How to keep your yard tick-free

3 ways to keep your yard tick-free

Did you know that a small tick can grow up to 50 times its normal size? We know this because a tick will attach itself to your dog and literally suck the blood from the dog's body. Once they make contact with that first bite, they will then bury themselves deep into your flesh to suck as much blood as possible.

Ticks are not only intrusive and painful, they also risk the spread of diseases like Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. The good news is that there are steps that you can take to keep ticks away from your dog.

1. Ticks like to hang out on vegetation that is several feet off of the ground so that they can pounce on you as you walk by. You can drastically reduce the ticks that inhabit your home yard and other surroundings by keeping your outside areas trimmed and clear of anything above ankle height. This removes the tick's advantage point and therefore you have less chances of getting chosen for the tick's next meal.

2. Take extra measures to minimize mice and other rodents in and around your house. Why? Because baby ticks tend to choose smaller animals to jump onto and feed from. This means that every small animal that is roaming your property is possibly carrying baby ticks whom are feeding from them and will eventually leap onto you. Be sure to clean up and remove areas like rock piles, old dump areas, etc. and this way you are taking the extra measures to reduce tick exposure.

3. If you are trying to clear out a tick problem and have too many mice running around then you may want to invest into a product called “Damminix”. Damminix is made up of cotton balls that are soaked with insecticide. What you do is place the cotton balls in specific areas where the mice will pick them up to help build their nests. Damminix will kill the ticks and fleas that are attached to the rodents but it does not harm the mice or any other small animals besides the parasites.