Killing all the deer and brush hogging all the weeds won't protect you. Mice are a frequent target for tick nymphs and hang out around ankle height looking for a warm blooded host, MAN OR MOUSE. Adult ticks hang out a little higher and also are looking for a warm blooded feast (you will do nicely) Elliminating ticks is a noble quest but not easily achieved without poisoning the world as we know it. Think you can elliminate all the deer and mice and other hosts? Not bloody likely short of thermonuclear devestation!
The DoD (Dept of Defense) has come up with a good tick protection method for our troops for whom insects can be truly life threatening. Recall your history, more troops die from illness than battle wounds. Much illness is carried/spread by bugs.
A web search for things like "DoD" + "permethrin" or "tick" + "permethrin" will get you lots of info. There are army instructions on treating BDU (Battle Dress Uniform) AKA fatigues/cammies. There are federal stock numbers for pretreated clothing now but the same results are available for DIY.
Permethrin is the ticket. You can buy it in aerosol (spray can) at Wally World. Also available over the net in aerosol or concentrate. It is fairly expensive but extremely effective. When used in conjuntion with DEET based time release creams (for use on bare/exposed flesh) together these products give about 98-99% protection from ticks and mosquitos.
The permethrin is applied to your outer clothing and bonds to the fibers of the fabric. It is NOT applied to your skin and would biodegrade to useless harmless byproducts if you did. This stuff has a good safety record for use on humans as prescribed in military manuals or on the labels of the civilian spray cans.
It costs me about $25 a year to treat clothing for three adults (I treat about a dozen sets of outer wear, pants, socks, shirts for myself, some less for wife and mother.) Properly applied you get 52 weeks (including 52 hot detergent washings) of protection with the permethrin. Ticks are killed after walking less than a foot across treated fabric. Mosquitos will not bite you through treated fabric. For best results you need a high coton content in the garment to be treated, more is better, 100% cotton is best. I have had good success with 50% cotton. You treat your outer clothing; socks, pants, and shirts. For best protection long pants and long sleved shirts. Tuck your trousers into your socks or boot tops.
In one month before starting treating our clothes we used to get several ticks. Since treating our clothes, in three years with three adults, we have seen one tick that was apparently on one of us. It was floating dead in my mom's bath water.
I have never had an attached tick in three years of using treated clothes. I see LOTS of ticks on my clothes when out in "ticky" areas but they act strangely, walk aimlessly, and just stop and or fall off. I have taken ticks off of friends (walking across clothes not embedded yet) and placed them on my clothes. None have made it over a foot walking on treated clothing.
I buy a gallon of 10% permethrin at the feed store every two years or so. I pay $50/gallon. This is the cheapest I have seen it. It is way cheaper than the Sawyer stuff 13.3% in little (8 oz??) bottles for $28. It is way cheaper than buying a quart at a time AND IT KEEPS. IT can be used for spraying but keep it away from water as it is not an enviro-friendly thing. It can be used to spray the lawn around the house but runoff is a problem. Also you may leave your yard but usually while wearing clothes. So treat the clothes.
I spread the gospel of permethrin over on TractorByNet a couple years ago and one guy, even though he messed up the math and over diluted his mixture, raved about his results. He had been getting literally covered in ticks and would bathe in strong bleach solutions every night. After treating his clothes... ZERO Ticks.
I use the concentration recommended for 52 weeks or 52 hot detergent washings (whichever comes first) but lesser amounts are effective, just for shorter periods (still measured in weeks). I really hate to get ticks and with tick carried disease on the rise as well as West Nile Virus from mosquitos, I like to go with the stronger mix even though I don't "need" 52 week protection.
Time release DEET products (microencapsulated in protein micro-spheres) reduce the absorption of DEET into your skin yet give considerably longer protection. It is pretty safe for anyone not hyper sensitive to it. Tests have shown that DEET concentrations above 33% do not perform any better so don't use surplus Viet Nam Jungle Juice (90-100% DEET) it doesn't work any better and you get a larger dose in our system. Non-alcohol based DEET products are safer. There is at least one maker of time released non-alcohol based non greasy DEET. (I don't like greasy stuff on my skin much better than havng mosquitos on me)
Check with CDC in Atlanta, state health agencies, and similar public health authorities and you'll see they recommend this approach.
A couple years ago, tests of ticks in New Jersey showed that 40% of them carried Lymes disease. This is on the increase and is spreading. West Nile Virus is spreading rapidly across North America. It is on the east and west coasts and the gulf coast and is spreading. Citronela oil, Skin So Soft, and other wishful thinking approaches offer little or no protection.
Maybe you won't get a tick and if you do maybe you won't get a disease and maybe if you keep walking across the street without looking both ways you'll never get run down. Don't count on it.
//RANT MODE OFF//
Have a nice tick season,
Pat
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