No one enjoys being bitten by these little critters, especially since we know the diseases associated with them. If we have animals in our yards it is inevitable that we will have ticks and fleas too since they come from far and wide in search of warm blood. When you have long grass or thick brush in your garden it makes it that much easier for the ticks to hang around comfortably waiting for anyone with warm blood to brush past. When this happens the ticks attach themselves and start feeding immediately.

One of the first things one can do is keep grass short, ticks tend to sit on the tips of grass blades waiting to attach themselves to anything that brushes past. Also keep tree limbs cut high and underbrush raked and burnt. The most important thing to do is treat your pets and animals with something like Advantage or Frontline. Your first line of defense is protecting your pets, this will prevent the ticks coming onto your property in the first place. An option that a lot of people choose is keeping Guinea Fowl as they can eat large amounts of ticks and this way keep your property free of ticks on an ongoing basis.

There are a few other options, one of them being tick granules which can be purchased at Wal-Mart or most garden centres. Sprinkle the granules outside before it rains as the rain activates the granules, this works for fleas and other bugs too. Just one application in spring is usually enough unless you have a bad infestation or you had a warm winter, in which case you might have to re-apply in summer too. Another insecticide called Permethrin is quite popular to treat for fleas but as with any insecticide use it with caution, even though it is supposedly non-toxic to mammals. It is put on cotton wool and inserted into cardboard tubes which are scattered around the yard and carried away by mice to be used to build nests. The ticks on the mice are then exposed to the insecticide and die.

Food grade diatomaceous earth is also used by sprinkling all over, even on pets and inside the house. Some natural solutions include Cedarwood Borders in the garden about 10 inches wide, it is said that ticks will not cross this border. Catnip is also effective as it produces the oil "Neem" which is used in many insecticides. Lavendar, Lemon Grass and Lemon Basil planted in your garden are also said to help keep ticks away and work at keeping mosquitoes away too.

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My passion is animals. I am very interested in doing whatever it takes to help abused and homeless animals, by educating the public and trying to find ways of making every living creature's life better. I have my own blog mainly dedicated to dogs, where I try to raise public awareness to the plight of animals everywhere. My blog is at - http://canine-health-and-happiness.blogspot.com/