Your Complete Home Guide For Taking Care Of A Tick Infestation

While ticks may be a nuisance, they pose a genuine threat to the health of you and your family, as they carry and transmit a variety of pathogens, including those responsible for Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. As we head out to enjoy the great outdoors, often with our furry friends, what we bring back home is not always a welcome visitor. The reality is that ticks are a part of our ecosystem, whether we like it or not, and to stay safe from the risks they pose requires a proactive approach. Even if you treat your pets frequently, there's no guarantee that your home will stay tick-free. To protect yourself and your home from a tick invasion, you'll need to take preventive measures in your yard, home, and on your person.

To stop ticks invading your space, you can turn to common ingredients from your medicine cabinet, bring out the yard tools, or rope in the big guns, aka apply repellents. Whether you are tackling an active tick problem or proactively fortifying your property, in this article you'll find handy steps that are effective, easy to follow, and safe for home use. From essential oils to dry barriers, here's what you need to know.

A 2017 study published in the journal of Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases showed that a selection of essential oils are effective at warding off ticks. These oils include lavender, clove bud, citronella, peppermint, red thyme, and more. Which are the most effective, though? The report revealed that the mixture of citronella and creeping thyme showed the highest repellency at 91%. The great news about both of these essential oils is that they give off a good aroma, with citronella's lemony scent and creeping thyme's fresh and herbaceous smell.

To add these oils to your home to keep ticks at bay, dilute them with water first. It depends on the essential oil you are using, but if you're going with clove bud oil, you'll want to aim for 10 to 15 drops per one ounce of water. You can then spray this around the home. If you're looking for a repellent for your skin, take citronella oil and add 10 to 15 drops with five drops of thyme oil to water, and spray it on. This is a great natural way to keep ticks away from your home.

When it comes to disrupting the tick life cycle, boric acid (often sold as borax) can be used to target the larval stage of these unwelcome visitors. While it's not effective against adult ticks who feed exclusively on blood, the larvae may consume the boric acid and meet their untimely end. As the larvae tend to live in carpets, rugs, under moist mulch, or in the beds of pets, sprinkling the powder in these areas should do the job. Boric acid, which can affect the ticks' stomach and nervous system, may be less toxic than many other pesticides, but it should always be handled with care.

You can find borax at most major supermarkets across the U.S. If you do use it to manage an infestation and keep ticks out of your house, make sure that you wear gloves before sprinkling and use it in a well-ventilated area, so make sure to open up the windows and doors. If the powder touches your clothes, change out of them as soon as possible. After you're done, wash your hands thoroughly and pack whatever is left far out of reach of little hands. Also ensure that you don't sprinkle any on your cats or dogs, and if you place it on their bedding, give it a good wash before they snuggle down again.

This is a tip aimed at removing a tick from your skin so you don't bring it into the house, and the good news is that it doesn't involve any surgical tools. A simple but clever trick is to apply liquid soap via a cotton ball to help lift a tick from the skin. In a 2021 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, a test carried out on nine patients showed that when liquid soap was applied to remove ticks, it had a 100% success rate. So, the numbers show that it really works.

To try this at home, take a cotton swab and douse it with liquid soap. Then, using the swab, go over the tick in a circular motion for half a minute to a full minute. Once you're done, take a dry cotton swab and wipe off the liquid soap. You should then find the tick on the swab with its head still intact. This is a far simpler and more painless way to remove a tip compared to taking a pair of tweezers to it. Also, there is far less risk of leaving the head behind when you remove the tick.

Bleach, or sodium hypochlorite, is a powerful oxidizing agent that can kill ticks on contact when applied safely. But is better used in confined areas or on hard surfaces rather than in open, living spaces. This is not a product you want to apply directly to your skin, as obvious as that may seem. While it should be used as a cleaning agent, if you do happen to catch some of the suspects, you can drop them into a container with bleach. That will kill them instantly.

If you've come home after being in an area that may be infested with ticks, you can dilute bleach with water and use a spray bottle to spray it on your clothing. Even though it is diluted and won't damage your clothing, it will still kill any ticks that may have latched on. One caveat: Bleach can, well, bleach textiles, so don't make the mixture too strong.

This is also a handy solution to have to spray on your pet bedding. As with boric acid, make sure that you wash it all off afterwards. You'll have clean-smelling bedding and ensure that it is tick-free. In short: Bleach is an ingredient that can help you stay safe from ticks, but it's too risky and corrosive to use on skin, or apply without discretion to sensitive surfaces, so handle with care.

A simple but effective way to eliminate ticks for good is creating a tick-killing jar filled with rubbing alcohol. By simply adding rubbing alcohol to a jar with a lip, you'll be able to immediately get rid of any ticks that you come across. When you find any ticks on your body, pets, or in your home, simply drop them into the jar and close it up, and the alcohol will kill them almost instantly. It's a common approach recommended by the experts as a quick and efficient way to deal with ticks you encounter — one that's far easier, safer, and less gross than trying to squash or burn them. 

For the jar, use a small, sealable container such as a glass jar or plastic bottle. Then, fill it halfway with rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol). Keep this jar in areas where ticks are commonly found, like near your front door, in your car, or in your yard. When you spot a tick, drop it directly into the jar. After it's in, securely close the lid to prevent any of the rubbing alcohol from spilling and to stop the tick from trying to escape. 

