52 April 14, 2010
On the front page of the Saturday issue of the Daily News, there was an article on the explosive growth in the number of ticks. I know that over the past 10 years or so, the number of ticks do seem to be on the rise. As you probably know, ticks can carry any number of diseases. In my estimation, the tick you should be most worried about is the deer tick. The tick is so small that it is very hard for you to see them if they have gotten onto your body. This is the tick that carries Lyme disease. I have had customers who have had Lyme disease for 5 years in a row. Most of these people picked up the tick in their own yard. You should be treating your yard to help to control the number of ticks that are in your yard.
There are many granular insecticides that are effective at controlling ticks. You apply them with a lawn spreader. You should treat the entire lawn. You need to pay particular attention to any area of lawn that borders tall grass or any area adjacent to a field or wooded area. The treatment should be applied once a month until the tick population goes down. This treatment is also effective at controlling dog ticks.
In the past I have also told you about a product called Damminix. This product is designed to target deer ticks. This is how this product works. Damminix comes in cardboard tubes. Inside the tubes are cotton balls. The cotton balls are treated with an insecticide. The tubes are placed around the perimeter of the yard. They should be placed near tall grass, wood piles etc. The reason for this type of placement is to attract mice. Now some of you may be going “eeew” thinking about attracting mice. Trust me when I tell you the mice are already there in your yard. They are one of the reasons there are deer ticks in the yard. The deer ticks feed on the mice. The mice will find the tubes with the cotton balls and will carry the cotton balls back to their home. As the mice come into contact with the cotton balls, the insecticide coats their fur. The insecticide doesn’t hurt the mice. As the mouse continues to roam the yard, deer ticks climb up onto the mouse. As the deer tick comes into contact with the insecticide on the mouse’s fur, the tick is killed. This product uses the natural attraction of the tick for the mouse to ultimately control the tick population. I have customers who have used this product and they have had great results in dramatically reducing the deer tick population. The Damminix is applied once in the spring and again in early fall. This is the time of the greatest activity of the mice and the ticks. We have Damminix available in our store.
Well, that’s all for this week. I’ll talk to you again next week.