Don�t Get Ticked Off: The Trouble with Ticks

Ticks may seem like a minor annoyance, but they can add up to big issues for you.  Aside from their vampire like-tendencies of sucking your blood, they can also give you Lyme disease, which can cause flu-like symptoms, as well as neurological issues.  While lawn owners elsewhere may react by bathing their grass with chemicals, pesticides are banned in Ontario.  Instead, you can keep the ticks away with good lawn care and a little Burlington lawn irrigation.

Tidy Up Your lawn for Better Results From Your Burlington Lawn Irrigation
Give ticks nowhere to run and nowhere to hide!  With extra attention to the edge of your lawn, mow your lawn and get rid of any debris or leaf litter.  Why?  Ticks love to hang out in grassy and brushy areas.  Shade provided by trees is an added bonus. 

Like vampires, ticks also hate the sun.  Regular mowing lets the sun into the lawn and even allows the water from your Burlington lawn irrigation to evaporate naturally, which prevents your lawn from drowning in water. 

Discourage Them From Entering Your Lawn
Ticks generally don’t take up residence in your lawn, but if you live near a wooded area, there could be some crossover.  As such, make passing over to your lawn irritating for them by spreading wood chips or gravel as a buffer between your lawn and the wooded area.  Wood chips and gravel are to ticks as walking on glass is to humans – painful!

In addition, if no matter what you do, you can’t get your lawn to stay wet, wood chips will help with the longevity of your Burlington lawn irrigation. 

Fence the Ticks Out
Ticks can travel on the backs of other animals, such as deer.  While a fence won’t keep absolutely everything out (squirrels and birds come to mind), it will go a long way in keeping most animals out.  As an extra bonus, fences will prevent these animals from also munching on your garden or messing up your Burlington lawn irrigation

Keep Your Woodpile Dry
Since ticks like moist, wooded areas, it only stands that if you keep a woodpile and it’s wet, it’ll be a haven for ticks.  Try moving your woodpile to an area that is either sheltered from the rain or from the spray of your lawn irrigation, or move it to an area that receives a lot of sun, allowing it to dry out faster. 

Invest in Our Burlington Lawn Irrigation Systems
We would never discourage you from watering your lawn.  That may cut down on the ticks, but it will be at the expense of an ugly and unhealthy lawn.  Instead, why not invest in an intelligent lawn irrigation system?  Many sprinkler systems water on schedule, regardless of whether the ground needs it.  This creates a number of problems, but it also sets the stage for the moist conditions that ticks love.  Our systems come with sensors that can tell if it has rained recently.  If it has, your scheduled watering will be postponed.  Alternatively, if the moisture level of the soil is too low, an unscheduled watering may take place.  This keeps the moisture level of your soil just right.

A great lawn starts with great irrigation.  And great irrigation begins with Nutri-Lawn.    Contact Nutri-Lawn Inground Sprinkler Systems for a free consultation.