Now that No Mow May is nearly over, I can guess there are more than a few of you who are chomping at the bit to start your engines and cut that lawn down to size! I can also guess that more than a handful of you took a pass on No Mow May entirely because of ticks.
For those of you who don’t know about No Mow May, the idea behind it is to simply forego that first mow of the year until June rolls around. In doing so, you are allowing our native insects to safely emerge from their winter slumber and provide them with food sources that would have otherwise been mown down and thrown onto the mulch pile.
I believe the greatest achievement of No Mow May has been that it has helped people become more mindful stewards of their land, it allows them to see and think about their lawn differently, and through that process, gain an understanding that the choices they make (or don’t make) have an ecological impact.
The hope is that No Mow May will be a gateway to letting nature reclaim a little of its former grandeur in areas that were devoid of any biological diversity, that it might lead some people to a No Mow June… July… August, and then from there, why not just make the entire space into a pollinator garden? Why do we hope for this transformation? Because our native pollinators need more than one month of tall turf grasses, dandelions, and clovers. They need native food sources year-round, particularly throughout the summer and fall.
Then, of course, there are the ticks. When I said “allowing native insects to emerge,” no matter how much I wish it wouldn’t include ticks, it does. Both deer and lone star nymphs are active in May, and nymphs are more likely to transmit disease than ticks in other life stages, which is why they are a roadblock for some.
Now, here is the million-dollar question. Are you going to find more ticks if you don’t mow your lawn?
Contrary to popular belief, tall grasses are not ideal tick habitat. Nymphal ticks are highly sensitive to desiccation and struggle to survive at humidity levels under 82%.1 Nymphs thrive in areas where the habitat is in transition, where the lawn meets shady edges, in leaves and log piles, and around rock walls.
Does this mean I want you to rake up all your leaves, dismantle your log piles, and demolish your rock walls? If it helps you sleep at night, then I would rather suggest drinking a hot mug of Sleepytime Tea instead. Leaving leaves, stacking logs, and maintaining rock walls are some of the best practices you can use to support biodiversity, and evidence suggests that biodiversity may be your greatest ally in protecting you from ticks. But we will get back to that in a moment. We were talking about No Mow May.
Basically, the presence of tall grass doesn’t necessarily mean ticks will be found, and short grass doesn’t guarantee their absence. During a study in Springfield, MA, tick drags were conducted on properties containing tall grass where the grass had been left unmowed for as long as three weeks, and growing over 10 inches tall. Across 144 tick drags over 2 years, the researchers did not find any ticks on any of the properties.2 Conversely, cutting back vegetation along forested hiking trails had no measurable impact on tick numbers during similar surveys.3
If you didn’t participate in No Mow May this year, next year, give it a try with some peace of mind. If you did participate, consider taking another step along on your journey by adding plants that provide wildlife food all season long and are host plants to our native butterflies. By supporting biodiversity, that biodiversity will protect you!
How Does Biodiversity Help?
Your instincts might tell you that a thickly grown cluster of native plants growing from a bed of leaves is the perfect petri dish for disease-ridden ticks, while a neatly manicured lawn with a few ornamental plant adornments nestled against the house intuitively feels like a nice, safe and sterile environment where these creatures could never thrive. In fact, some studies may support this method of property management, but the story of tick-borne diseases suggests otherwise.
The spread of Lyme disease has exploded over the last 50 years, the first cases being documented in the 1970s, in tandem with the spread of suburbia, the introduction of invasive species, habitat fragmentation, and the disruption of a system of natural checks and balances. Species such as white-tailed deer and white-footed mice have thrived with the natural order of things being so compromised, and with their success, their parasites have proliferated.
The proliferation of infectious organisms has been exacerbated by what is called “the Dilution Effect,” which, while widely debated, has merit. The dilution effect hypothesis suggests that diverse ecological communities limit disease spread via several mechanisms. Therefore, biodiversity losses could worsen epidemics that harm humans and wildlife.4
Picture a lone star tick (a non-native species on Martha’s Vineyard) trying to establish itself in a new habitat. If your outdoor space is already full of a healthy and diverse mix of native wildlife, from bugs and birds to mammals, it becomes much more difficult for that tick and its offspring to thrive. The most effective approach in using biodiversity as an ally is not to further compromise your surrounding environment with unnatural moats of woodchips around our homes and maintaining closely clipped lawns, but to create native environments that support locally adapted species.
