Ticks are small blood sucking devils that come from the arachnid family of insects. They can cause all sorts of problems for you and your dog. The real danger is you or one of your family members. Because they are small and sometimes hard to spot they could be sucking on your blood for days before you even notice them. They commonly get in your hairline where they can easily hide from view. Ticks can carry Lyme disease. It’s estimated between 5 and 20 percent of all deer ticks carry Lyme disease. Left untreated can cause serious problems like blindness, muscle aches that last for years, memory loss and even death.
Tick proofing your yard the natural way can help you avoid using so many pesticides in the yard where you and your dog play. Here are some things you can do to eliminated or at least cut down on the tick problem so you can play in a safer environment with your dog.
Clean up that ugly yard
The goal here is to make the environment less desirable for the tick to want to be in your yard in the first place. Ticks hate hot and dry places so the first thing you would want to do is get rid of all underbrush, tall grass, piles of branches or any mulch beds that are in your yard. These areas make great places for ticks to live. Ticks love wet or damp dark places so by removing these things there is no desirable place for the tick to live. Don’t forget to trim over grown branches on shrubs and trees. The more shade you have the more places a tick will have to hide out so increase the light so you cut down on the damp shady areas. This will make a huge impact on the tick population in your yard.
If you have a garden in your backyard or flower bed then you can stop the ticks from crawling to these areas that you can’t prevent from being damp by putting a border of gravel or mulch around them about 2 feet wide. This will make a hot dry zone the ticks would have to cross to get in those areas coming from your lawn. Do the same for any place your yard borders with a wooded area .
Don’t attract tick carrying wildlife to your yard
Bird feeders attract wildlife to your yard. Seeds dropped by birds attract rodents that carry ticks to your yard. Move all the bird feeders away from your house and to the edge of your yard. Seal up any holes that lead up under your house or deck so tick infested rodents won’t be hanging around your yard or even worse, living under your house. Doing these simple things will cut down on ticks in your yard by more than 50 percent.
Use plants ticks don’t like to be around
Another great way to keep ticks out of your yard is to use plants in the yard that ticks don’t like to be around. Here is a list of natural tick repellent plants you could grow in your yard. By the way all these plants will add beauty to your yard along with the tick repellent properties.
• lavender
• garlic
• pennyroyal
• pyrethrum (type of crysanthemum)
• sage
• American beautyberry
• Rue (Ruta graveolens)
• Wormwood (Artemesia absinthium)
• Mint (Mentha)
• Rosemary (Rosemarinus officinalis)
• Fleabane Daisy (Erigeron speciosus)
• Mexican Marigolds (Asteraceae)
• Rose geranium
• citronella (will have to winter inside the house)
Spray your yard with natural solutions
You can also mix up a natural solution and spray your yard. I grow mint in my yard. I just pick enough to fill up a 4 quart pot then add enough water to boil it down and extract the mint oils. Then I put it into a spray bottle once it cools down and spray the yard and kennel areas with the solution. It works great and I never have ticks in my yard. Other good oils to use are Cinnamon Oil, Cedar Wood Oil and Clove Oil. You can buy these at the store and they are safer and a lot cheaper than pesticides.
[message type=”warning”]Don’t ever spray your dog with any oils without first researching them. While some oils are used in natural flea and tick sprays and are beneficial to your dog, never assume all natural oils will be good for your dog. Some dogs can have an allergic reaction to some oils or it can irritate their skin when sprayed directly on the dog. Click here to read more about the dangers . [/message]
These are some great ways to tick proof your yard without harsh chemicals. If you will do these things I have listed above I guarantee you will have less problems and in some cases completely eliminate any tick problem from your yard. Summer safety for you and your pets with a natural tick control.
