Tick Prevention Tips for Families in Kansas City

With tick season running from spring until fall in the Kansas City area, you’ll need a plan to combat ticks this season (and every season). Unfortunately, several tick species (deer ticks and lone star ticks) in our area pose a frightening concern to daily life. 

Getting a tick bite may seem like “not a big deal,” but one tick bite has the potential to alter your life completely. Many ticks carry Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Lone star ticks, in particular, are aggressive biters most commonly found in the Kansas City metro area. They transmit ehrlichiosis (which causes fever and muscle aches) and alpha-gal syndrome (which causes severe allergic reactions to non-poultry meats and dairy). 

Playing outside, having a backyard barbecue, and lying outside on the grass are all activities in which a tick could attach to you (or a member of your family). That’s why it’s more important than ever to have a tick control plan in place before peak season hits. 

Plan Daily Tick Checks

Ticks never bite immediately upon contact. They typically climb and search for a place to bite, which gives you a window to find and remove them before they go all in. This is why daily checks are more than necessary during tick season. 

Make sure to check for areas where ticks often attach: 

• The hairline
• Behind the ears
• Underarms
• Waistband
• Between the toes

Check kids thoroughly after outdoor play, and don't skip the pets either. Pets can carry ticks inside and transfer them to furniture and family members without anyone realizing it.

Children who play in yards that border wooded areas, parks, or brushy edges are at elevated risk. Ticks climb onto hosts from vegetation at knee height and below, which puts kids in danger while they’re minding their own business. Having the tick check as an end-of-day routine (before anyone sits on the couch for the night) will do far more good than you’d think. 

Keep Your Lawn Short

Ticks prefer a messy, unkempt yard. They love the moist, shaded cover of tall grass, leaf litter, and dense ground-level vegetation. 

So, keeping your grass mowed consistently through tick season removes the habitat ticks depend on. And raking up that leaf litter from garden beds and yard edges tells ticks to get lost. 

Sticking to these seasonal habits will take work, but you’ll definitely see less of those tiny, disease-causing critters. 

Have a Dry, Sunny Barrier

Does your Kansas City property border wooded land, a park, or brushy areas? If so, you might consider creating a dry barrier between your lawn and the ticks’ habitat. 

A strip of gravel or wood chips (three feet wide is the general recommendation) creates a zone that ticks are reluctant to cross. Ticks travel into your yard through vegetation in the wooded or brushy areas. So, a dry, hot-to-the-touch barrier interrupts that migration.

Combined with lawn maintenance and professional tick control, a dry barrier adds a passive layer of protection that works around the clock without any ongoing effort on your part.

Plan Recurring Tick Treatments

Personal habits and yard maintenance go a long way, but they work best along with professional treatment that targets ticks directly. 

Mosquito Squad's Yard Defender program treats the vegetation, wooded borders, and ground-level areas where ticks love to be. And we keep coming back. 

Our goal is to keep you on a recurring schedule that maintains protection through Kansas City's full spring-to-fall tick season. This way, you have more peace of mind as your family goes out to play during the warmer months. 

For additional family-friendly prevention tips, Mosquito Squad's 6 C's of Tick Control offers a practical framework that’s worth a read before peak season hits. 

Want to help protect your Kansas City family from ticks? Call Mosquito Squad of Kansas City at (913) 421-8018 or contact us online for a free quote.