There are sound steps and procedures to aid in reducing the number of deer ticks (ixodes scapularis) found near your home and on your property. Landscape modification and property maintenance can cut your tick numbers. Pesticide treatments are only one tool in your arsenal against deer ticks.
Ticks prefer woods and tall grassy areas along animal trails. They cannot jump or fly but they will often lie in wait for a passing host in transitional zones such as where a forest meets a field, mowed lawn meets a fence line; a foot or animal trail pass through high grass and wooded areas. They become a problem inside homes when they are carried in on animals or humans. Typically, they live, along animal trails, and in animal nests and dens like woodpiles, burrows in the ground, stumps, logs, old rat and bird nests, and crawlspaces. In some years, ticks may become locally abundant, especially in wet areas.
Ticks are small arachnids (all having 8 legs) that survive on the blood of animals and are basically external parasites. They will typically attach themselves to mammals, birds, and sometimes reptiles and amphibians. Ticks pose serious health problems as they are known to carry and transmit disease and illness to humans and domestic animals.
They are disease vectors (vectors are organisms that transmit infections from one host to another) of a number of illnesses, including Lyme disease, Colorado tick fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, African tick bite fever, tularemia, tick-borne relapsing fever, babesiosis, ehrlichiosis, Tick paralysis and tick-borne meningoencephalitis, as well as bovine anaplasmosis.