Can You Spray Your Yard for Mosquitoes and Ticks?

Yes. Spraying yards for mosquitoes and ticks has become a common practice for many homeowners.

There are a couple of reasons to deploy mosquito and tick control. These pests are bothersome, but can also be dangerous. Both mosquitoes and ticks are vectors of insect-borne illnesses. These include Lyme disease, West Nile virus, babesiosis, and dreaded heartworm disease in pets.

ticks and mosquitoes can be sprayed for — Can you spray for ticks and mosquitoes?

How long does tick and mosquito spray last?

While spraying can effectively reduce mosquito and tick populations in treated areas, its efficacy may vary depending on factors such as application technique, weather conditions, and the specific species present. If you enlist the help of professionals to help shield your yard against mosquitoes and ticks, the treatment can last up to three weeks. Other purported mosquito and tick control sprays claim to offer protection for up to 12 weeks.

How do you keep mosquitoes and ticks away?

There are quite a few ways you can augment the efficacy of your mosquito and tick control spray. Simple yard maintenance and landscaping techniques can make your property less pest-friendly.

Do these things in addition to your professional mosquito and tick control services.

Create a cedar mulch border around your yard from wooded areas
Plant lavender, eucalyptus, or garlic
Keep areas that collect standing water free of water (toys, flower pots, pool paraphernalia)
Add an agitator to bird baths or water barrels
Keep your lawn cut and dispose of grass clippings
Encourage your neighbors to keep their property maintained and treated for mosquitoes and ticks

How can you keep pests away when you are away from home?

DEET-based products are the most effective broad spectrum pest repellents. These products can help you repel mosquitoes, ticks, fleas, and more when out in nature. It is very important that you use DEET repellent as directed on the label. Never spray your pets with insect repellents, no matter what. If you are using DEET products on children, make sure you use a concentration that is safe for them.

If you are spending a lot of time hiking or camping, it is recommended to wear long sleeves, tuck your pants into your socks, and reveal as little skin as possible. In these scenarios, you can additionally wear permethrin treated clothing.

Professional pest control in Framingham is recommended.

You can attempt to protect your yard on your own from the threats of ticks and mosquitoes. However, professional pest control companies will be better able to ensure that your yard is properly treated. Not only that, but they will find trouble areas and break them up, and treat them accordingly. In Framingham and Central Mass, tick and mosquito control are recommended from April through October. However, an early spring or late fall might mean that you need to treat for longer.

What is the best pest control methods for ticks?

Ticks are tiny arachnids, pests that can pose a significant threat to both humans and animals.

They are vectors for various diseases, including Lyme disease, anaplasmosis, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. To protect yourself and your pets from these blood-sucking parasites, it’s essential to employ effective pest control methods.

What are the best pest control methods for ticks?

Here are some of the best pest control methods for ticks:

1. Tend to Regular Yard Maintenance: Ticks often lurk in tall grass, leaf litter, and overgrown vegetation. Keeping your yard well-maintained by mowing the grass, removing leaf litter, and trimming shrubs can significantly reduce tick populations in your outdoor space.

2. Install Barrier Fencing: Installing physical barriers, like deer fencing, can help keep wildlife that may carry ticks away from your property. Ticks can hitch a ride on animals like deer, mice, and birds, so limiting their access can be an effective preventive measure.

3. Wear Clothing with Tick Repellent: When spending time in tick-prone areas, wearing clothing treated with permethrin, an insect repellent, can provide excellent protection. Ticks that come into contact with treated clothing are less likely to attach themselves.

4. Use of Tick Repellent on Skin: Apply EPA-approved tick repellent to exposed skin when venturing into tick-infested areas. These repellents can deter ticks from latching onto you. Be sure to follow the product’s instructions and reapply as needed.

5. Follow a Tick-Check Routine: After spending time outdoors, conduct a thorough tick-check on yourself, your family members, and pets. Ticks need time to attach securely, so early detection and removal can prevent disease transmission.

6. Follow Vet-recommended Pet Protection: To safeguard your pets from ticks, use tick control products, such as spot-on treatments, tick collars, or oral medications prescribed by a veterinarian. These can effectively repel ticks and prevent tick-borne illnesses, such as Babesiosis and Lyme disease in dogs.

7. Employ Landscaping Strategies: Consider landscaping modifications that can help reduce tick habitats. Creating a buffer zone of gravel or wood chips between wooded areas and your lawn can deter ticks from crossing into your yard.

8. Hire Professional Tick Control Services: In Central Massachusetts, it is advisable to enlist the help of professional tick pest control services. They can employ more robust methods to treat your property and address tick problems.

