Treat where the ticks are, not every acre. Ticks concentrate in the transition zones where lawn meets woods, in leaf litter, tall grass, and brush. Targeted barrier treatment of those zones, backed by some landscaping discipline, covers a big property where it matters the most.
Having a lot of acreage sounds like it would be a big problem. But tick control scales better than you might expect because ticks don’t spread out evenly. Open, sunny lawns dry them out. What they want instead is shade and moisture, meaning the wooded edges, stone walls, leaf litter, and the brushy strip where a mowed yard gives way to trees. There’s plenty of that to be found on the properties of Northern Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess.
This works in your favor, believe it or not. Barrier treatment applied to the transition zones and around the areas your family uses knocks down the ticks questing there and keeps working for about three weeks. The middle of a five-acre lawn barely needs a thought. The fifty feet where lawn meets treeline is where treatment needs to be focused.
Landscaping also does a good deal of quiet and unglamorous work. Regular mowing and raking of leaf litter can help a lot. Cutting back brush can too. If you have a serious tick problem, you can even add a three-foot band of wood chips or gravel between lawn and woods to make a dry moat that ticks are hesitant to cross. And on large lots, think about fencing key areas so deer can’t pass through. Deer, after all, are the primary host of ticks and they tend to shed them as they travel.
This is all worth your time, as the lower Hudson Valley unfortunately happens to be one of the hardest-hit parts of the nation when it comes to Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses. Fewer ticks on your property means fewer chances to fall ill.
No matter what, always remember to do tick checks after spending time in wooded areas. No program can pull every last tick off a property. Finding them before they have been attached for long reduces your odds of falling ill.
If you are tired of dealing with tons of ticks on your property, Mosquito Squad of Northern Westchester can help. Mosquito Squad targets the transition zones where ticks live, helping protect your property with up to 90% reduction in pest activity on a recurring 21-day cycle.
