How to Get Rid of Ticks Around Your Home
If ticks are in or around your home, it’s in your best interest to get rid of them. These blood-suckers are known spread a range of illnesses such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Lyme disease. Some of these tick-borne diseases can be and have been deadly in many cases. Ticks can bite you without you even noticing. If ticks are noticeable around your property, this guide will help you in removing as many ticks as possible from your home.
How to know you have ticks:
If you have ticks around your home, chances are your yard has some brush and grass. Ticks hide out in areas with high grass or inside many bushes and trees. Knowing this, there’s an old trick you can do to see if what you’re experiencing is ticks or not. Take a white towel and tie it around a wooden stick of some sort. Holding the other end of the stick, drag the towel through the grass that you think is infested (make sure your wearing pants with high socks to do this).
This is the common way ticks cling on to people when walking through woods and such plant-heavy areas. They hide out in the tall grass and wait for a host to walk by and cling on. Then they’ll find the skin and begin their feed. When you drag this white towel through the grasses, if ticks are present they will cling onto it. Carefully observe the towel afterward and if you see ticks then, you have ticks.
The best option for getting rid of ticks:
The easiest and most efficient way to get rid of a tick infestation is by contacting a local exterminator. Ticks are a tricky and dangerous pest, it isn’t recommended to go after their elimination alone. If you don’t already have an exterminator, Exterminator Near Me is here to connect you to the best exterminator in your area. Simply go to our homepage to enter your zip code and you’ll be directed to the best local exterminator near you.
Get rid of ticks yourself:
Although it’s not highly recommended, there are some ways of combatting a tick infestation on your own. This can be done by purchasing tick control chemicals or creating a mixture spray of household items. Let’s look at the chemical first.
1. Using chemicals
Permethrin is something you can use in order to take out the adult ticks. This substance is used for a variety of pests and is extremely toxic to ticks. Simply place this in a spray bottle of some sort and start spraying EVERYWHERE that ticks could be present. This means getting all around and inside different bushes or trees and your entire lawn. By doing this, many adult ticks will be wiped out. You can buy Permethrin on Amazon here.
Permethrin will take out the adult ticks, but another substance will be needed for the immature ticks. For these, you should use an insect growth regulator, and spray the entire area once again with it. This spray will stop the smaller ticks from being able to breed and will help prevent the problem from growing. We recommend using Archer, and you can buy the insect growth regulator on Amazon here.
2. Homemade spray for ticks
Spray #1
If you want to make a spray from household items to eliminate ticks, here it is. You’ll need water, vinegar, and vegetable oil. Vinegar is a well-known tick repellent. Ticks can’t stand the smell or taste of it. Vegatable oil contains sulfur, which acts as a tick repellant as well. When you mix these substances (2 cups vinegar, 1/2 cup vegetable oil, 1.5 cups water) into a spray can, you can spray it around the tick-infested area and should see results.
This should be a last resort for getting rid of ticks but is known to be decent for repelling them.
Spray #2
Spray a mixture of soap and water. The use of a mixture of plain oil soap and water has been one of the oldest methods of eliminating ticks. When a tick is sprayed with this mixture, its breathing pores are clogged. As a result of breathing difficulties, the pesky bug should die within a few seconds. Quick and easy, however, you must find the ticks to spray them directly.
Nevertheless, this method can lead to the death of other important insects such as honeybees. It is advisable that you don’t use it on an area with such valuable insects.
Spray #3
Spray a blend of geranium and lemongrass oil. The natural smell of animals and humans attract ticks. When the smell is masked with a tick repelling fragrance, people and animals become undesirable to ticks. A blend of geranium and lemongrass oil is a very effective tick repellant. Here’s how to make it:
Put a few drops of geranium, preferably two or three into a container with a cup of water and then add two to three drops of lemongrass oil. Mix the blend properly and spray it to the areas you suspect have ticks. These places include your yard, lawn, and your pet’s resting grounds. You can even spray this mixture on your domestic animals that are vulnerable to ticks to repel the bloodsuckers as well as your own clothes and shoes, especially when going to possibly tick-infested areas.
Other ways of preventing ticks
Regular cleaning
In your yard or lawn, ticks tend to hide in stone, brick or lumber piles, among other sorts of clutter. As long as your yard has these piles, ticks will comfortably live there as they wait for hosts to pass by.
By cleaning these areas regularly, or removing them completely, you are eliminating the tick’s habitat and they will have to move elsewhere. It is suggested to clean them once every two or three weeks to destroy these ideal resting grounds for ticks. Since ticks breed most and develop faster during summer, its best to clean more often this season.
Treat your animals
Ticks frequent your home because they love the blood of your pets. Therefore, you ought to make these pets unattractive to ticks. Do that by treating all your animals against the blood-suckers using spot-on products, tick sprays, medicated collars, insecticide baths or preventative medication.
Lockout wildlife
Wild animals like cats, squirrels, and rabbits have a high chance of hosting ticks. If they come to your yard, they’re bringing these parasites there with them. Even if you treat the yard, ticks will still be present as long as these wild animals are. It is important to prevent these animals from accessing the yard, preferably by fencing it.
Alternatively, you can aim to make your home and yard less attractive to the animals. Particularly by removing access to trash and debris.
Shrub berries attract squirrels while skunks will frequent areas with grubs. Get rid of the wild animal food sources and they won’t have any reason to come.
Grow plants that repel ticks
Plants like thyme, citronella, geraniums, and eucalyptus have been found to repel an array of insects naturally. Specifically wasps, hornets, mosquitoes as well as arachnids, including ticks. Chrysanthemums too are also of great help in the fight against ticks as they contain Pyrethrin, a substance with an insecticidal property.
Growing these plants will not only repel insects but will also make your garden more beautiful! The plants also give your yard a very pleasant smell.
Make a tick barrier
It’s quite possible that you don’t have pets or wild animals frequenting in your yard to cause tick infestations. They could be coming from a source you don’t have control over, like a messy neighbor. In this case, a physical tick barrier will do the trick.
You can create a tick barrier by placing wood chips, pebbles or rocks around the perimeter of your yard or home. The ticks will not be able to cross the barrier as they’ll dry out excessively before crossing over it. Don’t be tempted to use natural elements or mulch for the barrier, that will be an invitation for more ticks. However, if you must use natural elements such as chips from cedar wood, you can make them more undesirable by spraying a natural repellant over them.
Form a perimeter
If for some reasons you can’t make a tick barrier or don’t like the idea of creating one, you can opt to form a perimeter. It surrounds your home to prevent ticks from coming to your place. The perimeter ought to a width of six inches and should be spotlessly clean, with no trace of garbage, brush, plants or leaf litter.
The cleanliness of the perimeter discourages ticks from passing through to your home. However, don’t forget to mow your lawn regularly. Even if you have the perimeter to destroy possible harborages, ticks that manage to pass through the perimeter can seek refuge.
Regular lawn mowing
Ticks like hiding and resting in shady places, perhaps because they engage in shady businesses. Generally, these bugs don’t like exposure to sunlight. They won’t have any business to do with your lawn if it doesn’t offer them a shaded environment. The best way to deny them this privilege is by mowing your lawn regularly to maximize the amount of direct sunlight it receives.
When the grass in your yard is short, the ticks hiding in it are easily spotted by predators like birds. This way, the predators will do the work of killing them. The ideal grass height is approximately two to three inches. If you keep your grass that short, you can rest assured of a significantly reduced number of ticks in your home.
Those are some of the methods that you can use to get rid of ticks in your home. Hopefully, with the information, you’ll be able to deal with the bloodsuckers once and for all.