How to Keep Fleas and Ticks OUT of Your Home This Summer

Once you have a flea or tick infestation in your home, it can be a real monster to deal with. There are bug bombs and chemicals you can spray. You can bathe the pets, your family, and yourself, but they always seem to come back. As summer gets going, flea and tick season is in full swing, so let’s go through a few ways to keep fleas and ticks from getting in your home in the first place by preventing an infestation.

Tend to Your Yard

If you have a lawn, you have a potential flea and tick infestation waiting to happen. That doesn’t mean you have to pave over your grass and chop down your trees and bushes. Rather, you can prevent ticks from latching on to you and your kids by regularly mowing the lawn and keeping the hedges pruned.

You also want to avoid over-watering your yard, as fleas and ticks love moist environments. So, while you love lush, green grass, make sure you’re not giving it too much water.

Don’t Let Them Come In With You or Your Pets

Whenever you come inside from doing yard work, check your clothing, including your shoes and socks, for any ticks that may have crawled onto you while you were in the yard. At the same time, it’s advisable to take your shoes and socks off at the door and immediately go to the shower. Once you’ve showered, grab your socks and the clothes you were wearing to work in the yard, and wash them immediately.

You’ll also want to make sure that your pets aren’t bringing fleas and ticks inside with them. Comb your pets regularly. Keep them up to date on flea medication, like Frontline, and make sure that you check them for fleas and ticks before you let them back in the house.

Protect Your House

In addition to limiting breeding grounds and places where fleas and ticks can jump onto you, your family, and your pets, you can ensure that they don’t find their way into your home by applying a pesticide spread around the foundation of your house. This creates a barrier that fleas and ticks won’t be able to cross to get inside.

If you aren’t a big fan of pesticides, you can spread cedar chips around your house instead. Cedar won’t kill fleas and ticks, but it’s very repellant to them. It’s also an attractive ground cover around the house and around trees and shrubbery.

 

Sources:

http://www.bayeradvanced.com/articles/10-easy-ways-to-rid-your-lawn-of-fleas-and-ticks

http://pets.webmd.com/features/stay-pest-free

http://www.homesessive.com/view/natural-ways-keep-fleas-ticks-and-mosquitos-away-summer

http://www.petag.com/get-rid-of-fleas-and-ticks/