Naturally Keeping Fleas and Ticks Out of Your Outdoor Space
Fleas and ticks not only bother pets and humans during warm months—they can carry serious illnesses too. Beyond standard preventive care for animals, homeowners can turn to a handful of safe and effective yard treatments that naturally discourage these pests.
By Toby Green
During the summer, fleas and ticks are a frequent nuisance for both animals and humans, and they are capable of spreading harmful diseases. Alongside routine flea and tick prevention for your pets, you can apply a number of safe and effective methods to make your yard a natural repellent against these pests.
Keeping Your Lawn Trimmed and Watered
Simply maintaining your lawn is one of the simplest natural flea and tick deterrents. Fleas struggle more in short grass because it provides less shade from the hot sun. Ticks typically wait on vegetation that is at least a foot high, positioning themselves to latch onto passing animals or people. Watering your lawn on a regular basis can kill flea larvae by drowning them, but be careful not to let standing water accumulate, or you may replace your flea issue with a mosquito issue.
Diatomaceous Earth
Diatomaceous earth is often cited as a useful natural flea and tick repellent for yards. This powder, derived from fossilized phytoplankton, is a safe and non-toxic way to repel bugs. Instead of poisoning insects, it pierces their exoskeletons and causes them to dehydrate. You can scatter it on the ground as a flea and tick deterrent without harming plants, pets or people.
Lime
Lime serves as another natural option for repelling fleas and ticks in your yard. Applying lime to a flea-infested yard can lower flea numbers by drying the fleas out. It works particularly well for killing fleas when spread over damp sections of the yard. Be aware that lime can alter your soil's acidity and might have a negative effect on lawn growth.
Tick Tubes
Tick tubes, including those manufactured by Damminix, are filled with cotton balls treated with permethrin—a poison that kills fleas and ticks effectively while generally being harmless to humans and animals. Fleas and ticks in your yard frequently live on mice that share the same outdoor space. Tick tubes take advantage of this link: mice carry the cotton back to their nests, where it kills the fleas and ticks living there, which in turn reduces the flea and tick population in your yard.
Using Heat to Sterilize Sandy Spots
Fleas might inhabit sandy or bare patches of your yard. You can use heat as a safe, natural way to kill fleas in these sandy areas. Just place a black tarp over the spot and leave it in place during the hottest part of the day. The heat trapped under the tarp is expected to kill fleas in the sand and bring down the overall flea count in your yard.
