Your Backyard, Decoded

Why winter does not end tick season: deer ticks reactivate on any above-freezing day once the ground thaws. The record-warm January that started our winter tick program, the weather swings since, why pets carry most of the winter risk, and how the weather-gated off-season treatments work.

A homeowner guide to all-natural mosquito control: the plant-oil actives in the Mosquito Mike treatment, what minimum-risk formula means, how citronella, peppermint, and cinnamon oils work, what published research and our own service records show, and how the program is applied and scheduled.

A homeowner guide to professional mosquito barrier spray: what the treatment is, the products Mosquito Mike applies, where technicians target the spray, how the residue behaves on foliage, and what published field research says about how long a barrier treatment keeps working.

A month-by-month guide to tick activity in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, covering why deer ticks stay active any time temperatures are above freezing, the four tick species found here, where ticks concentrate on a property, and how professional tick control is timed to the tick life cycle.

Where mosquitoes go in winter, how diapause works, which species survive cold weather in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and the Raleigh Triangle, and when to schedule the first professional treatment of the season.

A homeowner guide to year-round tick prevention and Lyme disease risk reduction in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and the Raleigh Triangle, covering yard habitat changes, personal protection, tick removal, and professional tick control.