So, summer is half over for some of us and ticks haven’t been a big issue yet. Maybe we’ll get a break this year! Maybe not.

In the world of ticks, things are just getting started. Ticks are not just summer pests anymore. In fact, in some areas of the U.S., ticks are practically year-round problems. In our Northeastern region, the blacklegged tick (formerly known as the deer tick and vector of Lyme disease) remains our number one tick pest. Due to global warming, more ticks survive the winter and ticks now become active earlier in the spring and stay active longer, well into early winter.

Blacklegged “deer” tick on a brown leaf. Shutterstock.

If you combine this longer tick season with the fact that more people are enjoying “staycations” in their own yards and more kids are home from school on an extended basis, we could see a busy tick disease season still to come. Ticks aren’t just found in wooded areas. They climb tall blades of grass or shrubbery so they can attach to a passing animal, or person. It’s not too late to do something about tick visitors to your yard. 

HERE’S WHAT TO DO IF YOU FIND AN ATTACHED TICK

And, just in case you’ve forgotten what to do if you find ticks on family members or pets, here’s a review of the right way to remove a tick:

• Don’t rush the process, but don’t delay either
• Remember two main things – tweezers as close to the skin as possible, and a slow, steady pull
• Try your best to remove the tick’s mouthparts without crushing the tick
• For details, see An Attached Tick? How to Remove it the Right Way 

HERE’S WHAT TO DO TO KEEP FROM FINDING AN ATTACHED TICK!

Tick management on your property is best accomplished with a multi-pronged approach. There are things you can do on your own to make your yard a less desirable habitat for ticks. These range from general cleanup of fallen leaves and debris piles, to keeping grass and weeds short, to creating a tick-free border around your yard perimeter, to ridding your yard of mice and other animals that blacklegged ticks use as alternate hosts (see Take Steps to Keep Ticks Out of Your Yard).

TICK CONTROL ON YOUR PROPERTY IS OUR JOB ONE!

For our part, Colonial Pest Control is now offering Tick Control and Prevention services as part of our popular Preventative Maintenance Program. This new Platinum Plan can help reduce ticks on your property and that means a safer summer and fall for your family. You have better things to worry about.

Click to learn more about our Platinum Program!

Our trained and certified technicians can help with some of the tasks mentioned above, for example outdoor rodent control. Colonial Pest’s technicians can identify specific tick species and even know which diseases they spread. They will inspect and assess your outdoor property and evaluate tick risks, developing a treatment plan for high-risk areas.

For more information on our tick management services, give us a call at 888-982-2963.  For details on measures that we are taking to ease customer worries about coronavirus during service visits, see Colonial Pest Control’s COVID-19 Response.