How to Get Rid of Ticks in Your Yard

Start where yard ticks actually live: in woods and in the brushy, unmaintained edges beside them, far more than on open lawn. The landscaping steps the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends, such as clearing leaf litter and brush, laying a 3-foot strip of wood chips or gravel at the woods’ edge and mowing often, shrink that habitat. A spring spray can cut tick numbers sharply, but two large trials of yard tick control found no reduction in tick-borne illness in people.

Where the ticks are

Most yard ticks are in the woods and along their edges, not on the lawn. In a CDC-led survey of 67 residential properties in Westchester County, New York, published in 1991, researchers collected 1,790 ticks, nearly all of them blacklegged ticks, the species that spreads Lyme disease. Of those, 67% came from woods and 22% from the unmaintained edge where yard meets woods. Ornamental plantings held 9% and lawns 2%. Larval ticks stayed mostly in the woods, while nymphs and adults turned up in every habitat.

Which ticks a yard holds depends on the region. CDC’s range descriptions include:

• Blacklegged tick: widely distributed across the eastern United States.
• Western blacklegged tick: along the Pacific coast, particularly northern California.
• Lone star tick: widely distributed in the Northeast, South and Midwest.
• American dog tick: widely distributed east of the Rocky Mountains, with limited areas farther west.
• Rocky Mountain wood tick: Rocky Mountain states, at elevations from 4,000 to 10,500 feet.
• Gulf Coast tick: primarily the southeastern United States.
• Asian longhorned tick: found in 20 states as of April 12, 2024.

CDC’s yard steps

CDC recommends these changes to reduce blacklegged ticks around a home:

• Remove leaf litter.
• Clear tall grasses and brush around the house and at the edge of the lawn.
• Place a 3-foot-wide barrier of wood chips or gravel between lawns and wooded areas.
• Mow the lawn frequently.
• Stack wood neatly and in a dry area, which discourages rodents.
• Keep playground equipment, decks and patios away from yard edges and trees.
• Discourage deer, raccoons and stray dogs with fencing.
• Remove old furniture, mattresses and trash that give ticks a place to hide.

The 1991 survey explains the logic. The steps target the woods’ edge and move the places people spend time away from the woods and their unkept margins, where 89% of the sampled ticks were found.

What a yard spray does, and what it doesn’t

A pesticide aimed at tick habitat does reduce ticks. The CDC-led trial described below notes that in controlled studies, a single springtime application of an acaricide, a pesticide that kills ticks, killed 68% to 100% of them. Such barrier sprays often target the strip where grass meets woods, which a 2021 review by entomologists at CDC and the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station notes may cover only part of the wooded habitat on a property. The spring timing follows the nymphs: CDC says blacklegged tick nymphs seek hosts from April through July and pose a particularly high risk because they are abundant and about the size of a poppy seed.

Fewer ticks has not translated into less illness. In a CDC-led trial published in 2016, 2,727 households in three northeastern states received a single springtime barrier spray of either bifenthrin or water. Treated properties had 63% fewer host-seeking ticks, yet the households showed no difference in tick encounters or in tick-borne disease, including cases confirmed through medical records. A second trial across 24 neighborhoods in Dutchess County, New York, published in CDC’s journal in 2022, found that rodent bait boxes reduced ticks but produced no significant difference in human tick-borne disease, though disease in pets declined.

The 2021 review reached the same verdict: killing host-seeking ticks can suppress blacklegged tick numbers in residential landscapes, but evidence of an effect on human tick bites or disease is lacking. The review also flags an open question for anyone hiring a service: how well homeowners and pest control companies perform broadcast applications compared with the results reported in research studies.

CDC’s own guidance on yard pesticides is to follow the label, and to check with local health or agricultural officials about the time of year to apply, the type of product, and the rules for applications on residential property.

A spray is one layer of protection, not a substitute for the others. CDC also advises checking the body, pets and gear for ticks after time outdoors.

“Natural” yard products

Products sold as minimum risk pesticides are exempt from federal registration. EPA says it generally does not review products that claim the exemption, and does not review their labels. A CDC review published in January 2024 found wide variation among these products against blacklegged ticks: some performed close to conventional products, while others had little effect, including cedarwood oil products that knocked down only 5% to 6% of ticks in field plot tests.

Can ticks live in the house?

Ticks reach the house on clothing and pets. CDC warns that they can ride in that way and attach to a person later, and it advises tumble-drying clothes on high heat for 10 minutes to kill ticks on dry clothing.

The brown dog tick is the one to watch indoors. CDC notes that it prefers to feed on the same host through all its life stages, and a 2024 article in CDC’s journal describes it living in and around homes to stay near dogs, its preferred host. That article’s prevention framework pairs veterinary care for dogs with tick control around the home.

Anyone who becomes ill after a tick bite should tell a physician about the bite. CDC’s species descriptions list the diseases each tick can transmit.

When to call a professional, and what to ask

Consider a licensed applicator when the yard borders woods or brush that people and pets use, or when brown dog ticks are found indoors. Questions worth asking:

• Which tick species are you targeting, and which life stage?
• Where exactly will you apply: the woods’ edge and plantings, or the whole lawn?
• In which months will you apply, and how many applications a year?
• Which active ingredient will you use, and is it a restricted-use product?
• How will you keep it away from vegetable gardens, water and pollinators?
• Will you sample ticks by dragging a cloth before and after treatment, the method researchers use to measure results?