American dog tick. Photo by James Gathany.
By Judy Cools. Photos courtesy of Centers for Disease Control.
Spring arrived like the long-awaited cavalry to our Covid-besieged, locked-down fortress homes. Finally, warmer weather, sunshine and the season’s first flowers. At last, we began to have hope. Then we heard about the next of our trials: the worst tick season in probably 20 years.
Ticks are related to spiders. Technically arachnids, they have eight legs and are sometimes mistaken for tiny spiders when they appear on clothing, skin or gear. Unlike spiders, ticks have a hard protective shell and can be extremely difficult to squash.
If feeding off your blood isn’t bad enough, they sometimes carry and share some ugly diseases during the time they are attached to your skin. Lyme disease can plague a person as a life-long illness. Other diseases can cause swelling or blood clots, tax the spleen, and the list goes on and on. It’s important to avoid being bitten by a tick, and if you do, to get proper care ASAP.
Tick prevention
Reducing the number of ticks in your yard and home begins with cleaning the areas where ticks live. Old leaves or other moist, inactive vegetation are prime breeding grounds. Keep leaf piles away from your yard; keep gutters unclogged. Avoid using straw or finely shredded mulch in your garden or pathways. If you have a wood pile, raise it onto a pallet or other surface where air can circulate beneath it.
Multiple sources recommend a minimum 3-foot-wide perimeter around the yard where there is no mulch or tall plants, pathways ticks use to enter your yard from wilder areas. When fenced, your yard should be cleared 18-24 inches on both sides of the fence. Keep the lawn mowed short. Ticks hang onto tall grasses with their hind legs and extend the front legs to catch the fur or clothing of passersby.
Pesticides? Sure, you could use them to reduce ticks, but pesticides are not pest specific. You would also be poisoning bees, butterflies, birds and animals that eat ticks. The runoff after a rainstorm can contaminate water wells, rivers and lakes. In this arachnophobe’s opinion, that just isn’t a fair trade off.
For those who are handy with tools, the internet offers plans for building tick traps. Just build the trap and set it in a woodsy area to lure ticks to their doom.
One simple, effective prevention technique is to make “tick tubes.” Directions are found on the internet, but briefly, use old toilet paper tubes and dryer lint. Treat the lint with a pesticide containing permethrin. When dry, stuff the tubes and distribute them in wild areas just beyond your yard.
Mice are the primary and first host of tick nymphs. By providing treated dryer lint for mice to use in their nests, you kill tick nymphs at their earliest life stage ⸺ before they’re old enough to breed. The tubes are lightweight cardboard and disintegrate after a rainstorm or two. The amount of pesticide is extremely small, breaks down quickly and is widely distributed among many mouse nests. Using tick tubes can reduce the tick population by as much as 90%. They are especially effective when used right after the snow melts and periodically during summer.
Another prevention method: pull any barberry bushes. Ticks are said to like the humid microclimates they produce, and mice take shelter beneath them.
To reduce tick numbers in your area, welcome the opossums! Possumfacts.com claims that one opossum will eat about 5,000 ticks per season. Other beasts that can help are free-range chickens and guinea hens, both great tick-eaters.
While in parks and recreation areas stay on the cleared trails, away from tall grasses and piles of leaves or wood. Use personal protection as described below.
Tick protection
Western Michigan is known as prime grounds for ticks, especially this year. Protection includes tick-specific repellent sprays, either commercially produced or blended at home. There are many simple, essential oils that ticks really hate (lemon is tops on a long list), so it’s easy to blend an effective spray of a water and vinegar, with various essential oils added.
Another method is to use a little bit of thin carrier oil, such as almond or coconut oil, and add a few drops of essential oil before rubbing on your skin.
Ticks like damp stagnant places, and they will go for the same areas on a host. It’s common to find ticks in your underarms, shoes, waistband or underwear ⸺ all places that you really, really don’t want to find a tick! Some people will use the essential oil treatments near these areas before they get dressed, then use sprays on clothing as extra prevention. Be sure to treat ear areas and your hairline as well as protect your hair, perhaps with a treated bandanna or hat.
Many articles say to wear light-colored clothing, so it’s easier to see ticks if they get on you. Other sources say ticks are attracted to light clothing. In general, tucking in your shirt, tucking pant cuffs into your socks, etc., can limit your chances of getting a tick on your skin.
Remember: if you have pets who go outside, they need protection too. There are flea and tick collars, as well as systemic products for them, that will kill a pest if it crawls on your pet. Some essential oil sprays can also be used on your pet. Check with your veterinarian. Some advise using tick protection on indoor pets, as humans can carry pests inside the home on their shoes, clothing and person.
Look for part two of Arachnophobia 2.0 in our July 14 issue. For more about ticks online, visit: https://web.uri.edu/tickencounter/fieldguide
Judy Cools was a columnist, web designer, feature and business writer, and an editor for nearly 30 years. She made her home with her husband in the woods near Ludington.
