Is it possible to spray a garden for ticks?

[User76745333]

DDog and Dcats are getting loads on a regular basis even though they wear collars purchased form the vets. We get deer in the garden and it is surrounded by woodland so its ideal tick territory. Tick infestations have increased over the past few years and Im worried about the DC getting bitten. We are in the Midlands

I know in America they spray their gardens. Is that prohibited in the UK. It isn't ideal from an environmental perspective of course but we can't carry on like this. You can literally see them all in the grass.

Are you honestly asking who owns deer?!! DEER?!!!! They are wild animals!

OP, we are in the States and there is a lot of Lymes around and yes, people get their gardens sprayed regularly but they also have to have signs up telling everyone there is highly dangerous poison on their garden so I personally don't. We are all quite vigilant for ticks though.

Lol they might be wild but most deer in the UK are introduced species and their numbers are out of kilter with our environment as it goes. They cause loads of problems including Lyme Disease.

The city I live in has a deer park on the outskirts. The herd and the land are managed by the council - so in that sense the deer are ‘owned’ and the responsibility lays with them for overseeing where they roam. For example the Council has to take measures to prevent them wandering into neighbouring allotments and trampling/eating crops. In the OPs case, there is surely a landowner where these deers graze with a boundary to their garden. Liaising with them would be an option to discuss boundary control.

It would be absolutely futile to spray, as well as extremely environmentally damaging. Best to fence the deer out and use the repellents & treatments that pp have
recommended.

We moved into a previous unoccupied house that had a roof full of roosting pigeons. The garden was tick glastonbury. As it was completely walled and barren aside a few trees, dried up lawn and empty beds, we had it sprayed. It must have been some seriously bad chemicals as we couldn't use the garden for a week.
We had to replace the top soil and have the lawn re-layed.
Never saw another tick.

A bite has a typical 'bullseye' formation with a red central spot

I would like to add that whilst this is an easy symptom to look out for, it only occurs in 80-90% of cases. If you've been bitten, you need to keep track of other symptoms.

We try to keep the DC out of long grass and undergrowth as much as possible. Use tick spray on them (yes, it stinks, yes, they moan) and keep any removed ticks - stick between clear stick tape, date and name of child and where they were. A friends DC went with symptoms and she was told it's easier to test the tick to see if they're a carrier.

I can remember as a child in the 60s our Jack Russells getting them from walks and my DM removing them but I can't remember anything about Lyme disease, DB or I were never checked for them, it was probably rarer then or people weren't so well informed, I'm sure we used to get most of our information from library books and encyclopaedias though so it wasn't readily available to find out

I spent time in the highlands as a kid and ticks were hugely prevalent then. The difference was no one cared much as Lyme was not around

Lyme is a total pest to worry about. I live in the east now and there are ticks but manageable. When we holiday on the west coast I spray the dogs with natural oils to prevent ticks, and I ping all the ticks off as we walk or after. I don’t let the kids sit in long grass or heather.
I wouldn’t spray my garden personally as it seems a never ending task and I worry more about pesticides than I do Lyme.
you can also spray kids with the essential oils, get a proper tick remover and check regularly

@TimeForGouter do you worry about Lyme disease?

Thanks all. I have a tick remover in every room of the house and we are all expert at removing them but they’re awful and they’re definitely getting worse and seemingly more resistant to the collar. The animals are on vet plans so they have tablet, liquid and collars for fleas worms and ticks so you’d hope they were covered but nope.

I actually live I suspect near the location another poster has mentioned with a large deer park owned by the local authority (midlands?). But this is different. The whole village is surrounded by woodland. Our house in particular woodland attached to the garden and then most houses nearby also own bits of woodland too. The deer are wild and roam through the area.

I love the location and the garden. We have a lot of wildlife and beautiful birds, but this is now out of control. Dh and I sat on a bench yesterday and in the space of a couple of minutes without moving or particularly looking we found five by our feet in the grass.

ddog is a rough collie (like lassie) so it isn’t easy to see them until they’re big.

