Signs Of Ticks In Your Home
Unfortunately, because of their size, it can be difficult to find ticks inside until they have had a blood meal or become an ongoing issue.
Ticks like to hide in the woods, brush and tall grass where they clump together or hang out alone and wait for an animal to unknowingly pick them up.
As much as you may want them to go away for good, thats not going to happen. Habit may tell you to run for the chemical sprays, but overuse of chemical treatments causes environmental and health risks and wont get rid of ticks for good.
If you live in an area where ticks are known to be present outside , it is absolutely essential to know how to inspect for ticks, and to do so on a regular basis.
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Are Tick Spray For Yard Safe For Pets 9 Clear Facts
One of the most effective ways to get rid of yard ticks is by using sprays. But pet owners often express concern on whether these yard tick sprays are really safe for their pets. This article explores that subject in a comprehensive manner.
Are tick spray for yard safe for pets? The safety of a yard tick spray for pets depends on the ingredients in. Most yard tick sprays which are made using harsh synthetic chemicals are not entirely safe for pets. Even the natural yard tick sprays that come from essential oils may be unsafe for some pets.
Finding a truly pet safe tick spray for yard can be a huge challenge.
For instance, if you own a dog, you may have challenges finding a truly dog friendly tick spray. In fact, the search for that sort of dog safe tick yard spray may take you to areas you never thought youd ever venture into.
But it is worth noting that besides the chemical sprays, there are other more pet-friendly strategies you can use to control yard ticks.
Simple measures like keeping the vegetation in your yard short and creating a physical barrier go a long way. So does a measure like making use of biological tick control agents, such as nematodes.
Thus if you are completely unable to find a pet safe tick spray for yard, those measures can be helpful.
There is also the option of making a DIY tick spray for yard safe for pets.
How To Treat Chigger Bites On Humans
Although chiggers are known to be annoying, they dont carry disease. Luckily, you can treat their bites at home in the following ways:
- Apply calamine lotion or other anti-itch creams to ease the itching.
- Hold a cold washcloth over the area bites to soothe the itching.
- Scrub the chigger bites thoroughly with soap and water, removing the chiggers attached to the skin.
- Take antihistamines orally to help alleviate itching, especially at night.
If you or members of your familyor family petsare afflicted with itchy bites but have no memory of seeing an insect, itâs very likely you are suffering from chigger bites. Chiggers are mites in their immature stage, which can lurk in your backyard in tall grass, weed patches, and humid spots underneath trees. They might be anywhere you venture outdoors where theres brush or thicket combined with moisture, such as along stream banks. Chiggers cause itchy bites that can last for several days. There are ways you can protect yourself from getting chiggers and control them in your backyard.
A common misconception is that chiggers burrow under the skin, but this is not truethe itchy red spots are simply an allergic reaction to the saliva of the bites of these tiny pests.
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Practice Good Yard Hygiene
Ticks love to hide in dark, sheltered places like wood piles, leaf piles, and scrub brushes. With this in mind, follow these tips to make your yard uninhabitable for them:
- Get rid of any yard debris. If you rake leaves in the fall, avoid leaving piles sitting around. instead, bag them in leaf bags and dispose of them properly. If you burn firewood for heat, keep it stacked neatly in a dry area. This keeps rodents away and prevents them from carrying ticks into your yard. Finally, get rid of any old furniture, trash, or organic matter in your yard, which could be giving ticks a place to hide.
- Maintain your lawn. Cut your grass regularly, remove tall grasses or shrubs, and be sure to pick up all grass cuttings promptly.
- Create a barrier. Keep all playground equipment, patios, and decks at least 8 feet from the edge of your lawn.
- Construct fences. Use tall fences to keep deer, raccoons, and stray dogs from entering your yard and bringing ticks with them.
What Are Yard Treatments For Ticks
A yard treatment for ticks is any treatment that covers the entire yard to repel ticks or kill them or both. It requires the use of chemicals or essential oils that are intended for outdoor use only.
Warning: Dont use a tick yard spray inside the house!
In order to kill the tick population in your yard, you need to follow several steps in the right order. If you dont follow all the steps or perform them out of order, youll drastically reduce the chances of it working correctly.
Here are the preparatory steps:
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Create A Barrier From Shaded Areas
Add a 3 border to edge of yard. If you live near a tree-line or wooded area, adding a 3 foot border of wood chips or pea gravel creates a nuisance for tick movement and in most cases will avoid crossing. Its important to use traditional wood chip mulch and not the dyed variety, the latter of which can often be moist.
These barriers naturally repel ticks without any other sprays, as ticks dont want to cross such areas.
