New England is a hotbed for Lyme disease due to ideal temperatures and accessibility to hosts for deer ticks. We can't change that, but if you spray for ticks in the spring, ideally with safe, all-natural tick treatments, we reduce their population before they can bounce back from winter.
Deer ticks are a year-round threat in New England, but are slowed down by winter cold, heavy snowfall, hot summer temperatures or dry spells. They have a two-year life cycle and search for different sized hosts depending on the season and their current life-stage.
So why spray for ticks in early Spring?
Eliminate Adult Ticks that Survived the Winter
Adult deer ticks go dormant when temperatures drop below around 35°F (or approximately 1.5°C), and often seek shelter in leaf litter, fallen tall grass or brush to stay protected from the cold and close to the warmer ground. Once temperatures start to warm up and any snow cover has melted, they reactivate to lay eggs.
When they do become active, female adult deer ticks can lay up to 2,000 eggs each, which is why disrupting this cycle at the right time is so important. Even further, when they come out of dormancy, some adult deer ticks will search for a host for one last blood meal if they didn't find one before the winter.
Eliminate Eggs that are Deposited in Leaf Litter
Eggs are fertilized in the fall and deposited in leaf litter the following spring. That's why we highly recommend treating your yard to eliminate ticks through the late fall and starting in the early spring.
Natural lawn sprays like the PROGAEA™ Tick & Mosquito solution we use both eliminates eggs on contact, and stops adults from laying the next generation, but it always helps to do a spring yard clean-up and eliminate leaves and brush from your yard as well. That way the spray treatment can access all surfaces in the yard so the eggs have no where to hide.
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Spraying for Ticks Breaks the Life Cycle from Restarting
Immature ticks are called nymphs, and breaking their life cycle here is more important than you might think. They are tiny (less than 2 mm), and difficult to see, but cause 85% of all tick-borne illnesses.
They feed during the spring and summer months. Adult deer ticks are much larger and are most active during the fall. When you eliminate the adult deer ticks before they can lay their eggs, or even eliminate the eggs before they hatch, you are reducing the deer tick population for the following two seasons.
That means you may not see a reduction in the current season, but you prevented the cycle from continuing the following year. It's also important to mention that although you should spray for ticks in early spring as soon as temperatures drop below freezing, but you should continue spraying through late Fall for the best control of deer ticks on your property.
Our tick-focused sprays adjust for the season and life-stage of the deer tick in order to eliminate and proactively reduce future populations. Click the button below to contact us with any questions, or for a free consult and quote:
