One treatment may manage to eradicate a batch of adults, but the eggs or nymphs could survive and start a new infestation the following summer. Many tick products can also cause harm to otherwise beneficial insects like honeybees or butterflies, making them problematic for the ecosystem of your yard.
Professional Tick Treatment: The Only Strategy for Full Control
Keeping wildlife out and maintaining a well-manicured yard can go a long way toward safeguarding your outdoor spaces. But the only surefire way to protect your household against ticks is with professional intervention.
Advantage Termite and Pest Control offers flea, tick, and mosquito control in Kansas City with custom treatment plans to address all the most common and irritating yard pests. Professional tick treatment offers protection that you simply cannot achieve by any other means. Here is what you can expect when you choose Advantage for tick control:
- Customized Plan: Our pest control technicians will identify the tick species you’re dealing with and the danger zones on your property, using the right treatments to target the infestation.
- Professional-Grade Treatments: Using professional-grade treatments that are backed by research, our services won’t wash away in the next rainstorm.
- Ongoing Support: When you sign up for the program, you get more than a one-and-done treatment. We will regularly inspect your yard for pest problems, eliminating ticks and other yard pests before they can multiply into a new infestation.
- Comprehensive Control: We won’t just stop at ticks. As your preferred pest control service in Kansas City, we will take care of all of your pest prevention needs, including removing wildlife that could contribute to tick problems.
By choosing professional tick treatment, you are choosing a safer yard for your family and pets by reducing the risk of reinfestation and trusting the experts to address existing pest issues.
Tick Control Services in Kansas City
If ticks are showing up on your pets or members of your household, Advantage Termite and Pest Control offers Kansas City tick control services built to break the cycle for long-lasting relief. Don’t hesitate to contact Advantage if you’re concerned about ticks in your outdoor spaces. Call us at first sight – we do it right!
