Can Ticks Survive Indoors After Being Brought Inside By Pets?

Your dog flops down on the kitchen floor after taking a walk. And somewhere in that fur, maybe, is a tick that climbed on at the dog park or one of the wooded trails. So now you’re wondering: are you about to have a Fort Wayne tick control problem on your hands? Is your living room about to be surrendered to the ticks?

The short answer is probably not, but it depends on which tick we’re talking about. The exception is worth knowing about.

Most ticks cannot survive indoors, but brown dog ticks can 

Ticks are built for the outdoors, specifically for humid outdoor conditions. They lose moisture through their bodies constantly, so they need damp, leafy environments to stay alive. Your typical Fort Wayne home, with its heating, air conditioning, and dry indoor air, is rough on them.

The two ticks that people are likeliest to run into here are the blacklegged (deer) tick and the American dog tick. These ticks won’t last long loose in a house. They dry out pretty fast, so if a tick rode in on your pet, that’s the most likely outcome.

But that’s not always the case. There is one species, the brown dog tick, that can survive and even breed indoors. It tolerates the dry conditions other ticks can't, and it's especially drawn to dogs. A brown dog tick that comes inside on a pet can hide in baseboards, cracks, crates, and bedding, lay eggs, and turn into a genuine indoor problem. It's the reason why the question “can ticks live in houses?” does not get a one-word article saying, simply, “no.”

That said, brown dog ticks are a lot less common in Indiana than deer ticks or dog ticks. We don’t want to overstate the odds. But they are real, and it’s better not to find that out only after you get a tick from your couch.

How to prevent ticks from getting inside

A few habits go a long way: 

• Check your pets after every outing, especially after the river trails, tall grass, or wooded parks.
• Check yourself too. Ticks that ride in on a dog can find a person.
• Talk to your vet about a tick preventive for the animal.
• Don't crush a tick you find indoors with bare hands. Remove it carefully and dispose of it.

Your goal should be to catch ticks at the door. Or, better yet, stop them outside before your dog even picks one up. Ticks wait in the yard the same way they wait in the woods, parked on tall grass and shaded edges where the lawn meets the trees or fence.

Our tick control service, built around our barrier treatment, targets those exact resting zones to reduce the tick population in your yard. It works really well and can reduce the tick population by up to 90% for up to 21 days at a time. This is enough to meaningfully cut down how often your pets and family cross paths with one. Fewer ticks in the yard means fewer hitchhikers at the door, which lowers your exposure and risk. 

Why Trust Mosquito Squad of Northeast Indiana 

We've got dogs and wooded yards too. We check our own pets after every walk, and we treat the same ticks on our properties that we treat on yours. And what we wouldn’t want to deal with, we don’t want you to deal with either.

Want fewer ticks riding in on the dog? Start in the yard. Mosquito Squad of Northeast Indiana backs every visit with a 100% satisfaction guarantee, and we'll get your first treatment done within 48 hours, or it's free. Call (260) 204-8878 to get started.