Native plants such as oaks, pitch pines, arrowwood, sassafras, goldenrod, aster, milkweed, and native grasses such as little bluestem and switchgrass, play a vital role in supporting the local ecosystems found on Martha’s Vineyard. By incorporating these species into our landscapes and coordinating with neighbors to create connected stepping-stones of native habitat, we can reduce the presence of disease-carrying organisms and their hosts in our yards and gardens. Expanding these native, biodiverse habitats into larger, continuous areas helps sustain complete food webs and may contribute to lowering the occurrence of both emerging and recurring diseases that spread from animals to humans.
The most effective way to protect yourself from ticks
For tick protection, I can recommend the most tried and true methods. Keep one or two outfits strictly for gardening and treat them with permethrin, and store them separately from your regular clothes.
Please avoid pesticides around your home, even ones promoted as “Organic” and “All Natural.” I cannot emphasize enough how harmful these sprays are to other insects, especially soft-bodied caterpillars. If you take anything away from this article, let it be this: There is no existing product on the market that only targets ticks. Believe me, I understand nobody wants to get a debilitating disease, but we cannot sterilize the earth so we don’t have ticks.
A 2022 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicates that spraying pesticides to kill ticks on your property does not reduce the rate of Lyme disease, meaning that people who apply pesticides to their yards are not just risking ecological damage but are wasting their money, too.
When it comes down to it, diligence is the best defense by far. Wear a hat; tuck in your clothes, shirt into pants, pants inside socks, and shirt cuffs into gardening gloves. Also, check yourself and/or each other after being in overgrown areas. When you get home throw your clothes on the dryer and run for six minutes – this will kill ticks and then shower off.
For tick removal when they are crawling on your clothes, a sticky lint roller works very well! When you return from your activity, go straight into the house. Change out of your clothes; take a shower. And if it was an occasion when you were not wearing protective clothing, dry your clothes in the dryer on high for six minutes, which will kill any ticks that may still be on the clothes.
Before showering, thoroughly check your body. A thorough tick check means checking everywhere, especially warm, dark areas. If you do find a tick, remove it promptly by following these recommendations from the Center for Disease Control.
I would never begrudge anyone for doing what they feel they need to do to protect themselves and their family, I just believe we should never let fear be the primary decision maker. I have been a field biologist for many years, and every year I ask myself: Will this be the year I get Lyme disease? It hasn’t happened yet. Worrying about ticks has never prevented me from spending time in my backyard or out in nature. That is my own choice. I know that ticks are out here, so I wear insect shield clothing. I’ll tuck my pants in my socks, I’ll tuck my shirt in, and wear a hat, and those things have served me miraculously well over the years.
If you would like to learn more about ways to make your yard more resilient and biodiverse, Natural Neighbors can help you. Find out more about our program by clicking HERE , and while you are there, sign up for a visit, and we will come by to help get you started on your journey! We will share our knowledge and resources at no cost to you and find many other ways for you to support biodiversity in your yard.
For a more in-depth explanation, read through this helpful poster
Article References:
1 Rodgers, S. E., Zolnik, C. P., & Mather, T. N. (2007). Duration of exposure to suboptimal atmospheric moisture affects nymphal blacklegged tick survival. Journal of medical entomology, 44(2), 372-375.
2 Lerman, S. B., & D’Amico, V. (2019). Lawn mowing frequency in suburban areas has no detectable effect on Borrelia spp. vector Ixodes scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae). PLoS One, 14(4), e0214615.
3 Lee, X., Maxson, G. A., & Paskewitz, S. (2023). Single mowing event does not reduce abundance of Ixodes scapularis (Acari: Ixodidae) and Dermacentor variabilis (Acari: Ixodidae) on recreational hiking trails. Journal of Medical Entomology, 60(1), 228-234.
4 David J. Civitello civitello@usf.edu, Jeremy Cohen, Hiba Fatima, +7 , and Jason R. RohrAuthors Info & Affiliations Edited by Simon A. Levin, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, and approved May 15, 2015 (received for review March 30, 2015) https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1506279112
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