Keep recreational areas within the border. Placing swingsets, patios, and decks as far away from the treeline will drastically reduce your exposure.
How To Prevent Ticks
In addition to taking steps to get rid of ticks from your yard, make sure you take common-sense measures to keep ticks off your body and away from your home.
- Always wear tick repellent when going into wooded areas.
- Whenever possible, keep children and pets from playing in the overgrown brush on the borders of your lawn.
- Treat all pets regularly with appropriate collars, medication, sprays, and shampoos.
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Life Cycle Of A Chigger Bug
A chigger bug has a pretty complex life cycle. Without going into too much unnecessary detail, heres a basic overview of it.
The larvae is the common stage that we all know. This is when they latch onto a mammal and feed on the host. Theyre about 0.17mm in diameter and light red with many hairs. And they move pretty quickly.
The form into small groups on soil, vegetation, leaves, plants, and more wherever humans or animals may walk through and touch the object theyre waiting on.
Once a victim brushes by, theyll latch on and start to feed on their skin. This is only a small part of their entire life cycle.
Theyll use enzymes to digest the flesh and suck up the tissue through a hole or tube they create called the stylostome. The larvae will stay on the host for about 3-4 days, then drop off to the floor to morph.
After feeding on the host, the mite will morph into a nymph with multiple phases. At the very end of this stage, itll enter inactivity before turning into an adult.
The last step is the adult stage, where theyll feed on small arthropods, eggs, and plants.
Theyll live in soil or gardens where plenty of vegetation, shade, and water is available. At this part of the chigger life cycle, theyre fully mature.
Heres an interesting video about chiggers :
Outdoor Heating & Fire Pits From Amazoncom
From a slow-roasted marshmallow to grownups sipping sangria on a Friday night, nothing gathers friends and family together quite like a cozy, crackling, wood-burning fire. Amazon’s wide range of , fire bowls, and outdoor fireplaces offers everything from eye-catching silhouettes and decorative cut-outs to protective mesh screens and convenient portability.
Once the sun begins to set and there’s a touch of chill in the air, the outdoor fire pit becomes the focal point to any neighborhood block party or impromptu backyard happy hour. Stoke the fire and scoot the chairs in closer it’s time to trade some terrifying tales.
In addition to fire pits, fire bowls, and outdoor fireplaces, Amazon also offers a collection of chimineas that can be used for brick-oven-style outdoor grilling–perfect for the patio and an exceptionally fun way to bake pizza for party guests.
Even more, Amazon’s collection of firewood log racks makes it effortless to keep firewood neatly stacked and easily accessible. Store a small stack near the fire pit or on the patio and the remaining logs in an out-of-the-way location. The firewood log racks come in a variety of shapes, styles, and sizes to accommodate individual needs and surrounding decor.
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Essential Oil Treatments Cut Down On Ticks But Can Put Pollinators At Risk
Treating your yard with an organic tick spray could mean outdoor dinner parties with fewer Lyme-carrying ticks latching on for their own bloodmeal, and no risk of a pesticides harmful effects on humans and pets. But it can negatively impact pollinators.
Since starting his own lawn care and landscaping company in 2017, Sean Devine has had repeat customers for all four years he has been in business. And one of the services they request annually from his Pine Plains business, Far-View Lawn and Tree Care, is his organic tick treatment.
I think the organic treatments are better in terms of their impact on environment and the applicator the person who is doing the spraying, said Devine.
Removing ticks that transmit Lyme disease and other pathogens without the damaging impacts of chemical pesticides is an increasingly alluring prospect, demonstrated by how many people are buying it.
William R. Skerrett, the owner of ICT Organics, which manufactures the organic tick removal product that Devine uses for his business, CedarCure, says sales have been sky high for these last two years as more people are enjoying their backyards during the pandemic.
Last spring, we literally grew by 100 percent, he said. This spring well probably do 60 to 70 percent more than 2020. And it has to do with everyone staying home and this COVID thing. They dont want ticks, and they dont want their kids and their dogs around the chemicals.
His customers seem happy.
Ways To Tickproof Your Yard Without Spraying
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This year is expected to be one of the worst on record for ticks, and not just in the Northeast. At least one variety of disease-transmitting tick has been found in all of the lower 48 states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
And a lab at Cornell University has identified 26 species of ticks along the East Coast alonefar more than the deer ticks most of us associate with Lyme disease.
With a little bit of work, including cutting your grass more often, you can rid your yard of the pests.