It’s important to note that while these methods can help reduce tick populations and minimize the risk of tick-borne diseases, no method is entirely foolproof. Tick prevention is a layered process that requires a combination of strategies.

Do tick tubes attract mice?

Mice are not attracted to tick tubes. Tick control tubes do not act as mice baits.

However, they do rely on ground rodents’ natural foraging and survival habits. Mice are opportunistic creatures and will use available resources to build their nests, and the soft, fluffy material in tick tubes can be appealing to them. When strategically placed, where mice can find them, they will gather the cotton materials from inside the tubes to take back to their nests.

Do tick tubes attract mice? — Do tick control tubes attract mice?

Why choose tick control tubes for your Acton tick control needs?

Acton tick control is not something to be considered lightly. In fact, our area of the United States experiences some of the highest rates of tick-borne illnesses year after year. Professional Acton tick control must be sought out for your home or business. This means tick spraying in the springtime, summer, and early fall. Later in the fall, tick control tubes should be deployed for uninterrupted protection around your property. Tick control tubes are proven to fight tick populations at their source, resulting in fewer emerging ticks each spring.

What exactly are tick control tubes?

Tick control tubes are devices used to control tick populations in outdoor areas, particularly in regions where tick-borne diseases are prevalent. These tubes are filled with treated cotton balls or nesting material that is designed to attract small mammals, such as mice and chipmunks, which are common hosts for ticks in their larval and nymph stages. While tick control tubes are primarily intended to target these small mammals, some people may wonder if tick tubes themselves attract mice. They do not. Add them to your Acton tick control regimen!

How long does tick spraying last?

There are two tick spraying formulas offered by Hingham tick control companies.

Typically, one application of tick yard spray, as in a barrier protection treatment, will last 14 to 21 days. What is the difference in tick spraying formulas?

EPA registered tick spray lasts 21 days.

An EPA registered yard pesticide spray for ticks is formulated to kill ticks on contact. A micro-encapsulated formula allows this solution to keep on killing ticks for about three weeks. Then, a new spray will be applied.

Natural tick spraying formulas last 14 days.

Reputable tick control companies offer a natural tick control spray in addition to traditional formulations. Natural tick yard sprays will kill ticks on contact and also continue to repel ticks for up to two weeks before another spray is administered.

Tick control tubes augment tick yard sprays.

As fall becomes cooler, ticks will be less active. When colder weather sets in, they will enter diapause, a state of dormancy. This dormancy naturally occurs in the late fall, at which time ticks will seek shelter. They will do beneath the ground, under logs or fallen trees, or even beneath leaf litter or underbrush. Mice also live in these areas. Tick tubes, when placed around your property, are found by mice, who are in search of cozy materials to keep their nests warm through winter. Tick tubes have such a material, but the cotton inside is treated with a pesticide that will eliminate ticks and their larvae. This happens if the ticks come in contact with the mice or the cotton itself. This pesticide is only harmful to the ticks – rodents will remain unharmed in the process.

Tick tubes allow you to employ effective Hingham tick control all year long! This is incredibly important with the rise in tick-borne illness cases each year in the United States. These include Powassan virus, Lyme disease, and alpha gal syndrome – just to name a few!

Do Ticks Take Blood?

Ticks need blood to survive and feed from a wide range of hosts.

Your blood is valuable, especially to ticks. Once a tick hatches from its egg, it needs a blood meal at every stage of its life. Without this meal, a tick cannot survive. Ticks feed from mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles. They frequently look for blood hosts and are willing to do whatever they can to feed from them. With the right planning, you can guard against ticks and prevent them from biting you and taking your blood.

Tick Blood

What the Life Cycle of Ticks Looks Like

The life cycle of ticks includes four stages: egg, larva, nymph, and adult. This cycle lasts about two years. The one constant during each of these stages: ticks need blood. In order to move from one life stage to the next, a tick must find blood hosts. If a tick is successful, it’ll be able to reach adulthood. At this point, it can help foster a new generation of ticks before it reaches the end of its life.

How Ticks Identify Hosts

A tick can detect a potential host through its breath, body odor, moisture, and other factors. Oftentimes, a tick will find a well-used path as it looks for prospective hosts. For example, a tick may wait on the tip of a piece of grass or shrub. It’ll hold its front legs outstretched, while its third and fourth pair of legs remain attached to the grass or shrub. If a human being, animal, or any other potential host brushes the grass or shrub, the tick climbs aboard. From here, the tick can bite the host and get blood from it, without the host likely realizing it is doing so.

Will You See Blood If You Squish a Tick?