This tick prevention tip is simple but effective. After you've come in from a potentially tick-infested area, or if you've been into the woods and want to play it safe, don't simply chuck your clothes on a heap in the corner of your bedroom. Instead, toss any potentially tick-harboring articles into the dryer before giving them a wash. Ticks will only be killed in the wash cycle when the water temperature reaches greater than 130°F. While many washing machines can operate at this heat, to be sure, you can kill the ticks by simply placing your clothes in the dryer first. This is because most ticks are very sensitive to dryness — coupled with the heat, and you have a winning formula.

To effectively rid your clothes of ticks with this easy dryer tick first evaluate what kind of dryer you have. Both an electric and gas dryer will do the job, but it's the latter that gets hotter and is therefore more effective. Still, the good old electric option will be just fine — just add an extra five minutes or so to be double sure. 

Tiny ticks crawling over your skin, clothes, or, heaven forbid, outdoor furniture can be tricky to pick off. Before you enter a stage of hysteria (or your home for that matter), there is a quick way that you can remove them. Here, you'll be turning to one of the most important materials in any garage — duct tape. While you may use duct tape for all sorts of DIY jobs around the home, this engineering marvel is really good at effectively removing ticks from your skin and clothing.

Once you spot the critter, simply take a piece of duct tape and press it gently against the tick, whether it be on your body, garments, carpet, or a piece of furniture (sticky side down, obviously). There's no waiting needed — just lift the tape away, and the tick should come with it. This is an effective technique, as there is little risk of the tick regurgitating fluid and transmitting disease, which can happen when you use tweezers. You can also use duct tape around your boots or pants when you are out and about to limit them from crawling up your legs.

Prevention starts long before ticks make it indoors, and landscaping can be one of the most effective tools at your disposal. We're not talking about adding hedges or walls to keep the ticks out, but rather creating a barrier that is more inhabitable for them. Ticks thrive in shady, moist areas with tall grasses, brush, and leaf litter. By keeping grass mowed short, trimming back vegetation, and clearing away yard debris, you can reduce the environment ticks need to survive. Take it one step further by creating a dry barrier between your lawn and the greater outdoor environment, especially if you live alongside a wooded area.

To make this dry barrier, you'll be looking to create a 3-foot-wide area of dry material like gravel, mulch, or wood chips. These materials are less water-demanding and so won't create the environment that ticks need to thrive. This barrier doesn't need to be an eyesore — it can become an attractive feature of your garden. You'll want to make sure that parts of the garden like patios and play areas are within the barrier, as this is where you and the kids will spend most of your time.

If ticks are really invading your yard and putting your family's health at risk, it might be time to bring out the pesticides. Which pesticides deter ticks, though? The type you'll want to look out for is called an acaricide. This is a pesticide that kills mites and ticks specifically, but if you want to get really scientific, it is broken down further into miticide and ixocide. It's the latter that does the job for ticks. Here's the thing though — while acaricide is considered one of the most effective pesticides against ticks, the critters have been known to develop resistance against a range of them, so it's important to know how and when to spray your yard for ticks.

You'll want to apply the acaricide on the lawn and plants around your home, using a sprayer with high pressure and good coverage. Aim to spray your garden once in spring and again in fall, ideally when there is no wind. For safety, make sure to choose a product that is registered by the EPA and follow the safety instructions on the container or box. Once you're done, stay off the grass and out of the garden beds for 12 to 24 hours.

If you've been procrastinating about thoroughly vacuuming your home, here's a rock-solid reason. Vacuuming is a great way to rid your home of ticks that may have entered the space, as it removes both adults and eggs that may be hiding in your furniture, carpets, and even bedding. You'll want to do this fairly regularly if you're concerned about an infestation or if you've come across a lonesome tick after venturing outdoors. Usually, where there is one, there may be more.

Use an HEPA filter-equipped vacuum and make your way around the home, getting into all the corners and under the furniture. Once you're done, make sure that you discard the contents into a packet, seal it, and get rid of it straight away. If you have a bagless vacuum, make sure that you empty it carefully into a bag and do so away from your home, ideally. Steam cleaning your carpets is another good way to get rid of unwanted ticks or fleas.

Ticks thrive in shaded and humid outdoor spaces. They particularly like tall grass, leaf litter, and dense vegetation. So, a great way to minimize your risk of a tick invasion is to tackle each of these areas and give your outdoor space a general cleanup.

Start by making sure that you mow your lawn frequently and clean up the fallen debris from your garden beds. If you have dense garden beds, it's a good idea to trim them back and simplify where you can. If you have pieces of wood, sticks, and other organic debris lying around, get rid of those as well. Once you're done, you'll reduce the chances of ticks settling in, and you'll have a good-looking garden space to enjoy. If you have certain areas that your pets like to relax outside, make sure that you give those areas a good clean as well.

Ticks typically don't tend to invade or infest homes of their own accord. The ticks you encounter indoors are probably carried there either on your clothes or skin. Therefore, one of the core ways to ensure that ticks don't end up crawling around your space is to take a long shower after any outdoor activities, and thoroughly check for any hitchhikers.

After you've been outdoors or are concerned that you've been in an area or place that may have been infested with ticks, take to the shower and give yourself a good scrub down with soap and warm water. Ticks can crawl around for a while before deciding to latch on, and a good washdown will remove them before they take hold. At the same time, scan over your body to check that none have decided to take up residence, and if they do, use the liquid soap and cotton ball method we covered above.