Don’t They Just Bug You?
Mosquitoes and ticks are two different creatures. The only thing that they have in common is that they suck!……….(Ugly little parasites!). They are a major vectors of serious illness and disease worldwide.
It’s no secret that many municipalities have undertaken spraying programs for mosquitoes to combat the spread of eastern equine encephalitis, West Nile virus, and zika virus. While we are fortunate not to have to worry about malaria in our area, these others can be serious enough and sometimes even fatal.
The black-legged tick (aka deer tick) is a transmitter of Lyme disease, as well as Powassan virus, babeosis, and other illnesses. This tick has increased dramatically in our area. It is second only in numbers to the American dog tick, but it may soon surpass it.
What compounds the problem is that we are living in increasingly wooded areas. Our desire to be out in the country has put us squarely in the prime habitat for ticks, mosquitoes, and a major host of the black-legged tick, the white tailed deer.
MOSQUITOES:
Mosquitoes are in the insect family. Their young (larval) stage requires water. Therefore, mosquitoes are most common during wet, rainy weather, and closer to ponds, swamps, old tires, clogged rain gutters, or anywhere there’s stagnant water. They’re also highly mobile, depending on the species. Some may fly only a few feet. Others can fly for miles.
TICKS:
Ticks are in the spider family. They’re not very mobile at all. They’re hitchhikers that rely on their hosts to get around. Their hard bodies dry out quickly, therefore they don’t like open, sunny areas with low cut vegetation. That’s why you won’t find them in the middle of a sunny, mowed lawn. It just gets too warm there. They prefer to lurk in the shade, in tall grass, and anywhere they can latch onto a host without drying out. Most black-legged ticks attach to the white footed mouse as their first host (in their larval stage). That’s where they pick up Lyme disease. After they feed on mice and go through another growth stage, they’ll go for larger hosts. This stage of their life (nymph) is where they’re the most dangerous to humans and pets. They’re still very small, numerous, and therefore much more difficult to detect than an adult.
The black-legged tick will feed year round. It will become active when temperatures are above freezing and there’s no snow cover. It is common to pick up ticks during a January thaw! They’re that aggressive in their search for a host.
Our Control Services
Our mosquito and tick control program is available to customers that also have a 4 or 5 visit lawn service program with us. The program consists of 6 sprays at roughly 3 week intervals throughout the season, starting in mid-May and ending just before Labor Day. The first service primarily targets ticks, which are active earlier than mosquitoes. It will also control any early emerging mosquitoes. As we progress through the season, and the weather warms up, ticks usually become less of a problem. We still spray in the same areas to keep them at bay but the emphasis shifts to mosquito control. We use minimum-risk products that are virtually harmless to humans, pets, and the environment.
For those customers only concerned with tick control, and not mosquitoes, we can do a tick-only spray in mid-May. We can add another spray in mid-June if ticks are a real problem. If the problem is severe, we can also add a spray in mid-October. We can also service a property earlier in the season, if there’s a heavy population that hasn’t been treated in the prior seasons. We use the same minimum-risk products for tick control that we use for mosquito control.
It’s important to note that our sprays are not a “silver bullet”. We can get very good control of ticks for a long while, since they’re not that mobile, but mosquitoes are a different matter. Heavy rains can create a need to re-spray, even if it was just done. Your home environment will also help. Check out these sites to see what you can do to help minimize the risk of mosquito and tick bites:
https://www.cdc.gov/chikungunya/pdfs/fs_mosquito_bite_prevention_us.pdf
What’s a “minimum-risk” pesticide?
The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) have categorized certain control products as “minimum-risk” due to their lack of toxicity to humans, pets, and the environment. They make no claim as to their effectiveness. They have a list of acceptable ingredients in order for it to be categorized as such at:
We use two products: Tickkillz and Mosquito Barrier. TickKillz uses a combination of essential oils and a product that penetrates and kills on contact to control and repel. Mosquito Barrier is a garlic-based product that both kills and repels.
For more information, please go to: http://www.mosquitobarrier.com and https://tickkillz.com