If you squish a tick, be prepared for a splatter of blood. It’s common for an engorged tick to be filled with infected blood. Thus, when you squish the tick, it will pop. When this happens, blood can splatter, and you may get blood on your hands.

How to Remove a Tick Without Having to Deal with a Splatter of Tick Blood

Using tweezers is the best option if you have a tick on your skin and want to remove it without a splatter. Pinch the tweezers to grasp the tick from your skin. Next, pull upward with steady pressure. The tick may have a strong grasp on your skin. Regardless, if you pull consistently, you can remove the tick.

Tick Control Tips You Need to Know

Expect ticks if you’re going outdoors in brushy, grassy, or wooded areas. Apply an insect repellent on your skin, clothing, and footwear when you visit these areas. This helps you keep ticks off of you. Also, check for ticks and shower within two hours of going to areas where ticks may be present. Of course, if you’re dealing with ticks at home, you may need extra help. In this instance, you can partner with a tick control company.

Don’t Wait to Get a Tick Control Treatment

A tick control company can apply a treatment across your property. This treatment helps you limit the tick population. You can receive regular tick management treatments. As you do, you can keep the tick population at bay long into the future.

Also read: Can a Tick Bite You in the Winter?

Is the Asian Longhorned Tick in Massachusetts?

The Asian longhorned tick has made its way to Massachusetts — here’s what you need to know.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Asian longhorned tick has been reported in Massachusetts and several other U.S. states as of August 22, 2022. If you encounter a longhorned tick, there’s no need to panic. There are many things you can do to protect against this type of tick. And, there are several ways to prevent the Asian longhorned tick from becoming a long-term problem.

What is the Asian Longhorned Tick?

The Asian longhorned tick was first reported in the United States in 2017. Since that time, it’s been found on people, pets, and livestock. The female Asian longhorned tick is capable of producing up to 2,000 eggs without mating. In some instances, thousands of Asian longhorned ticks can be found on an animal or in grass and shrubs. Research suggests the Asian longhorned tick is less attracted to human skin than other potential targets. Regardless, the tick can bite you.

The Life Cycle of an Asian Longhorned Tick

An Asian longhorned tick has a life cycle that lasts about two years. The tick goes from egg to larva to nymph to adult. It needs blood to grow and survive. At each life stage, the tick finds a new host for blood.

What an Asian Longhorned Tick Looks Like

It can be difficult to distinguish an Asian longhorned tick from other types of ticks. The Asian longhorned tick is light brown in color. It is typically the size of the head of a pin as a larvae. The tick eventually grows into a nymph, which is roughly the size of a poppy seed. As an adult, an engorged Asian longhorned tick can reach the size of a pea.

What Diseases Do Asian Longhorned Ticks Carry?

Asian longhorned ticks carry bovine theileriosis and babesiosis, both of which can impact a variety of animal species. Scientists continue to study the Asian longhorned tick and learn about other diseases it may carry. They are also monitoring the spread of diseases by the Asian longhorned tick.

What to Do If You Get Bitten by an Asian Longhorned Tick

If you see an Asian longhorned tick on your skin, remove the tick immediately. Whenever possible, place the tick in rubbing alcohol in a jar or Ziploc bag. Then, contact your local health department or veterinarian to report the tick.

Hubbardston Tick Control Tips You Need to Know

A proactive approach to Hubbardston tick control is key. For those who are planning to visit wooded areas, beware the Asian longhorned tick. You can wear long-sleeve shirts and pants and apply insect repellent before you visit these areas. Also, it helps to explore tick control solutions for your property. That way, you can combat the Asian longhorned tick and other types of ticks moving forward.

Move Forward with Tick Control in Hubbardston

For the best Hubbardston tick control, look for professional help. You can work with a Hubbardston tick control company that helps you fight off the Asian longhorned tick and many other types of ticks. The company’s friendly, knowledgeable tick control professionals are happy to help you at any time.

Also read: Can Ticks Live in Your House?

Do Tick Bites Hurt?

Don’t expect severe pain from a tick bite, but you should treat your bite properly.

A tick bite may seem like the end of the world at first. Yet, tick bites are often painless. And, in many instances, a tick bite may only cause minor symptoms like a slight change in skin color or a sore on the skin. However, you need to be careful if you suffer a tick bite. Otherwise, you could risk long-lasting health issues.

Charlestown Tick Control

What Diseases are Transmitted by Ticks?

Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever are two of the most common diseases transmitted by ticks. These diseases and others spread by ticks can result in a fever, chills, aches, body pain, and a rash. The symptoms of the diseases may develop within a few weeks of tick bite.

