Tick Tock, Knock Knock

April 23, 2015

Ahhh. Spring is here. Don't you like longer days with grass turning green and trees budding? Putaway the heavy jackets, fly kites and run into the woods. WAIT! Hungry ticks are just waking upafter the long, brutal winter and they are HUNGRY! Most ticks go through four life stages: egg, six-legged larva, eight-legged nymph, and adult. After hatching from the eggs, ticks must eat blood atevery stage to survive. Ticks that require this many hosts can take up to 3 years to complete theirfull life cycle. Ticks can feed on mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. Most ticks prefer to havea different host animal at each stage of their life.

Ticks are known to transmit many human diseases. In addition to Lyme disease, which causes flu-like symptoms that can progress to joint pain, fatigue and other debilitating symptoms, blackleggedticks can also transmit other diseases like anaplasmosis, babesiosis, both are bacterial infectionssimilar to Lyme, and rare Powassan virus, which attacks the brain.

A simple way of preventing tick bites is backyard tick control. In your backyard, ticks are not out inthe middle of your lawn, they live where yards border wooded areas, ornamental plantings andgardens, or anywhere it is shaded and there are leaves with high humidity. Here are a few tips foryou:

1. Trim low-hanging branches, rake remove leaf litter and fallen branches. Leaf litter increaseshumidity for poppy-seed sized nymph ticks.

2. Protect pets with tick knockdownproducts or talk to your vet aboutpreventative treatments for pets. Usecontainment (fences, invisible fencing) tocreate tick safe zones for pets.

3. Wear shoes, socks and pants. Tuck inshirt. Do a daily tick check as soon aspossible after being in potential tickhabitat.

4. Create a 3-ft tick buffer zone if yourproperty is right next to woodsy areas.Keep grass very short in the buffer zoneand mow often.

5. Talk to a pest managementprofessional about seasonal ticktreatments if you have thick woods anddense ornamental shrubs around your

property or you have abundant wild life visit your land which may carry ticks on them.

http://guardian-online.com/blog/tips-tricks/tick-tock-knock/