What Should I Do Between Mosquito and Tick Treatments? A 10-Point Homeowner Checklist

On our standard plan, a technician is in your yard about every two weeks. That is one day out of fourteen. The other thirteen belong to you, and a lot of what decides how well a treatment holds up happens on those days: the bucket that fills in a Tuesday thunderstorm, the gutter packed with October leaves, the dog that comes in from the wood line carrying a tick.

I run our Raleigh operation, and our technicians in the Triangle start every visit the way our crews in Massachusetts and Rhode Island do, with a walk around the property before anything gets sprayed. The same handful of things turns up on those walks all season. Almost none of it costs anything to fix, and most of it takes a few minutes a week. This is the list I would hand every customer we have, roughly in the order I would work through it.

1. Tip Out Standing Water Once a Week

If you only do one thing on this list, make it this one. The CDC’s timeline for container-breeding mosquitoes is short: an egg laid on the inside wall of a bucket, just above the waterline, becomes a biting adult in 7 to 10 days. The eggs sit on the wall and wait, and when rain or a sprinkler raises the water over them, they hatch. On a two-week schedule, a forgotten bucket can raise a whole batch between our visits. That is why the CDC’s advice is once a week: empty and scrub, turn over, cover, or throw out anything that holds water.

Source: CDC — Life Cycle of Aedes Mosquitoes · CDC — Mosquito Control at Home

The CDC’s own list is a good place to start the walk: tires, buckets, planters, toys, pools, birdbaths, flowerpot saucers, and trash containers. I would add the wheelbarrow, the recycling bin lid, and anything sitting under a tarp. NC State Extension singles out tarps over boats, grills, and firewood, because the pockets of water in them can last for weeks and nobody ever lifts the tarp to look. Do the scrubbing part, too. The eggs stick to the container wall like glue, in the CDC’s words, so a quick dump can leave them behind.

Source: NC State Extension, Durham County — Hazards of Summer Mosquitoes: Prevention Is the Protection

Our technicians dump whatever they find on their walk-through. You still know your own yard’s hiding spots better than anyone, and you are there for the other thirteen days.

2. Clean the Gutters Once the Leaves Are Down

A clogged gutter is standing water you cannot see from the lawn. NC State Extension describes the trap well: the leaves on top look dry, but the water and wet, decaying material underneath are exactly what mosquitoes are looking for. The Rhode Island Department of Health puts gutters on its short list of things to do around the house: clean them so they can drain properly.

Source: Rhode Island Department of Health — Mosquitoes

Late fall is the right time, after the trees have finished dropping. Clear them out, then make sure the downspouts carry water away from the house instead of letting it pool against the foundation. That way they go into next spring draining the way they should.

Some water cannot be dumped or cleared. If you have a gutter you cannot get to, a low spot in the lawn that holds water after every storm, a drain, or a small pond, tell your technician. As our FAQ explains, we can place a larvicide puck that keeps working on that breeding site between visits. We never put them in koi or fish ponds.

3. Change the Birdbath Water Twice a Week

Birdbaths and outdoor pet bowls are the standing water people fill on purpose. The Rhode Island Department of Health says to change birdbath water at least twice a week. Wake County, which covers Raleigh, gives the same number and adds that the birds will appreciate the fresh water. A dump and a rinse with the hose is all it takes. Do the same with the dog’s water bowl on the deck and any small fountain or decorative pot that catches rain.

Source: Rhode Island Department of Health — Mosquitoes · Wake County — Mosquito Prevention

4. Fix the Drips and Keep an Eye on the Sprinklers

A dripping spigot or a leaky hose connection makes a puddle that never gets the chance to dry, and Wake County lists fixing them right next to cleaning the gutters. It also suggests checking the sprinklers for standing water. Walk the yard once after the irrigation runs and look for the low spots where water sits.

The sprinkler matters on treatment day, too. A treatment is most vulnerable in the window between going on and drying, which is why we schedule visits around the rain, and our article on rain and mosquito spray explains why that window is the one that counts. An irrigation zone that kicks on and soaks the shrubs right after the technician leaves can do what a downpour does. If your system runs on a timer, skip the cycle on visit day or move it until the treatment has had time to dry.

5. Mow Before We Come

Our technicians steer clear of anything in bloom, and in a lawn that usually means the dandelions and the clover. That is how we look out for the bees and other pollinators that feed on them. The catch is that a lawn full of flowers is a lawn the technician has to work around. Mow the day before, or the morning of, and the flowers are gone when we arrive, so the whole lawn can be treated. Cutting first also opens up thick grass so the application reaches down into it.

Mowing after a visit is fine, too, once the yard has dried. It won’t affect the treatment, so there is no reason to move your mowing day or reschedule a visit around it. Our barrier spray guide covers what does wear a treatment down between visits.

6. Make Visit Day Easy

The prep is short. Close the windows and doors, bring everyone inside, pets included, and unlock the gate. You do not need to be home, and the air conditioning can stay on.

The gate and the dog are the two things that cost a visit the most. A locked gate or a dog loose in the backyard can mean the technician has to skip part of the property, and the back of the yard is usually where the shade, the brush, and the bugs are. If you have a gate code or a dog that stays out, let the office know ahead of time and we will plan around it.