Its just part of being outside. Keep grass short on the parts your kids play on and check them regularly. Check your animals too and use flea/tick medication regularly. You can’t just spray and kill everything because you want to go outside, and even if you do you should be worried about the poison for your kids.

+You can’t just spray and kill everything because you want to go outside, and even if you do you should be worried about the poison for your kids.*

🙄I’m not just spraying and killing everything because I want to go outside for goodness sake. I love the wildlife. In this particular case that is a bit like saying “you can’t go killing wasps just because you want to use your loft”

Well it’s not. They’re outside. So 🙄 right back atcha.

So you’re fine with me killing pests on the property as long as they’re indoors. Ok..

Anyway, as I said, this is not a normal level of ticks.

A tick was on me for less than an hour and I got Lyme disease. Not pleasant at all. The farming community believes the explosion has come from us not dipping sheep anymore. Sadly the little fuckers seem impervious to cold and a Canadian vet friend told me she’s seen them crawling over snow banks in the sun. 🤮

I would fence off the garden. to stop the deer. Is there no narrowing of the garden where you can put a fence across. I use 9 ft plastic netting/fencing to keep deer off shrubs and trees. It's brown so you could put that across and it would not be very visible.

The whole garden is fenced to six foot but they jump the fences. We couldn’t afford to refence it anyway since the garden is 2 acres and the house is in the middle. We have a covenant preventing fencing in the woodland. It’s only allowed post and wire (three wires only) to mark boundaries.

it doesn’t sound like spraying is possible but I will contact a pest control place and see if they have any solutions. We might be able to treat a small area.

I didn't say that at all. I just said that comparing inside to outside isn’t really... well, comparable.

Try not to poison your kids whilst making the outside world ‘clean’.

Deer jump the fences easily here.

I have avoided Bravecto and Nexguard as believe they’ve caused neurological problems / seizures with some dogs but it is hopefully rare. I’ve just bought a natural tick collar from amazon and waiting to see if it helps . Ddog also should take her garlic pills again as they definitely helped last year .

please can I also mention that a circular rash can be a helpful sign of Lyme disease but I think only a 3rd or so of infected people do get the rash. So I always watch out for anyone who’s been bitten getting feverish later and I log each tick bite with a date !

My kids are more likely to be infected with Lyme disease which could literally impact them for life.

I don’t know why you are being so sanctimonious. Im a gardener. I have animals. My property is literally in woodland. I am by no means trying to park a big yellow taxi in my paving lot. But I do have an infestation of a pest which potentially carries a very serious disease.

We have a similar environment, garden is an acre backing on to woodland and deer wander through daily. We keep our grass short, use bravecto on our cats and have tick tools everywhere. We don't have anywhere near the number you are getting though.

how long is your grass? That'd be the first, easiest thing that you can control. Ticks only crawl, they can't jump like fleas so if you keep the grass as short as possible they are less likely to be able to transfer onto people. Can you speak to your vet and see if there's an alternative for your cats to switch to if what you are currently using isn't effective?

Most of the grass in the garden is kept short but the garden is semi wooded with lots of trees and shrubs. The open section is a wildflower meadow which is I suspect part of the problem since there is long grass in with it. I didn’t want to get rid of that since it’s good for pollinators and the bee hives are there.

ddog likes to spend most of the day sitting under a big oak near to the house overseeing his domain. It’s the area the kids are in most too. I wonder if I could get that area at least treated with the diamond earth

I would switch to a different treatment for the dogs - I've heard that collars aren't necessarily that effective.

We have similar issues.

DS got Bullseye rash a few years ago after a tick- a week of antibiotics from the doctor as thankfully I noticed it quickly.

Amused by the idea of fencing a domestic garden to completely prevent deer- have you seen how high they can jump? Over 6 foot. Fencing & gates to totally prevent deer has to be VERY high and is therefore incredibly expensive. And in many cases neighbours might not be happy with fences that high.

I mow the grass often to keep it short, and we check the kids and dog after every time in the garden.

*diatomaceous earth! I suspect it’ll cost as much as diamond earth though!!