How to Care for a Tick Bite

As soon as you see a tick on your skin, remove the tick. You can use tweezers to grasp the tick and pull it off your skin. Also, wash your hands and clean the site of your bite after you remove the tick from your skin. When you do, wash your hands and clean the bite site with soap. If possible, take a picture of the tick as well. In the event that you need to go to a doctor, you can share the photo.

When to Go to a Doctor for a Tick Bite

If you experience a severe headache, difficulty breathing, paralysis, or heart palpitations following a tick bite, call 911. This allows you to receive emergency care and support. In addition, you should reach out to a doctor if you experience flu-like symptoms in the weeks after your tick bite. When in doubt, it is best to be cautious. By meeting with a doctor, you can find out if any symptoms you’re experiencing are related to a tick bite. Most importantly, you can receive proper treatment for any medical issues.

How Do I Know If My Tick Bite Is a Possible Infection?

It is common for a tick-borne infection to cause a pink or red circular rash around the area of a bite. The rash won’t necessarily disappear on its own. If you suffer an infection from a tick bite, the symptoms can worsen over time. The symptoms can reach a point where it makes it difficult for you to function and enjoy living life to the fullest extent.

How to Protect Against Tick Bites

The clothing you wear can have far-flung effects on your ability to avoid ticks. You can wear long-sleeve clothing and pants to minimize your risk of ticks getting onto your skin. On top of that, you can apply insect repellent before you go into wooded areas or any other spots where ticks may be present. You can also hire a tick control company to help you keep ticks away from your Charlestown home.

Get Started with Charlestown Tick Control

When it comes to Charlestown tick control, be proactive. You can connect with a tick control company in Charlestown right away. Then, the company’s tick control professionals can assess your property and figure out the best way to help you keep ticks at bay.

Also read: How Fast Can a Tick Make You Sick?

Why Do We Have So Many Tick-Borne Illnesses in the Northeast?

Several factors contribute to the tick population increasing in the Northeast.

If you’re wondering why there are so many tick-borne illnesses reported in the Northeast, you’re not alone. Some research suggests the high volume of forests in the Northeast contribute to a high tick population. Meanwhile, research also indicates that land use and climate change are also impacting the tick population and tick-borne illnesses in the Northeast.

Merrimack Tick Control

Environmental Changes are Giving Ticks More Places to Live

Ticks need hosts they can use for blood. In the Northeast, ticks are prone to feed on white-tailed deer and white-footed mice, both of which tend to travel. These deer and mice travel short and long distances alike. As such, they have helped ticks expand their habitat range in the Northeast.

Mild Winters are Helping Ticks Thrive

Tick season is getting longer in the Northeast, according to some experts. Mild winters are helping ticks survive for longer periods of time than ever before. If ticks do not die out in winter, their populations will grow. Thus, ticks can cause serious problems for people in the Northeast year-round.

People Face Heavy Exposure to Ticks

Spring and summer are popular times to get outdoors and explore, particularly in wooded areas where ticks are present. Yet, many people continue to ignore the health risks associated with tick-borne illnesses. If people are not careful around ticks, they risk getting tick bites. When a tick bites a person, it can spread Lyme disease or other diseases that cause long-lasting health problems.

What Tick-Borne Illnesses Should We Be Worried About Besides Lyme Disease?

Anaplasmosis and babesiosis are two of the most common tick-borne illnesses outside of Lyme disease. With anaplasmosis, a person can experience a fever, headache, and other flu-like symptoms. In severe cases, a person may need to be hospitalized due to a weakened immune system. Like anaplasmosis, babesisosis can weaken a person’s immune system. It can also be especially harmful to people who do not have a spleen.

How to Guard Against Tick-Borne Illnesses in the Northeast

Education can play a key role in your ability to protect against tick-borne illnesses. If you know the dangers associated with tick bites, you can remain diligent in areas where ticks may be present. These areas include bushy, grassy, or wooded areas where ticks tend to hide. Also, you can protect your skin by wearing long-sleeve shirts and pants in spaces where there may be ticks. You can apply insect repellent that helps keep ticks away from you, too.

What Merrimack Tick Control Options Are Available?

For the best Merrimack tick control, you can hire professionals. A tick control company has professionals on staff that can evaluate your property. From here, they can apply a tick control treatment that helps you reduce the tick population on your property by up to 90%. This treatment can deliver results that last up to three weeks.

Explore Merrimack Tick Control Options Today

Dave Macchia, tick control enthusiast — Dave Macchia, Central Mass tick control enthusiast

If you want to avoid a tick-borne illness, it helps to invest in tick control for your Merrimack property. With a top-notch Merrimack tick control company at your side, you can limit the tick population on your property. On top of that, you can lower your risk of contracting a tick-borne illness.

