Why Tick Prevention in New England Starts Long Before Summer—and Why It Matters

Temperatures are rising. The winter snow has melted. Lush hues of green are growing more visible in neighborhoods across the region every day.

But another of New England’s pesky pests will be making its comeback as well—sooner than you might expect.

Let’s talk ticks and why the best time to begin protecting your yard for the summer is now.

Tick Prevention in New England: Why Start Early?

Ticks are most often associated with the peak of summer in New England. It’s true that their peak activity window usually falls during the warmest months of summer—but in reality, ticks are a year-round presence in New England.

When snow begins to fall in the Northeast, ticks don’t die from the cold like you might assume. Instead, they lay dormant, waiting until warm temperatures welcome them out of hiding. Able to withstand cold temperatures, they are patient pests, waiting until a new host crosses their path.

Despite being a constant presence, spring is considered the typical start of tick season, running all the way through the late fall (April-November). In other words: spring tick control isn’t necessarily an early start to prevention, but aligns perfectly with the lifecycle of ticks in New England.

Why Professional Tick Control Makes a Difference

As pest control professionals who have witnessed many tick seasons throughout our time in New England, we can vouch: early treatment plans are worth it. Not only do they set you up for a tick-free summer ahead of schedule—but they do wonders for mitigating your family’s risk of catching one of the many nasty diseases that ticks are known to carry.

Ticks are a prime suspect in the spread of a particularly daunting condition: Lyme disease.

Left untreated, Lyme disease can result in neurological and cardiac symptoms and, in extreme cases, death. Besides Lyme disease, ticks can also carry Rocky Mountain spotted fever, anaplasmosis, and many other conditions.

While treating midseason for tick prevention is possible, we would highly recommend starting during April & May for the most effective form of tick control.

How YardShield Treatment Works

Our YardShield series was created to give families and businesses a diverse range of options for mosquito & tick control. After an in-depth conversation with our pest control team, we’re able to match customers with a program and service frequency that best suits their yard.

The key to our tick prevention programs is an effective perimeter treatment. By targeting woodline, mulch beds, shrub beds, leaf litter, and other hotspots, we’re hitting ticks in their most common habitats.

treatments help create a tick-free boundary between your lawn and common tick hiding grounds that lie just beyond it, making it harder for ticks to hitch a ride closer to you and your family. Additionally, any ticks that do happen to fall directly onto your lawn won’t stay there, where they could be at risk of harm from the direct sunlight. Instead, they’ll quickly move to the perimeter where they’re most likely to find shade—and where we’ll have treatment already in place.

For full coverage from mosquitoes & ticks during the spring & summer, our most popular program is YardShield Pro, featuring a monthly service frequency during peak season that targets ticks while reducing mosquito populations by up to 90%.

For a comprehensive look at our YardShield series, visit our website or get in touch for a free quote.

YardShield Keeps Your Family Safe in More Ways Than One

Our YardShield series for tick and mosquito prevention keeps families safe by reducing pest populations and mitigating the risk of tick-borne disease. But beyond that, our method of treatment also puts your and your loved ones’ safety as our most important priority.

Treating perimeters instead of yards and lawns directly is a strategic decision our team has found to be particularly effective for keeping tick populations under control. It was also a choice that we made to ensure the safety of the families we’re dedicated to protecting.

We want to ensure that you have complete peace of mind after each treatment—so you don’t have to worry about your family playing directly where pest control treatments are at work. In other words, we won’t place the product directly where you and your loved ones are most likely to be walking, relaxing, and playing.

What You Can Do to Prevent Ticks Between Treatments

In addition to professional control, taking the following steps can significantly reduce the risk of tick exposure—protecting you, your family, and your pets from potential diseases.

• Consistent Property Maintenance. Keeping your lawn mowed and shrubbery trimmed does make a remarkable difference in preventing ticks. We also recommend cleaning up leaf litter from your yard—ticks typically love these types of environments for hiding.
• Pet Protection. Talk to your vet about using tick-prevention products for outdoor pets. This will not only protect the health of your pets, but also prevent them from leading ticks into your yard or right through your doorstep.
• Post-Outdoor Tick Checks. For your family (pets included!), take caution when coming inside after outdoor activities. Pay particularly close attention to hard-to-see areas: underarms, in and around the ears, inside belly buttons, behind knees, and hidden in hair.

Ticks Suck—But Tick Season Doesn’t Have To

The countdown to tick season in New England doesn’t start now—it’s already here!

Let’s win the battle against ticks this year with a prevention strategy that hits them right as they emerge from hiding. Together, we’ll stop ticks and Lyme disease in their tracks.

Get in touch to learn more about YardShield tick prevention.

Can we change this to Tick? It is YardShield Tick which more accurately reflects the name of the program.

‍