We live on wooded acreage, something I never thought we'd be able to do, and I enjoy it. We have yet to see a tick, but that doesn't mean there aren't any. We get deer and other animals in our yard since it's hard to keep a fence up with limbs or whole trees falling on it.

I think I read that you can do a gravel or rock perimeter to help keep them out. That would be longer lasting than bark. Whichever you do, I'd suggest some ground cloth under it to keep it from sinking into the ground. We have moles, so they tend to sink anything I put down unless I put cloth down.

I've always spent a long time outside from spring to late fall. My family went camping every year and my husband and I did a lot of camping, many times just sleeping on the ground with no tent. We camped out on this land when the house was being built, in a tent, but no bites of any kind. Coyotes checked us out though I think. I don't think we'll stick with a tent from now on, just to be safer.

Are you aware that other animals can carry ticks, such as birds, mice, and rabbits?

You're lucky to have forest zoning. Ours is zoned 10 acre urban reserve, which means our forest will disappear some day and houses or apartments will take it's place. I hope to never see that.

Mint has a tendency to take over. There is a deer repellant that has mint in it, also one for rodents, so maybe you could get that and spray it around. It's called "Deer Out".

I wish you and your family the best.

Good luck

We put out tick tubes now and in July. They seem to have cut down the tick population a lot. For more information click on the following link:

http://ticktubes.com/

We initially ordered from this company (I have no affiliation with this company) however, now we make our own. We spray cotton balls with permethrin and put 3 or 4 cotton balls into a toilet paper tube and place them on our property where mice would be running. The white footed mouse goes into the tube and pulls out the cotton (which has permethrin on it) and builds its nest. The permethrin does not harm the mouse but now the mouse has it on it's fur and any ticks attaching to the mouse die. We just put out 80 tick tubes on our property.

Good point MM. Whatever eats a mouse would consume some too and birds might be impacted the most. It's a good idea, but maybe an essential oil or something else would work too. Just a thought. We have plenty of mice, so we can stand to lose a few. Coyotes and birds of prey get many of them.

The tick tube site claims that the permethrin does not harm the mice...I'm not sure on animals that eat the mice. We have been doing this for 5 years and have never seen any sick animals on our property. The site does say exactly what achievinggrace says...harmful to fish and cats.

This definitely has cut down on the tick population on our property.

Coconut oil is unappealing to ticks. Apparently in a German study, the ticks jumped away when introduced to it.

It's also a good idea to put something in your dogs shampoo like mint or coconut oil to make them less attractive to ticks. And while your at it, why not make your body wash and shampoo tick-unfriendly too!

Thank you everyone for your suggestions - so many good ideas!

I've never heard of urban reserve zoning, wow, in portland (where we are now) a lot nice old homes are being torn down and two put in their place with no yard or room for growing food - things are changing fast here. Even with the forest zoning they plan to increase the density in the future, but that's a whole other thing...

There was another property farther out we looked at and i always wondered if ticks would be less of an issue there cuz nature would be more balanced.

Rocks are a great idea, thank you. Replacing woodchips is a bit of work.

I am aware other animals carry ticks, though birds have their beaks to get them off. I read somewhere that cape cod got rid of most of their deer and lyme dropped significantly but couldn't find the info when i went back to find it, now i wonder if it was cape cod? brain fog : )

That makes sense to have other animals to attract ticks, we're talking about getting goats to help with the poison oak and we'd love chickens. Guinea hens sound great! I'll rethink my deer fence thoughts.

I never knew tick tubes existed, and will read up on them. They sound great for bad tick areas.

Adding coconut oil and mint oil to things would be really easy. A homemade sunscreen with coconut oil and mint too maybe.

Feeling much better about all this, thank you!