Ticks can be really dangerous. These nasty little pests may be small, but they can cause big health problems. In some areas of the country, depending on the time of year, nearly half of ticks can be infected with diseases like Lyme – an infection that can result in fever, headache and many other unpleasant symptoms. Lyme disease affects an estimated 300,000 people in the U.S. every year, primarily in the Northeast and upper Midwest.
These small critters bite to fasten themselves onto the skin and feed on blood. Bites most often occur during early spring to late summer. Many of the diseases ticks carry, including Lyme disease, bring on flu-like symptoms, such as nausea, headache, fever, vomiting and muscle aches. Other common tick-borne diseases include Colorado tick fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, relapsing fever, tularemia, ehrlichiosis, and babesiosis.
Reducing ticks in your yard means making your yard less attractive to ticks, and less attractive to animals that carry ticks, like mice and deer. Using natural ways to keep ticks out of your garden is a far better way to tackle the problem.
1. Mow the lawn
Start by getting rid of tall grass and brush, especially at the edge of your lawn, to eliminate ticks’ favorite hangout spots. Also clean up leaf litter, and instead of tossing grass clippings and leaves into the garbage, add them to your compost pile and use the rich soil amendment in your garden. After they dry, grass clippings make great mulch that can help keep weeds from sprouting and help the soil retain water.
Also, prune any low lying bushes to let in more sunlight, which keeps the yard from being so damp and shady, so ticks will be less attracted to the area.
2. Keep woodpiles neat and organized
Ticks can often be found crawling around sloppy woodpiles in shaded areas. If you keep the wood neatly stacked and in a spot that gets some sun, it’ll dry out faster. Those moist, wood areas are popular with ticks, but dry, sunny spots are not.
3. Use organic pesticides
Garlic, which is well-known to keep mosquitos away, can work on ticks too. The best way to use it, is to make a garlic spray and spray down your yard and garden.
Ingredients:
- four garlic cloves,
- a tablespoon of mineral oil,
- a teaspoon of dish soap,
- some water.
Mince the garlic cloves and then combine it with the mineral oil. Let the mixture to sit for a day.
Strain out the minced garlic and then add the oil that remains and a teaspoon of dish soap to 2 cups of water.
As your garlic mixture is now in a concentrated form, you need to dilute it before use. Do so by filling up a spray bottle with 2 cups of water, and then add in 2 tablespoons of the concentrated mixture.
Shake to mix just before using. Be sure to test a little on small parts of your plants, and wait a day or two to make sure they aren’t damaged. If you do notice yellowing or damage, dilute your spray more by adding water.
4. Let the chickens help you
If you can invest in a few chickens, raising chickens will not only provide you with a fresh source of eggs, but the animals will help you get rid of the ticks on your property.
5. Make paths uncomfortable on bare feet
Ticks don’t like to cross paths that are lined with rough things, like gravel or wood chips. It’s kind of like a human walking on glass, not a very pleasant experience. Place a gravel or wood chip buffer zone between your lawns and wooded areas to help keep ticks from crossing onto your property.
6. Maximize sunlight
Ticks need an environment of high humidity in order to survive. That means you’ll not only have to take care of your woodpile. Pruning back trees limbs and removing any other shade will help to keep the tick population down, in order to keep your “safe zone” as sunny as possible.
