In Pennsylvania, you don't have to go camping or hiking to find ticks. If you live in an area with grass and trees, they're just steps from your back door. While there's no way to rid your property of all these disease-carrying creepy bugs, some simple landscaping changes can help keep ticks from ruining your summer fun in the backyard.
According to Dr. Jane Huffman's Wildlife Genetics Laboratory at East Stroudsburg University, the three most common tick species in the region are the iguana tick (Ixodes scapularis), the American dog tick (Dermacentor variabilis) and the Lone Star tick (Amblyomma americanum), all of which can carry serious diseases including Lyme disease, bartonellosis and anaplasmosis.
Not all ticks carry the disease, but there's no way to know which ticks do and which don't, so the safest thing to do is to minimize contact with all ticks. This is important because, according to the website USA Facts, from 2016 to 2019, Pennsylvania led the nation in Lyme disease cases, followed by New York and New Jersey.
At this point, you're probably ready to don your protective gear and head outdoors, or you're ready to spend the summer indoors. But don't give up! While you can't completely eliminate ticks from your yard, you can make it less hospitable for them and safely enjoy your outdoor spaces. Think of this as “tick habitat creation.”
Ticks are found primarily in transitional areas where tended land ends and woods, fields or other uncultivated land begins, and around stone walls and firewood piles where rodents hide.
They avoid sunny, open areas and prefer cool, moist, shady places – there are usually fewer mites in light, dry places.
The good news is that well-maintained lawns and gardens are less attractive habitats for mites, so your yard is likely to have fewer mites than the surrounding area, but that doesn't mean they won't find you.
Ticks don't actively hunt, but wait for food to come their way — what entomologists call “probing” — by crawling to the edge of a leaf or grass, stretching out their legs, and waiting for any vertebrate animal, including humans, to rub against the plant. Then the tick gets on to it.
Ticks need to feed on blood to reproduce, and in this area their main hosts are deer and mice, so the first way to reduce tick populations is to reduce the number of these animals in your yard.
With this in mind, here are some landscaping tips to help keep tick populations low.
Tickscape 101:
Don’t try to make your entire property tick-proof. Focus on the areas you, your family and your pets use most. Contact your local Cooperative Extension Office, garden center or native plant society for a list of deer-resistant plantings specific to your area. Keep deer off your property with fencing and repellents. Don’t feed them. Keep sheds, firewood piles and compost bins, which are favorite hiding places for mice, away from the most frequented areas and keep vegetation around them trimmed. Mow your lawn to about 3 inches high. Remove dense ground covers such as ivy and pachysandra. Prune shrubs and trees near walkways. Although ticks do not live in tree canopies, trimming them allows more light in and creates a drier environment. Clear bushes, weeds and fallen leaves near areas where you garden, relax, eat, cook and play. Don’t forget around your mailbox. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends creating a border of rocks or coarse, dry wood chips about 3 feet deep between your most frequented areas and tick habitats. This creates a “moat” that ticks cannot cross. Maintaining a 10-foot-wide lawn between yards, patios, pools, and grilling areas serves the same purpose. Children's play areas should be located in a sunny spot at least 10 feet away from woods or fields, and mulched with dry wood chips instead of shredded mulch, which creates the moist conditions that ticks prefer. Garden paths should be wide enough to prevent plants from rubbing against feet. Studies show that ticks avoid strongly scented foliage, especially rosemary, mint, mugwort (Artemisia), garlic, lavender, geranium, marigold, chrysanthemum, and beautyberry (Callicarpa).
Protect yourself when you're out and about:
Wear light-colored clothing to make it easier to spot ticks crawling around. Wear closed-toed shoes when in the yard or grassy areas. Open-toed shoes can allow ticks to stick between your toes. Spray yourself with a DEET-based tick repellent or purchase gardening clothing with permethrin. When you come indoors, check your whole body carefully. Tick larvae are very small and can be mistaken for dirt or seeds. The CDC recommends showering within two hours after working in the yard or playing in the yard. Even if you apply a flea/tick treatment to your pet, be sure to wipe them down after going outside. Ticks can stick to pet fur and fall into the house.
For more information, the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station in New Haven has an 84-page manual that describes tick behavior, tick-borne diseases, and prevention and control measures.
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