Also read: Are Ticks Prevalent in New Hampshire?

Do opossums really eat lots of ticks?

Hold the phone, sound the alarm – this is a piece of contradictory news!

Do opossums really eat large quantities of ticks? Over the last 13 years, articles, blogs, and Social Media posts have been written and shared millions of times. These bits of information, including my own blogs, stated that one opossum could eat up to 5,000 ticks in one season. Notable sources, such as PBS, have reported on findings from a 2009 study, which suggested that opossums were insatiable tick eaters. But are they really?

Do opossums eat large quantities of ticks? — Are opossums tick-destroying machines, wrought by Mother Nature’s own hand?

A new study for a new age.

In 2021, researchers performed specific analyses of the contents of the stomachs of opossums, taken from their natural habitats. Black-legged ticks have been of particular interest, because they transmit Lyme disease, most often from the white-footed mouse, to humans. When the contents of their stomachs were viewed via dissecting microscope, zero tick body parts were identified. Zip. Zilch. Nada.

Does this mean that opossums don’t eat ticks at all?

Further studies must be performed on opossums in their natural habitats to determine whether they eat available ticks. However, the 2021 study certainly suggests that opossums do not prefer ticks over other food sources.

Where did the previous study go wrong?

The 2009 study to determine if opossums eat ticks ran afoul of logic in a couple of ways. First, the study was performed in a lab. Secondly, the conclusion that the studied opossums ate 90% of the 100 ticks in the lab with them was reached without examination of the opossums bodies or stomach contents. Over a four-day period, 100 ticks were placed in a laboratory with opossums. At the end of the study, the number of ticks that had fallen off the opossums were counted. The conclusion that they actually consumed the ticks was reached via assumption that any ticks not found had been eaten.

There is hope with tick control methods beyond Mother Nature’s own.

tick control tubes The circle of life, predator versus prey will always be. By Mother Nature’s providence, there are natural tick eaters. These include chickens, frogs, lizards, and other wildlife. Perhaps the opossum is in that category too, or maybe not. But one thing is for sure. There are effective tick control methods that you can employ to help your family avoid the threat of ticks. Professional, year-round tick control companies provide families peace of mind with barrier protection spray in the warm months, followed by tick tubes in the late autumn and winter.

Tick Control Tubes, Your Frontline Defense Against Ticks

When we think of tick control, we might immediately call to mind yard spray.

But have you ever considered the benefits of tick control tubes? Have you even hard about them? Here in Massachusetts, ticks are undoubtedly a problem. Thing is, ticks are not simply relegated to a three-month season, after which they die or disappear. Historically, our winters might have been cold enough to combat tick populations. However, today is much different. Fall is yet a transitions season into our cold weather season, but the definition of cold winters in Massachusetts has changed. Therefore, ticks remain an issue all year long.

Weymouth tick control with tick control tubes — Tick control tubes are the answer to milder fall and winter temperatures in Massachusetts

Tick control tubes pick up where Mother Nature leaves off.

tick control tubes Weymouth tick control — Tick control tube

Mother Nature might have taken a cold weather hiatus in our area – perhaps for good and all. And while Massachusetts residents might enjoy the reprieve from constant snow shoveling and layering up just to run to the mailbox each day, ticks also benefit from milder winter seasons. They are surviving and thriving. When temperatures cool below 45 degrees consistently, ticks cozy up beneath ground litter, living amongst the rodent population, and sometimes continuing to feed on them. Enter, your frontline tick defense – tick control tubes!

How do tick control tubes work?

If you are thinking that ticks just meander their way into tick control tubes, think again. They might look a bit like a trap or a lure, but the fact is, nothing lures ticks except warm-blooded animals on which they feed. This is where Mother Nature actually begins to help. The natural drive of ground rodents, such as mice, has them scrounging for materials to build their nests when it’s cold outside. Tick tubes are the vehicle for providing those materials, as they are filled with comfy cotton that will be perfect for creating a cozy habitat. This cotton, however, is covered with tick eliminating insecticide. It eliminates ticks that try to feed on the mice or live in their nests. It does not adversely affect the mice whatsoever. Tick tubes are the most effective method of getting to ticks and their offspring where they live in the fall and winter. You will notice fewer ticks on your property in the spring.

Weymouth tick control is set it and forget it!

By employing a Weymouth tick control specialist to place tick tubes around your property this time of year, you are investing in peace of mind all year. This ingenious method of killing ticks is the key to reducing the number of ticks and the number of tick-borne illnesses in Massachusetts.