Both chickens and guineas that are allowed to free-range help a lot. Keep in mind that any poultry that free-ranges is very vulnerable to predators. Guineas also have a hard time accepting limits and will roam as far as they can, which might be okay if you have neighbors who tolerate them but wouldn't be okay if you have neighbors who are annoyed by them. Guineas also are incredibly loud.

If your land has a lot of cedar (Eastern Red Juniper) trees, they are part of the problem. Our cedar trees on this property were like tick nurseries in Spring and early Summer. Little ticks would jump from the trees onto you every time you mowed around them, or just when you were walking by them. We addressed that by cutting down every cedar tree with 100 yards of the house, which was important to do anyway for fire protection since cedars can send their burning resinous sap flying through the air in grass fires/wild fires and that sap starts fires wherever it lands.

We've never used any chemicals for tick control since moving here. I refused to do it because I didn't want to hurt our animals, the wildlife, etc. We did use an organic product called Cedarcide spray and Cedarcide dog dip in the early 2000s before our poultry had largely eradicated the ticks. The Cedarcide worked very well, which I find interesting considering our actual cedar trees were full of ticks.

If you have possums roaming the property, they'll help you wipe out the ticks. One possum will eat a ton of ticks. You'll have to keep the possums out of the horse's pasture though because they are host for the parasite that causes horse's to become infected with EPM.

If you have fire ants, let them stay if you can because they are one of the few insects we have that will prey on the ticks. I only treat for fire ants in the raised beds of my veggie garden. I leave them alone everywhere else.

You can dust your animal sleeping quarters or dog kennel or whatever is used to confine your dogs with Diatomaceous Earth. Be sure to buy the food grade kind of DE used for gardening, not the one made for swimming pool filters, which is dangerous if inhaled.

You can use orange oil, Garrett Juice or the Dirt Doctor's fire ant drench recipe as a spray. Be careful with anything using orange oil (I buy Medina Orange Oil in a large bottle, which I think is 32 oz. and it last me several years because it must be diluted a great deal when you use it) because it will peel paint if mixed too strongly and also will kill plants, so follow Howard Garrett's instructions. Some of Howard Garrett's tick control methods can be found here, and you can find others on his webpage.

Dirt Doctor on Tick Control

In our first or second year here I treated the soil around the house with beneficial nematodes. There are different kinds available, and Arbico Organics is one source---they do a great job of telling you which ones are best for which purpose and when to use them in terms of best timing and all that. I feel like the nematodes made a huge difference with fleas, ticks and grub worms. I also used Milky Spore that same year for grubs, but it doesn't do anything for fleas or ticks.

Keeping grass and brush cut down short will help a lot. Of course, you cannot keep pasture land mowed if you want for animals to be able to graze on it, but you can cut 6' wide paths through the pastures so that humans and animals can travel through there with a slightly lower risk of picking up ticks.

Be careful about using any chemical products as they tend to be broad-spectrum and will kill everything, including beneficial insects that help control pest insects. That's why I avoid them.

All of the above is what worked for us.

Some people use an organic product like Mycotrol, which contains a pathogen (in this case, a fungus) called Beauveria bassiana, but I haven't tried it so cannot comment on its efficacy. If you decide to try Mycontrol, do your research and buy the right one because I believe there are different formulations. Make sure you get one labeled for tick control.

Finally, for as long as you have pets that roam, whether dogs, cats, horses, cows or whatever, you'll have ticks, so you have to treat the animals if they roam. Even when our property seems to be pretty tick-free, our cats will roam off onto someone else's property and go through their woodlands or fields, and bring home ticks with them. I try to check the cats for ticks when they come indoors so I can find those ticks before they jump off the cat and find one of us.

Thanks so much Dawn! I know you have expereince w a build in a rural area so was hoping to hear your experience. I actually had not heard about ticks being controlled w Nematodes. Will definitely look in to using them when we get lawn area situated!

You're welcome. Good luck with them. With all the diseases they vector, I think that working to control ticks on one's own property is more important than ever before.

Growing up in the woods of the south I never feared them! But that was the days before so many prevalent diseases plus the internet to strike fear in the hearts of moms everywhere! Lol!

One more question- I’m actually not a fan of guineas but thought they were better at controlling ticks than chickens. Anyone have any thoughts on chicken vrs guinea?

I used to have a few guineas, but, as Dawn already commented, the noise was too much. Additionally, they work in teams, whereas chickens are more like rugged individualists. More than once I watched a cockerel (chicken) pounce from behind something and mate with an unhappy guinea. He'd strut off like he had "showed'em." An hour later I'd hear a chicken screaming and find that same cockerel being beat up by a gang of guineas. He's have one hanging on to each wing and at least one pulling on his tail. They wouldn't let him go until he was duly traumatized. This mainly happened in the spring when hormones were running high.

I habitually spray something like Deep Woods Off on my socks, pants legs and belt line. This pretty well keeps them from getting on me. By doing it this way I avoid direct contact (mostly) with my own skin.

Muscovy ducks eat ticks. But my impression that, for them to make a large dent in the tick population, you need a lot of ducklings running around. A few months later, you better have a good outlet for ducks, or you'll be OVERRUN with them!

We use something like Frontline on our dogs. It saves them a lot of grief. They're all over the place, and in the brush. So, without Frontline, they'd be totally miserable.

Frontline for fleas and ticks

George

Thank y’all so much! You’ve given me much to think about! Thank you!