How to Tick-Proof Your Yard: 3 Steps

 

Wearing family-safe tick repellents serves two primary functions: It protects against potentially dangerous bites and prevents you, your family, or pets from bringing ticks back into your lawn or home.

Before walks in tall grass, lawn work, and other outdoor explorations, apply Cedarcide Original or Tickshield to all members of the family to help keep them free of tick bites. 

It’s also essential to check everyone for ticks before returning home or walking through your lawn. Not sure how? Click here to learn how to check your family and pets for ticks and how to safely remove a tick should you find one.

 

 

Moisture, wildlife, and clutter—those are the big three you have to worry about. Without water, animals to feed on, and places to hide and breed, ticks will have little interest in your lawn. Anything that adds unnecessary moisture, invites wild animals, or offers shelter needs to go.
Here are the primary things you need to do:

• Keep your grass and shrubbery cleanly manicured. Any overgrowth or tall grass is just asking for tick problems. Mow, weedeat, and trim shrubbery as necessary. 
• When doing lawn work, always bag your clippings. Keeping them in or around your yard is like setting up little tick condos. Mulch made from anything but cedarwood is equally problematic, especially when moist. 
• It’s simple: drier yards have fewer ticks. Remove or repair superfluous water sources like leaky hoses, sprinklers, clogged drainage areas, and anything that collects rainwater. Avoid overwatering, too.
• Remove clutter like woodpiles, brush, leaves, and old, unused gear and equipment. These make for excellent tick hiding spots. 

DETER WILD ANIMALS

Wild animals like deer and raccoons commonly introduce ticks into our lawns & gardens. Here are some tips for keeping these tick-carriers away from your premises.

• Consider rescuing a new dog best friend. Dogs and their urine are known wildlife deterrents, as canines are natural predators for many of these animals. Just make sure your dog commonly wears tick repellent or they’ll become a tick-carrier, too. 
• Seriously consider installing fencing, especially if your space is surrounded by a wooded area. If you already have fencing, frequently check it for damage and other openings animals could use to enter your lawn.
• Replace or remove plants that commonly attract animals into your lawn, like beans, roses, corn, tulips, peas, apples and other fruit. Fencing off your garden with something like chicken wire is another effective approach.
• Other plants like chives, lemon balm, lilac, holly, iris, and sage are said to help deter deer, perhaps the most infamous of tick-carrying animals. Consider installing these plants throughout your space for added protection.
• Tightly seal outdoor trash cans and recycling bins, or consider storing them in your garage or storage shed, especially during the spring, summer, and fall.

 

It might sound like a lot but our family-safe lawn spray PCO Choice does all three. It’s also pet-safe and targets ticks in every stage of life—egg, larva, nymph, and adult. 

If you’ve already spotted ticks in your lawn or garden, start by thoroughly spraying your front, side, and back yards all in one session to kill and repel ticks (don’t forget shrubbery, bushes, and small trees, too). Repeat this process again in two weeks, and then proceed to monthly PCO Choice applications after that. If you’ve yet to see a tick and you’re simply looking for prevention, move on to monthly applications right from the start. Because ticks can live all year long, even in freezing conditions, we strongly suggest sticking to monthly applications all twelve months of the year. 

Because PCO Choice is plant-based and family-safe, no downtime is necessary. You, your family, and pets can enjoy your lawn right after application!

 

 

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