Lyme Disease

Keeping Your Yard Tick-Free

Roughly 70% of people who develop Lyme disease catch it from ticks in their own yard.  Thus, it is important to ensure that your yard has as few ticks as possible.  Ticks thrive in cool, wet places, often travel into yards via animal hosts (white-tailed deer, white-footed mice, and some birds), and are kept at bay by certain pesticides.  Based on these facts, there are several steps you can take to reduce the number of ticks on your property:

• Keep your yard clean of debris such as leaf litter and grass clippings and keep flowerbeds dry.
• Keep grass mowed, especially at edges of property.
• Trim bushes and shrubs, especially near paths and walkways.
• Minimize ground cover, such as pachysandra.
• Create a 3-foot wide, 3-inch deep barrier using gravel, mulch, or woodchips to separate your lawn from any wooded areas.
• Make sure that areas where children play, including swingsets and playhouses are in dry, sunny areas.  You may also want to place gravel, mulch, or woodchips around these areas.
• Any birdfeeders or woodpiles that may attract tick-carrying animals should also be placed in a gravel, mulch, or woodchip surrounded area away from your lawn.
• Preferably, your property, especially the lawn area, should not contain anything designed to attract wildlife, including birdfeeders, birdbaths, and salt licks.
• Mice tend to live in stone walls; keep any stone walls on your property neat.  Seal any cracks and clear away nearby debris.
• White-tailed deer have been known to carry hundreds ticks on their bodies all year round.  These deer tend to walk into suburban and rural yards looking for food, and bring those ticks in with them.  You may build a fence around your property to keep out deer, or simply avoid attracting them by planting plants deer do not like to eat.  Ask your local nursery or garden center for information on “deer proof” plantings.
• You can also apply to low-toxicity pesticide to your property once a year, preferably in May when tick eggs have just hatched.  Many pest control agencies specialize in tick control.

Image by Lauren M Davis, modeled on image from Target Lyme Disease  landscaping pamphlet.
For more information, also see Connecticut Tick Control  

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