Go Zone Defense Make Your Yard Tick Unfriendly

Ticks live among us.  They carry diseases.  Tick born infections can be devastating. If you have chronic lyme and other tick born infections you know how serious this is. If you haven’t congratulations, you don’t want any part of tick born infections. Awareness and Prevention are key. Have you made your yard tick unfriendly?

Set up a zone defense to create a sanctuary for you and your family.

Many people think ticks only live in the woods and grassy meadows.This is not true. Ticks are found in backyards and city parks as well as woodlands and meadows. They hang where their primary food sources like mice and deer hang.  They also feed opportunistically on us if we happen by when they need a blood meal. Click this link for some basic information on tick behavior.

Protect Yourself From Tick Bites

Property & Personal protection habits are important to keep tick bites to a minimum. Use the level and type of protection that makes sense based on where you live. Make you and your yard tick unfriendly.

Take Back Your Yard From Ticks

Design and landscape your yard to clear ticks out of your intimate outdoor space. Make the area repellent to them and garner the benefits of reduced exposure. The CDC and other researchers suggest you set up a zone defense to deter ticks entering your yard. Here are some key things to put in place to make your yard less hospitable to tick hosts and ticks.

Develop A Zone Defense For Your Property

Tick Unfriendly Steps Urban Property no nearby woods

• Remove leaf litter.
• Clear tall grasses and brush around homes and at the edge of lawns.
• Limit use of ground cover near the house where mice can hide.
• Mow the lawn frequently.
• Stack wood neatly and in a dry area (discourages rodents) away from house
• Keep playground equipment, decks, and patios away from yard edges and trees.
• Discourage stranger animals (like deer, raccoons, and stray dogs) from entering your yard by constructing fences. They are potential tick vectors.
• Remove old furniture, mattresses, or trash from the yard that may give ticks a place to hide.
• Encourage tons of natural sunlight.

Country property or bordered by woods

• Remove leaf litter.
• Clear tall grasses and brush around homes and at the edge of lawns.
• Limit use of ground cover near the house where mice can hide.
• Keep grass short. Mow the lawn frequently.
• Stack wood neatly and in a dry area (discourages rodents) away from house
• Keep playground equipment, decks, and patios away from yard edges and trees.
• Discourage stranger animals (like deer, raccoons, and stray dogs) from entering your yard by constructing fences.
• Keep family animals in the safe zones with an electric or physical fence.
• Remove old furniture, mattresses, or trash from the yard that may give ticks a place to hide.
• Move wood piles or rock walls away from the house safe zone.
• Consider a stone patio and walkways to get to different areas of the yard.
• 9 feet of grass outside of safe zone.
• 3 foot wood chip barrier between lawn and woods.

 

You may need to shift these dimensions based on the size of your property. Check this to see more details on the CDC recommendations.

Layer Additional Protection As Needed

Layer a personal protection strategy and yard based deterrents like “tick tubes” on top of this zone defense for an even stronger approach to managing the tick exposure. During your next fall clean up, organize your yard with a zone defense in mind to make your yard tick unfriendly, so you and your family can enjoy and use your yard with more security.

The purpose of this post is to share and educate on Lyme disease prevention and recovery strategies. The information provided on this website is not a substitute for professional medical care, treatment or advice. All the material here is for information purposes only. Always share strategy and work with your health care team.