Tick control is mostly about wildlife, says Jody Gangloff-Kaufmann, coordinator of New York States Integrated Pest Management Program at Cornell. If you have an open yard where animals can enter, youre almost certainly going to have ticks.
One way to know for sure? Perform whats called a tick drag. Cut a 5-inch-square swatch of fabric and tie it to an 18-inch-long pole or stick. Holding the pole, drag the fabric along tall grass or weeds, particularly near a woodland edge of your lawn. Ticks will typically transfer themselves to the swatch.
If the trial confirms their presence, you’ll need to deal with the problem now to safely enjoy your yard. If not, it could pay to be proactive. Follow these five steps to deal with them effectively.
1. Keep Your Grass Short
Gangloff-Kaufmann says youre still okay to let your grass reach the 4 to 4 1/2 inches Consumer Reports recommends, but be vigilant about keeping up with mowing.
2. Make a Mulch Moat
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How Big Are Ticks
Everyone knows that ticks are gross nuisances, but did you know theyre actually related to spiders? Ticks are arachnids, so just like spiders, they have eight legs. Theyre typically very small, ranging from the size of a poppy seed to a sesame seed, unless theyve just eaten. A tick thats fully engorged is round instead of flat, and can reach up to half an inch long. Any tick species you encounter would typically be about this size.
Create An Unfriendly Environment For Ticks
If you have gravel or rocks on paths like crushedasphalt and gravels, it will make an inhospitable environment for ticks. These pests arent made for moving across these surfaces quickly. If you can create a less desirable area for them to live in, this will discourage them from coming around your yard.
Playhouses, swing sets, and other structures for children to enjoy should be placed in the sun. Ticks will stay out of the play area if it is in the sun.
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How To Use Yard Tick Spray If You Have Pets
The first question to ask yourself here is, how do I get rid of ticks in my yard without harming pets?
And as it turns out, there are several how to get rid of ticks in yard safe for dogs guidelines.
We may also refer to these as pet safe flea and tick yard treatment guidelines.
The first thing you need to do is to select a yard tick spray product that has the best possible safety profile.
When we were addressing the are tick spray for yard safe for pets question, we saw that most of these products are not entirely safe.
That indeed is why finding a truly pet safe tick spray for yard is so tricky.
Nonetheless, some sprays have better safety profiles than others.
You need to identify those products that are better for the pet you happen to own. Then go ahead and purchase those.
You may ultimately opt to do tick spray for yard safe for pets Lowes product purchases. Or you may ultimately opt to do tick spray for yard safe for pets Home Depot shopping.
You can buy the spray anywhere you prefer.
Just ensure that it is a spray that is relatively good for the type of pet you happen to own.
This is the first step in pet friendly tick treatment for yard. Even if you were trying to do pet friendly flea treatment for yard, this would have to be the first step.
And that is buying a spray product with a reasonably good safety profile.
You then need to mix and apply the spray in the right manner: as per the manufacturer instructions.
Does Apple Cider Vinegar Kill Chiggers
Apple cider vinegar proves to be an effective itch relief and swell reducer for chigger bites.
Although apple cider vinegar hasnt been proven to kill chiggers from my research, its better used as a solution for post-bite treatment.
You can buy organic apple cider vinegar from any grocery store for cheap. Heres how to use it to reduce itch and provide chigger bite relief:
What youll need:
- 1 cup pure unfiltered apple cider vinegar
How to make it:
Apple cider vinegar is very acidic, and chiggers probably wont survive the solution. Itll reduce itch and swelling so you can try to get some relief from the bites.
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Homemade Tick And Insect Repellant Recipe
This homemade tick and insect repellant recipe will fight many insects that may invade your yard. It contains essential oils that are safe to use around the family and pets, making it a great homemade bug spray.
- One tablespoon of Almond Oil
- 9 drops citronella essential oil
- 6 drops Peppermint essential oils
- 6 drops Tea Tree essential oil
To a spray bottle, add all the oils and thoroughly mix them. Spray it directly onto your skin or clothing, or lawn area.
Schedule A Yard Spray Today
If you havent had your yard sprayed yet this year, its never too late to start! July and August are known as high risk months. This is a threatening time for ticks as they become very aggressive and are hungrily questing for blood. Effective spraying is absolutely critical to keep dangerous tick populations as low as possible.
Ticks will remain active in September and continue to feed on any warm-blooded person or animal that they can attach themselves too so its critical that you continue to spray post-Labor Day. The spray targets ticks that have dropped off host animals throughout the year but are still dangerous and searching for blood. In the fall ticks are actively looking to feed because winter is near and will need to survive. Its important to spray in October and November as these sprays will help reduce next years tick population.
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