Yes, deer ticks often survive easily under damp leaf piles. Shaded leaf piles hold heat in the winter and stay cool in the summer, and they hold humidity which keeps ticks from drying out.
If your goal were to get a tick to bite you, rolling in damp piles of leaves would be one of the best ways to do it. The folk wisdom of staying away from damp leaves to avoid being bitten has some serious evidence behind it.
Ticks dry out easily in the sun. Sunny open lawns are not great places for them to survive long term. They need to stay in humid, shaded places instead. That’s why they tend to go for places like tall grass and the edge of woods. Damp leaves are more than suitable.
Blacklegged ticks, which are the ones that carry Lyme disease, do not die off in the winter. They shelter in places like leaf litter. It keeps them cool in the summer and warm in the winter. On any winter or early spring day above freezing, adults climb back onto vegetation and quest for a host.
Leaf piles also have a tendency to pull in white-footed mice as well. These are the main hosts for immature ticks and the main reservoir for the bacterium responsible for Lyme disease. Those very same mice forage in leaf litter. And the same is true for chipmunks and deer, both of which are also notoriously common hosts for ticks.
As for you, one of the best things you can do to reduce ticks on your property is rake or blow leaf litter out of the areas your family uses. Don’t pile leaves at the edge of the lawn and leave them through winter.
If ticks are turning up around your yard, Mosquito Squad of Fenton - Brighton can help. Mosquito Squad treats the leaf litter and shaded edges where ticks wait for a host. This will help you protect your family with up to 90% reduction in pest activity on a recurring cycle.
