Yes, you can catch Lyme disease from a deer tick picked up in a suburban yard. Deer and white-footed mice move freely throughout suburban lots and regularly bring deer ticks along with them.
You might think Lyme disease is a rural or up-north problem, but that’s an unfortunate out-of-date assumption. In Michigan, deer ticks are all over the suburbs. You can catch Lyme disease in your own backyard.
Ticks travel by host, and the suburbs are full of them. Deer and white-footed mice move freely from lot to lot. As they travel, they shake off ticks. And those ticks can live comfortably in plantings along house foundations and in woodpiles in the same way they would in tall grass or on the trails.
That doesn’t mean you can’t do anything about it, though. The first thing to understand is that ticks need shade and humidity. They will dry out in the hot sun pretty easily, so open and mowed lawns are quite hostile to them. It’s the shaded edges near the fence lines and landscaping that tend to be riskier. If your property backs up to the woods, that’s also a common place where ticks tend to gather. Once you understand this, it makes it clear why certain actions you can take matter.
The first is to mow the grass and rake or blow leaves. This alone can take away much of the shaded, humid cover that ticks need to survive. If you have woods next to your property and lawn maintenance alone won’t keep the ticks away, you can put down a three foot dry barrier of wood chips or gravel where lawn meets brush. If you plan to leave your property or do yard work, you can use repellent with DEET or picaridin.
And above all, check for ticks after spending time outdoors. If you find ticks and remove them promptly, your odds of falling ill go down a lot.
If ticks are showing up in your suburban yard, Mosquito Squad of Metro Detroit can help. Mosquito Squad treats the shaded edges and ground cover 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.
