Ticks & Mosquitoes can be horrifying!
Ticks are parasites on warm-blooded animals. Normally, an adult female tick should consume a blood meal for it to get essential nutrients required for egg production. In the right environment, a female tick can lay as many as 10,000 eggs in just a single batch. Shortly after laying the eggs, the female tick completes its life cycle by dying.
Times when ticks are active
Ticks need two things to ensure their survival which is blood and wet environments. Wherever the conditions exist, there could be ticks. When inactive, ticks can survive for over a year without consumption as they wait patiently for the host animal to come their way to make contact for them to find their meal.
The combination of those two things is most often in forests, in fields, uncut lawns or in the park where trees ensures shade and fallen leaves that keep the soil moisture. So if you go a walk with your dog please make sure you know what treatment you can use.
Tick-Borne Diseases
Ticks are a relatively large family of pests that are arachnids and, therefore, related to spiders. The bite of these little pests can transmit a host of diseases including Lyme Disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Southern Tick-Associated Rash Illness plus others with too many syllables to pronounce. The irony is that all of the above have the same symptoms, the process for diagnosis and treatment options with the significant variation being a tell-tale circular rash associated with Lyme Disease.
Primary reason for this increase is the scientific phenomenon of ‘Pesticide Resistance’ whereas each successive generation of pests is less affected by synthetic chemical pesticides. Here is how Pesticide Resistance works – if a particular population of pests is exposed to a man-made concoction designed to kill them, a certain percentage will be immune. They, in turn, pass that immunity on to their offspring and with successive generations each year, soon the entire pest population is resistant to that particular pesticide product. So in our efforts to diminish the population, we are actually creating Super Ticks that require stronger, more lethal chemicals for control. No wonder cases are on the rise!
Treatment of tick infestation
Lately, the number of ticks has escalated, and many forget to prevent, treat and control their pets for fleas. The climate change provides more ticks and fleas generally. The growing number of ticks and flea problems makes it even more important to prevent, check and treat against it. It is essential to protect yourselves and your animals against fleas and ticks because in the worst case they can transmit diseases and infections. To get to this problem, you will have start with looking for symptoms of your pet.
To manage our exposure risk, there are environmental measures we can take. According to the Centers for Disease Control, below is a list of proactive step you can take to minimize your exposure:
• Remove all the lawn leaf litter.
• Cut down tall grasses at the edge of lawns.
• Place a wide barrier of 3-ft made of wood chips or use gravel between lawns and the wooded regions to restrict tick migration into your recreational areas.
• Mow all the parts of your lawn frequently.
• Stack wood neatly and in a dry area (discourages rodents).
• Keep children playground decks, equipment, and patios far away from yard edges and the trees.
• Discourage unwanted animals (such as raccoons, deer, and stray dogs) from getting to your yard by constructing fences.
Majestic can help you with ALL of these things!
But the most effective preventative measure against tick-borne illness is to use repellents. Using a natural product effective against ticks is always superior to a synthetic product because natural products cannot develop Pesticide Resistance. Majestic can do perimeter pest control on your property with a 100% natural insecticide that will also kill mosquitos including those carrying the Zika virus! Natural ingredient repellents can be used directly on people as well as in the yard to create a barrier for ticks to enter.
When it comes to the turn of ticks and the diseases they carry, it is hard to over-prevent as many of these diseases remain a health issue for some time with the lingering, debilitating symptoms. Take educated precautions against tick bites using safe, natural repellents for the best possible outcome.
Summary
Periodic services on your lawn or yard and continued excellent sanitation practices will usually provide an elevated level of tick and mosquito control in the homestead. You can further maintain tick control by restricting your pet’s access to areas where they may encounter new ticks and by using a good quality flea/tick collar. (Ask your veterinarian for a recommendation.)
Call Majestic today and get a quote on a Perimeter Pest Control package so you can relax and enjoy time spent outdoors with your family and friends!