Best Tick Repellents For Your Yard
Ticks are insidious pests. They’re incredibly small, which makes them hard to notice even if one has latched on to you or your pet. Ticks are also known for carrying a plethora of diseases, from inconvenient to deadly.
The good news is, proven modern tick repellents allow humans and pets to explore your yard or lounge around the lawn without worrying about picking up a potentially dangerous little passenger.
Types of Tick Repellents
Tick Tubes
Tick tubes are highly recommended by pest control experts because toxic chemicals aren’t sprayed into the air. Instead, other household pests to do the dirty work.
“Tick tubes are brilliant because they actually use mice and other rodents, which ticks love, to carry lethal repellent to the ticks,” says Paul Johnson, founder of the Tick and Mosquito Project. “You set the tick tubes in areas where you feel rodents are likely to gather, and they will get the active ingredient (permethrin) to the ticks.”
Six Thermacell Tick Control Tubes cover a 1/4-acre backyard. They only need to be applied twice a year — once in the early spring, and once in the summer.
Tick Sprays
There are some sprays homeowners can apply to their lawns to prevent ticks, but be careful about the chemicals in some of them. Look for sprays that list all the ingredients on their packaging, so you’re certain about the safety and effectiveness of what you’re about to spritz all across your lawn.
“Ensure you read all safety information on the label, and spray all bushes and shrubs near your home, and the perimeter of your lawn,” says Burns Blackwell, owner of Terminix-Triad. “It’s usually not necessary to spray the entirety of your lawn because ticks travel, and most often live in bushes and shrubs to begin with.”
EcoLogic’s ready-to-spray Lawn Insect Killer is a safe and effective option that uses natural active ingredients like cornmint oil and peppermint oil to eliminate all kinds of insects, not just ticks. One bottle covers up to 5,000 sq. ft.
Lawn Care Tips for Repelling Ticks
There are also a few things you can do as part of your regular lawn maintenance to help reduce your backyard’s tick population without using pesticides. The simplest method: Cutting the grass more often.
“Ticks thrive in tall grass,” says Dan Bailey, president of WikiLawn. “They’re too exposed when the grass is well-maintained, and will avoid your yard in favor of other spaces that remind them of their usual wooded habitat.”
Bailey also recommends adding more mulch or stone landscaping fixtures to limit tick options for habitable environments. “Wood chips will be the best choice for most lawns as they make an attractive barrier for edging,” says Bailey. “They also strongly discourage ticks from crossing into your yard.”
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