Here in New England, ticks are a major problem, and they are no longer only a warm-weather concern. Some ticks can remain active during milder stretches of winter, making year-round awareness increasingly important for homeowners in our region.
Like a lot of people, you might be wondering how to control ticks in your yard.
After all, you deserve some peace of mind when trying to enjoy time on your property. That’s why we’re talking about how to keep ticks out of your yard. While no solution is going to be 100 percent foolproof, there are definitely some ways that you can drastically reduce the population of ticks on your New England property.
The best way to get rid of ticks in your yard is to make your property less inviting to them. This includes keeping your grass and brush trimmed, cleaning up leaves and other debris, maintaining your wood pile, and considering professional tick treatments. Combining these steps can help you reduce tick populations and feel more comfortable spending time outside.
Where Do Ticks Hide in Your Yard?
Before we get into how to keep ticks out of your yard, it helps to know where they might be hiding.
Ticks prefer cool, shady, and humid areas. You’re more likely to find them in tall grass, piles of leaves, brush, wooded borders, stone walls, wood piles, and overgrown landscape beds than in the middle of a sunny, well-maintained lawn.
Knowing where ticks are most likely to hang out can help you focus your yard cleanup and tick control efforts in the places where they’ll have the biggest impact.
How to Prevent Ticks in Your Yard
These tips will help you take back control and reduce the populations of ticks around your property.
#1: Trim Tall Grasses and Clear Brush
One of the ways to keep ticks from hanging around your property is to eliminate their habitat. You might be wondering what attracts ticks to your yard in the first place. Well, in most cases they are simply seeking out hiding places where they can hang out and look for their next blood meal.
Ticks prefer tall grasses and brush as they are sensitive to dry conditions and want to be shaded from the sun. They also use tall grass and brush to climb onto their next victim.
Keeping your yard regularly mowed and clearing excess brush is a great way to reduce the potential tick habitat on your property.
It’s important to be especially aware of wooded “border areas.” If your property backs up to the woods, this area is going to be a hot spot for ticks. The CDC recommends creating a three-foot-wide barrier of gravel or wood chips between lawns and wooded areas to help keep ticks out of your yard.
#2: Maintain Your Wood Pile
When it comes to how to prevent ticks in your yard, you need to think about what might attract them there in the first place. As we mentioned, ticks are constantly in search of their next host (or “meal”). Because of that, they are often seeking rodents like mice, rats, and voles.
Uncovered wood piles are a prime hang-out spot for rodents as it has everything they need to survive (shelter, water, and food, in the form of grubs and insects). An unattended wood pile can easily become a habitat for rodent nests which could increase your problem with ticks.
Take care to cover your wood pile. Just be sure to keep airflow moving to the wood. Stack wood neatly so that it does not have big gaps where rodents can form nests. Also, seek out a dry area for the wood pile that is away from the house or human hang-out areas whenever possible.
#3: Keep a Clean Yard
We already mentioned that tall grass and brush make prime habitats for ticks. But any yard debris you leave on your property can also become a tick shelter. Take time to pick up sticks and leaves left sitting on your property. Also, remove any trash that might have blown into your yard.
These are tasks that you likely want to be doing anyways in order to maintain a neat and tidy property. But they can also help prevent excess ticks from taking up residence in your yard.
#4: Invest in Tick Control Services in Southern NH, ME, and MA
Even when you stay on top of mowing, brush removal, and yard cleanup, ticks can still find places to hide. This is especially true if your property has wooded borders, shady landscape beds, stone walls, or areas where wildlife frequently passes through.
That’s why you might also want to consider investing in a professional tick control service.
Professional treatments can target the parts of your property where ticks are most likely to live and travel. This includes wooded edges, brushy borders, landscape beds, stone walls, and other cool, shaded areas.
This is important because ticks in New England have been known to carry dangerous diseases like Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. It can be difficult to relax when you have to worry about these pests possibly lurking in your own backyard.
While no tick control method can promise to eliminate every tick, combining professional treatments with good yard maintenance can help you drastically reduce tick populations around your home.
Frequently Asked Questions About Ticks in Your Yard
What attracts ticks to your yard?
Ticks are attracted to areas that provide shade, moisture, shelter, and access to animals that can serve as hosts. Tall grass, leaf piles, brush, wood piles, wooded borders, rodents, deer, and other wildlife can all contribute to tick activity around your property.
Will mowing the lawn get rid of ticks?
Regular mowing can make your lawn less inviting to ticks, but mowing alone is not going to get rid of all of them. Ticks can still hide in leaf litter, landscape beds, brush, stone walls, and wooded areas around the edges of your property.
Where should your yard be treated for ticks?
Tick treatments should focus on the places where ticks are most likely to live and travel. This can include wooded borders, brushy areas, shady landscape beds, stone walls, and the edges of outdoor areas where your family spends time.
Gain Peace of Mind and Keep Ticks Out of Your Yard With Seacoast Turf Care
At Seacoast Turf Care, serving Southern NH, Southern ME, and Northeastern MA, we use targeted tick treatments to help drastically reduce these pests around your property. That means you can spend more time outside and less time worrying about what might be hiding in the grass or around the edges of your yard.
Our highly trained technicians know where ticks are most likely to hide and which areas of your property need the most attention. Targeting wooded borders, shady landscape beds, stone walls, and other common tick habitats can make a major difference in the success of your tick control program.
While pests like ticks can be a major source of stress, you can make smart choices that will help protect your family. This means you can get back to enjoying more time outside.
Want to stop worrying about the danger of ticks on your NH, ME, or MA property? Get tick control pricing today.
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