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.

We live in the countryside too, ticks are part of it. You treat pets, kids wear trousers when playing, teach them to tuck trousers into socks or wear wellies. Check them regularly. Most ticks don’t carry Lyme disease, even if they do you won’t necessarily get it. If you do, medication means most people recover. Spraying your land with poison is an overreaction. Just get on with life and enjoy your nice surroundings. The longer you live on the countryside, the less you worry. We flick them off or remove them and barely think about it.

We live in a tick area and use Nexguard on our dogs. I know there have been reports of it causing seizures in rare cases, but it seems to work. Removed a dead tick from the top of one dog's head yesterday and a dead one from another dog's ear the day before. I suppose they'd just fall off eventually but as soon as I see them I have to get my tick hook out. Vile things.

Sounds like it wouldn't be possible given the covenant, but could you fence off (with proper deer fencing) a large area within your own garden, keep the grass there very short (or resurface with something else) where the kids could play?

Thanks everyone. I do appreciate its part of living in the countryside. I’ve lived here all my life and I’m almost 50. This is not a normal level of tick population.

im going to make some calls and see if there is any viable solution.

The difficulty lies with how hard ticks are to kill due to their lifestyle and life cycle. Veterinary drug companies have been trying for years to find and answer.

For it to work, the host has to have a very high level of circulating drug in it's system and even then the results are very variable.

It's accepted that there is very high levels of veterinary flea and tick drugs in watercourses and in the environment and this is likely to get worse as the planet warms and more and more people get pets. It's a ticking time bomb.

I agree with this.

We are into woodland in our garden. The only way we found to stop ticks was to stop the deer coming into the garden by fencing. It can be an open wire fence.

We were still finding ticks the following year embedded in the children. The year after it stopped and we haven't had an issue since. This was 5 years ago now.

I don't know how long the fence is but you could put a strip horizontally 90 degrees to the top outwards. As wide as it needs to be ( a bit like putting chicken wire horizontally out from chicken pen to stop foxes digging under the fence.
Or it could lean outwards.

Unless someone is culling the deer this will only get worse as there are more, and less fodder.

@Bluebruin No, not really. That’s probably a very irrational position, but there’s no way we can avoid ticks unless we completely change our lifestyle and stop doing all the things we love. It probably also helps that I know a lot of people who work in the outdoors up here and none of them have ever had Lyme. And of course we check ourselves and the kids nightly, and the kids check themselves, and we’re very alert to the symptoms (more so the flu like symptoms than the rash).

Fence is long since it goes all around the garden/house section which is about 2 acres and then there are various gates which lead out into the woodland surrounding the garden section. But yes we could try to restrict deer access a bit by putting something like that in place, certainly around the sections where they come in most frequently (although one of those is a lowish five bar gate). We couldn't do the driveway though since its extremely long.

It's difficult. I don't want to destroy the eco system, I don't really want to shut the deer out of the property completely, one of my joys in life is sitting watching them in the early mornings, but then nether is this level of tick infestation a viable long term thing.

Hmm. I need to think some more.

In the meantime I might fence off the section where the dog sits and move the chickens into that area in the hope that they eat some of the little f*ckers.

You are lucky to have chickens, our neighbour does and has no issue with ticks in his garden while we are riddled with them!
I found one under my armpit just this morning and we are getting at least one a day . One in 4 ticks in a surgery in our area (south west England ) tested positive for Lyme in a survey and one of our DC has already had Lyme Disease so will always test positive apparently which makes me more nervous . I hate the way it’s on the increase as I was bitten endless times as an outdoor - loving child but by the less dangerous dog ticks and never these tiny deer ticks

I’ve read that chickens don’t actually make much difference but if I fence them into a smallish area at a time it might help a bit

Spraying your entire garden is drastic, will kill all sorts of insects. Not sure what it’ll do to plants.
Home made tick repellent:
Spray bottle
Small amount of vodka , alcohol or hand sanitizer spray ( not gel)
Water boiled and cooled.
Rose Geranium oil ( must be Rose Geranium, not rose, not geranium)

Add about 20-30 drops of Rose Geranium oil to other ingredients in a sparky bottle. Shake and spray on legs, shoes, exposed arms ( test on kids skin first, small area for any reaction) Can be used on dogs but NOT cats. I’ve been using it on dogs for years, very rarely get a tick.

I’m sure I read somewhere that Guinea fowl are fantastic at eating ticks if you fancy some of those in your garden OP!

I should have said , our neighbour does have 30 chickens so perhaps quantities help!

We live in a high tick area in Central Europe. Everyone gets vaccinated from Tick bourne encephalitis. It’s mandatory that children are vaccinated if they attend kindergarten.

Our cats get them although have tick treatment. We use tick o twisters to remove.

House also backs onto woods. But there’s a large gap of about 10metres between our garden and woods. Makes no difference, the ticks must just travel down from Deer in the wood. Or on the other small animals like hedgehogs and cats. Our garden is fenced off, and sloped so the deer don’t roam in that often but they do just wander down the steps and over the gate if and when they fancy at dawn.

I second Guinea fowl. They are renowned for clearing ticks. They can fly quite high and do roam but you can train them to come home to roost so would be a more effective long term solution than a one off treatment.

Hmm, sounds like we need some new family members. Don’t Guinea fowl squawk out alarm calls too?

Yes they are excellent guard birds but they can be pretty loud if they spot anything suspicious, may be a consideration if you have neighbours.

Get a peacock flock

I would love a peacock flock. If they eat ticks that's a good solution! When I was at university we had peacocks wandering around campus and I think very fondly of them.

@User76745333 sorry I have no idea if they actually eat ticks. I just like the ones in Holland Park

Let you chicken s loose around garden apparently they are great at reducing ticks about as they will eat them

Definitely get the bravecto tablets to break the cycle. I see ticks crawling on my dogs and dispatch them before they bite, but I don't think we have them in the garden.

My neighbours are pretty suspicious so that could be a lot of squawking

😆 I could have bought peacocks overnight!! (I did actually go onto a peacock purchasing site)