Tick season is in full swing. Whenever the outside temperature is above freezing, ticks can be active. Let’s explore these disease-carrying pests.
- Ticks are most commonly active during spring, summer and fall. But even on mild winter days ticks can be active.
- Ticks can be found in wooded areas, bushes, shrubs, and tall grasses.
- Ticks attach to hosts by waiting on grass or vegetation, stretching their front legs and grabbing their victim as it passes by, and then burrowing into the skin with its mouth parts. It digs in with its feeding appendage and anchors itself firmly in place.
- Diseases ticks can spread include lyme disease, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, tick fever, heartland virus, rocky mountain spotted fever, Powassan virus disease, ehrlichiosis, alpha-gal syndrome, borrelia miyamotoi disease, tularemia and bourbon virus.
- Tips to prevent ticks include mowing your lawn regularly, eliminating mouse habitats in your home, adding a deer fence around your garden, staying away from wooded areas or tall grasses, wearing long pants and tall socks when in wooded areas, and using a tick repellent when outside. You can also protect your yard with an exterior tick control treatment by your local pest control expert.
- If you find a tick on yourself or your pets, use tweezers and grab the tick as closely to your skin as possible, pull upward steadily without twisting or jerking the tick to remove it, clean the area of the skin where the tick was thoroughly, and dispose of the tick.
If you experience a tick issue around your home or business, please contact us for a free inspection. We offer residential pest control and commercial pest control for the greater Capital District area including Albany, Schenectady, Saratoga and Rensselaer Counties.