In Connecticut, Ticks are no joke. By now, most of you know I love “bugs”, however, there are a few on my I Don’t Care For At All list. The number one insect on my I Don’t Care For At All list is the Tick. The Tick is technically an arachnid, not a bug. No matter, it is the Black Legged Deer Tick that is the trouble maker. Too many of us have had Lyme Disease or know someone who has been afflicted. My goal is to tell you how you can reduce and even eliminate these pests in your yard.

Don’t mess around with Ticks. Make Tick control a regular part of your spring yard work. Ticks begin hatching in the cool, spring weather. When they are young nymphs, they are tiny and hard to spot but they still carry Lyme Disease. Ticks do not love the heat so they hang out in tall grasses, weeds, woods, garden beds, and any overgrown or un-manicured part of the yard. Keep this in mind, because this fact is important when it comes to proper tick control.

Van Wilgen’s has many effective tick control products, conventional & organic, eliminators & repellents. Whether you choose to go organic or treat using the conventional method, the applications are the same.

Some great products for conventional Tick control are:

•Bonide’s Insect & Grub Control Granules

•Sevin Lawn Insect Granules

•Bayer Advanced Complete Insect Killer (hose-end)

•Damminix Tick Tubes

Some great products for organic tick control are:

•Eco Smart Organic Insect Killer Granules

•EcoSmart Organic Mosquito & Tick Control (hose-end)

The best type of application consists of a perimeter control treatment, where the manicured part of your yard meets the un-manicured part. I recommend applying granules for long-term control and spray with a hose-end liquid product for an immediate knockdown. The organic products help to reduce tick populations but do not provide as quick of a kill and work more as repellents. It is also important to treat in garden beds where ticks hide under flowers & shrubs. Wood piles, decks, and under garden sheds are also hot spots for ticks to hang out. Be sure to treat these areas. If you want to be very thorough, product application can be made over the entire lawn area but your most effective control will be focused along the perimeter of your property.

To enhance your perimeter tick control program, consider control over woodland creatures that carry ticks. Deer & the White Footed Mouse are big carriers of Deer Ticks. Using deer repellents will greatly reduce your deer population and in turn, reduce Tick populations in your yard. The mouse is harder to repel but using Damminix Tick Tubes will really help to reduce the Deer Tick populations in their nests. It is pretty cool. Mice steel the treated cotton balls inside of the tick tubes, bring the cotton balls back to their nest, and the ticks are killed by the product on the cotton balls. Controlling Deer Tick populations in the nests of the White Footed Mouse is an extremely clever and important part of your tick control program.

Ticks are no laughing matter. It is easy to take Tick control into your own hands with the very easy-to-use products we offer at Van Wilgen’s.

Come see us at Van Wilgen’s. We would love to help!