Finding a tick on yourself, a family member, or your pet is a startling experience! These little pests are prone to carrying and transmitting several diseases that can be harmful and even long-lasting. As with all household and yard pests, the best thing you can do to protect your household from ticks is to practice good prevention. Here’s what you can do to make outdoor spaces less inviting to ticks and reduce the risk of bites during the warmer months.
Why Are Ticks Dangerous?
Ticks are small and easy to miss, and they can show up anywhere. There are five different varieties of ticks in the Kansas City area, all of which are carriers for at least a couple of different diseases, from the infamous Lyme disease to many other parasites, bacteria, and viruses. Two other common diseases associated with ticks are babesiosis and anaplasmosis.
Think ticks are only a problem in rural areas? Think again. A recent study found ticks are present in every county in the state of Missouri, and they’re prevalent across the state of Kansas. The most prevalent ticks in Missouri and Kansas are Lone star tick (Amblyomma americanum), American dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis) and Deer tick (blacklegged tick).
While the diseases ticks carry can be dangerous, not every tick carries a disease, and even those that do usually won’t transmit the disease on initial bite. A disease is more likely to be transmitted if a tick has been allowed to embed itself in its host for 24 hours or more.
Tick Prevention: Seven Tips for Protecting Your Yard
Even though you’re not guaranteed to get sick from a tick bite, they’re still best avoided! Here are seven things you can do for tick prevention to keep your yard and household safe:
1. Wildlife Prevention
The most common way ticks get into residential yards is through wildlife carrying them around, especially deer and mice. Preventing wildlife from waltzing through your property by putting up fencing and eliminating food sources for rodents and other wildlife will go a long way toward reducing the chances of ticks moving in. While a fence won’t keep out all wildlife, as squirrels and raccoons can easily climb over, you can still take steps to make your yard unappealing to any rodents or other critters!
2. Maintain Your Lawn
Good lawn maintenance greatly reduces occurrences of yard pests by eliminating common attractants like food sources, moisture, and cool places to hide. Keep your grass trimmed to only a few inches long and weed regularly so ticks don’t have anywhere cool and moist to call home.
3. Create a Mulch Border
A mulch border is a physical barrier that prevents ticks from crossing over into the rest of your yard by creating a dry, hot space they would have to traverse to reach your lawn. Ticks cannot thrive in such dry conditions, so you’ve created a tick-free zone so long as they aren’t carried over by wildlife!
But be careful which type of mulch you choose. When creating a mulch border, use mulch made from large, dry wood chips or bark. The damp, shredded variety will have the opposite effect, creating a tick playground!
4. Clear Out Natural Debris
Piles of grass clippings, dead leaves, and other natural debris tend to compress and create cool, moist zones for pests to hang out. Keep your yard clear of this debris by composting it or using a yard waste removal service.
5. Prune Trees and Bushes
If your yard is particularly bushy or rife with foliage, ticks may be waiting at the end of branches and leaves to jump on a potential host. Keeping trees and bushes trimmed back from pathways where people and pets may brush against them will reduce the chances of anyone picking up a tick hiding out there. It will also help tidy up natural debris!
6. Keep Wood Piles Warm and Dry
If you have firewood or another woodpile in your yard, keep it warm and dry to eliminate another potential hangout spot for ticks. On a sunny day, expose the wood to the sun to ensure every piece is fully dry. On rainy days, cover the wood with a tarp to prevent moisture from soaking in. In addition to reducing the chances of termites, keeping wood piles dry will also help prevent subterranean termites, who prefer damp wood.
7. Invest in Year-Round Lawn Care and Pest Control
Working with a trusted pest control and lawn maintenance company ensures that you won’t have to worry about yard pests like fleas, ticks, and even mosquitoes! At Advantage Termite and Pest Control, we offer several lawn care services from fertilization and weed control to verti-cutting and aeration to keep your yard clean, beautiful, and tick-free! When the hot summer months start to approach, we’ll treat your yard to prevent ticks and the pests that carry them, giving you a beautiful outdoor oasis to enjoy worry-free.
If you’re worried about ticks and other harmful Kansas City yard pests getting close to you and your household this summer, don’t hesitate to take advantage (pun intended) of our flea, tick, and mosquito control services and contact us to sign up for one of our pest control programs. Call us at first sight—we do it right!
