The Best Tick Control Is Prevention

It’s that time of year again: tick season — when the black-legged (aka, deer), lone star and other ticks are an issue and the risk of tick-borne diseases, such as Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever, are on the rise. The best way to keep ticks off of you, your family and your pets is to control the tick population in your yard and take preventative measures when outdoors.

Within this post you’ll find:

• Yard Tick Prevention
• People Tick Prevention
• Pet Tick Prevention
• Tick Removal Tools
• How To Remove A Tick

To learn what types of ticks live in your area, check the CDC’s list of Regions Where Ticks Live. They also have a list of Diseases Transmitted by Ticks.

Yard Tick Prevention

You can do things to make your yard less inviting to ticks, and they work. I know because we use the methods below to control the tick population in our heavily wooded yard and, in all the years we’ve lived here, I’ve only found one tick on one of my daughters.

Professional Tick Treatment

You can hire a lawn company to professionally apply a tick pesticide treatment to your property. We use Save-A-Lawn to treat our yard and find it to be effective. We also disperse tick control tubes (below) around the perimeter of our property.

Personally Treat Your Property

We buy Thermacell Tick Control Tubes every Spring to treat our property ourselves. The biodegradable tubes contain cotton balls treated with an insecticide. We place the tubes in areas that attract mice, such as our firewood pile, garden, rock walls, etc. Then the mice take the treated cotton balls and use them to make their nests cozy. It’s there in the nest the ticks die so the mice aren’t bringing them into the yard.

People Tick Prevention

Tick exposure can happen any time you’re in or near grassy areas, not just in the woods. Here are a few things you can do to prevent ticks from getting on you and your loved ones.

• Cover Up — Wear light colored clothing, especially when gardening, camping or hiking, so ticks are easier to spot. Minimize skin exposure by wearing long pants, a long sleeved shirt, boots that cover your ankles, and white socks. If you’ll be walking off trail, tuck your pants into your socks.
• Apply Repellent — The tick repellents featured below are recommended by Consumer Reports, Prevention, and other editorials, and I’ve found them for you at the best prices, below.
  • DEET — Use an insect repellent (spray, lotion or wipe) that contains between 20 to 30 percent of DEET. It can be applied to skin and clothing, but it is not be applied under clothes. Avoid using on synthetic fabrics or plastic, like watchbands.
  • Permethrin — If you’re going to be outside for an extended period of time, camping or hunting, for instance, consider treating your clothes with permethrin, a strong insecticide. This is serious stuff, it is not to be applied to the skin.
  • Natural Alternatives — Some essential oils are somewhat effective, according to the CDC and EPA, but will need to be reapplied more often.
• Check Yourself — After being outside, check clothes and skin to see if there are any ticks. Remove crawling and embedded ticks as soon as possible (see tick removal tools below) and properly dispose of them.
  • Per the CDC, “In most cases, the tick must be attached for 36 to 48 hours or more before the Lyme disease bacterium can be transmitted.” If you find a tick that you think has been embedded for more than 36 to 48 hours, watch for signs and symptoms of Lyme disease.
• Shower — Whenever possible, shower soon after being outside and check yourself again. Pay extra attention to places ticks favor: in/around ears, hair, under arms, back of knees, groin, waist, and inside the belly button.

Make sure any insect repellent you use is approved by the US Environmental Protection Agency. They have a search tool on their site you can access by clicking here.

Pet Tick Prevention

Dogs and horses are the most likely pets to get Lyme disease from ticks. Horses are always outside, but your dog can pick up ticks anytime you walk him and bring them into your home.

• Check — Just as you check yourself and your kids, always check your pets for ticks. Remove crawling and embedded ticks as soon as possible (see tick removal tools below) and properly dispose of them.
• Dogs — Not only can dogs bring ticks into your home, they too can get Lyme disease. So it’s important to use some type of tick prevention. We use Seresto’s Flea and Tick Collar on our dog from April through September. We’ve been using it for years and find it definitely helps.
  • There are countless tick prevention products for dogs. Find one you like and stick with it, or ask your vet.
  • For Lyme disease symptoms in dogs, please refer to this article at PetMD.
• Cats — While Lyme disease is less common in cats, they can still carry ticks into your home.
  • If you start to see ticks on your cat regularly, consider a tick collar or other form of tick prevention. There are several products available for cats or speak with your vet for recommendations.
  • For more information on cats and Lyme disease, start with this article on Fetch by WebMD.

Tick Removal Tools

My dog is almost 10 years old and I hike him in the woods every day. Since he’s off leash, he gets into all sorts of stuff and inevitably picks up ticks. While I always check him and myself before we head home, I occasionally miss one and find it later in the day. That’s when a good tick removal tool is essential.

Thanks to his tick collar, the tick usually dies before it can get engorged. Depending on the size of the tick and where it is, I use either a tweezer or scooper to remove it. All of the products below work on both people and pets.

How to Remove A Tick

• If you can, sterilize the tick removal tool with rubbing alcohol before you use it.
• I find wiping the tick and surrounding area with an alcohol pad before removal makes the tick release so you’re sure to get the head out when you remove it.
• Get as close to the skin with the tool as possible and slowly but firmly lift straight up.
• After removing the tick, use an alcohol pad to clean the bite site.
• Dispose of the tick by flushing it down the toilet, wrap it tightly in tape before throwing it in the trash, or drown it in rubbing alcohol or soapy water.

I hope these preventative measures help you, your family and pet stay tick-free.

All items are in stock (unless noted otherwise) at time of publication.