Then let it dry. The product label sets the standard in plain words: keep people and pets off treated surfaces until the spray has dried. In practice we ask for 30 to 45 minutes. After that, the yard is back to normal, kids and dogs and cookouts included.

7. Rake the Leaves Out of the Edges

Mosquito season is winding down. In the Triangle it typically runs April through October, and in New England it lasts until the first hard frost. Tick season does not wind down with it. The University of Rhode Island’s TickEncounter center points out that in the fall, the ticks people run into are almost all adult deer ticks, the females are extremely active, and a frost or two does not kill them off.

Source: URI TickEncounter — Fall Tick Alert

The CDC’s steps for cutting down ticks around the house start right there: remove leaf litter, clear tall grass and brush around the house and at the edge of the lawn, and mow often. The edges are where the work pays off, meaning the strip where the lawn meets the woods, the stone wall, the fence line, and the beds along the foundation. If your lawn backs onto woods, the CDC also suggests a 3-foot strip of wood chips or gravel between the grass and the trees, and keeping play equipment away from the yard’s edges and trees.

Source: CDC — Preventing Tick Bites

Rake the leaves out of those edges instead of blowing them into a pile at the wood line. Our winter tick visits treat the leaf litter, mulch beds, and wood-line edges where ticks spend the cold months, and the less litter there is, the less winter housing the ticks have. The full yard plan is in our Lyme disease prevention guide.

8. Check the Dog Every Day, Then Check Yourself

Dogs work the exact ground ticks wait in, nose down along the wood line and through the leaves, and they carry ticks into the house, where the ticks can move on to people. The CDC’s advice is a daily check, especially after time outside, and it points to the spots ticks favor on a dog: in and around the ears, around the eyelids, under the collar, under the front legs, between the toes, between the back legs, and around the tail. Long, dark coats hide them well, so go slowly.

Keep the tick prevention your veterinarian recommends going, and ask about the tickborne diseases in your area, because the list in North Carolina is not the same as the list in Massachusetts. TickEncounter’s fall advice is blunt: this is not the time to stop a pet’s tick medication. Cats are their own case. The CDC says never to put a tick product on a cat without asking your veterinarian first.

Source: CDC — Preventing Ticks on Pets

The same goes for the people in the house. The CDC recommends a full-body check after time outdoors, your own backyard included, a shower within two hours of coming in, and 10 minutes in the dryer on high heat for the clothes you were wearing.

Source: CDC — Preventing Tick Bites

9. Say Something to the Neighbors

Wake County does not run a mosquito spraying program at all. The county says so on its own website, and it asks residents to clear their standing water and to ask their neighbors to do the same. In Massachusetts and Rhode Island, public programs spray and treat wetlands on their own schedules, which our town spraying guide walks through. Neither kind of program reaches the bucket behind your neighbor’s shed.

Source: Wake County — Mosquito Prevention

That bucket matters to you. The mosquito that finds you at a daytime cookout down here is usually the Asian tiger mosquito, which NC State Extension calls the main culprit in North Carolina. It bites from dawn to dusk and lays its eggs in the kind of small, stagnant water that collects around houses. Our treatment works on the ones that rest in your shrubs. A kiddie pool full of rainwater next door keeps making more of them, so a friendly word over the fence is worth the awkward minute.

10. Call Us When Something Changes

This is the one people skip. If you are getting bitten between scheduled visits, call us. On our regular plans, that is what the respray guarantee is for: we come back and re-treat at no charge. You do not have to work out first whether it was the storm, the neighbor’s tires, or just a bad week.

Tell us when the yard changes, too: a new swing set by the woods, a pond you just put in, a new puppy, a corner that started flooding after a big storm. A technician who knows about it before the visit can plan the treatment around it.

The Checklist, Short Version

• Once a week: tip out and scrub anything holding water, and check under the tarps.
• After the leaves drop: clean the gutters and make sure the downspouts drain away from the house.
• Twice a week: fresh water in the birdbath and the outdoor pet bowl.
• Fix dripping spigots and hoses, and keep the sprinklers off the shrubs until a treatment dries.
• Mow before a visit so nothing in the lawn is in bloom. Mowing afterward is fine.
• Visit day: windows and doors closed, everyone inside, pets too, gate unlocked, then 30 to 45 minutes to dry.
• Rake the leaves out of the lawn edges, stone walls, and fence lines.
• Check the dog every day and keep its tick prevention going, and check yourself after time outside.
• Ask the neighbors about their standing water.
• Call us if you are getting bitten between visits, or if the yard changes.

Related Reading

• EEE and West Nile in Massachusetts and Rhode Island: What Is Actually Going On Right Now — this season’s state picture, and the short list health officials ask homeowners to follow.
• Winter Tick Control: Why One Warm Day Brings Ticks Back Out — what the leaf litter is doing all winter, and how the cold-season visits work.
• How to Prevent Ticks: A Homeowner’s Guide to Lyme Disease Prevention — the full yard plan, repellents, and what to do after a bite.

Tip the water every week, keep the gutters and the edges clear, check the dog, and call us between visits.

Mosquito Mike provides mosquito control and tick control across Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and the Raleigh Triangle, with traditional and all-natural programs and complimentary resprays as part of the service guarantee. Get your instant quote.