Testing Whether Your Yard Actually Has Ticks

Before spending time and money on treatments, it helps to know where the ticks actually are in your yard. The tick drag is how researchers monitor tick populations and you can do it yourself for almost nothing.

Take a piece of white flannel, corduroy, or any textured white fabric about one yard square. Attach it to a wooden dowel along one edge and tie a rope to the dowel so you can pull it behind you. Walk slowly through different zones of your yard dragging the cloth along the ground and through low vegetation. Questing ticks grab onto the fabric thinking it's a passing animal.

Every 10 to 15 meters, stop and check the cloth. Use tweezers to collect any ticks and drop them into a jar of rubbing alcohol, which kills and preserves them for later identification. Drag the lawn-to-woods edge first. That's where most ticks will be. Then drag shaded beds, stone walls, and areas around wood piles.

What to Do With the Results

If your drag turns up ticks concentrated at the wood line and around stone walls but nowhere else, that tells you exactly where to focus: a cedar chip barrier, tick tubes placed at those exact spots, and spray treatment targeted there rather than the whole yard.