Ticks might be small, but they can cause significant frustration in your North Mississippi yard.
Being outdoors can be intimidating if you're concerned about exposing yourself, your family, or your pets to ticks and the diseases they carry. However, when considering winter pests, ticks might not be at the top of your concern list.
Usually, ticks are thought of as summer pests, hiding in tall grasses and attaching to your pets.
So, we don’t blame you if you’re left wondering whether or not you need tick control in winter.
But you’ll be surprised to learn that ticks can cause these issues year-round.
Let’s talk about ticks in winter, the tick lifespan, and tick control and pest control in North Mississippi, so you can better arm yourself against these nasty pests.
Ticks belong to the arachnid family of insects. Most ticks are dark in color, ranging from brown to black. They feed on blood from animals and humans, enabling them to produce and lay more tick eggs, resulting in more ticks.
Because ticks can be tricky to spot (many are very small), you might not realize you have a problem.
Ticks jump on your dog’s fur or your pant leg as you’re outside, and you may not even notice they’re there until you finally see them on your clothes or skin.
If you don’t see ticks at first, you might notice swelling, pain, nausea, or a headache once they’ve been under your skin for some time.
Your pets can’t tell you they feel a tick’s presence, but you can inspect their skin for ticks when you get home and find them quickly. Their dark, circular bodies are small but relatively easy to spot and tend to latch on to pets’ bellies, ears, or legs.
The biggest concern about ticks in your yard during cold weather is that these annoying pests can transmit serious illnesses, such as Lyme disease. This bacterial infection can cause permanent damage to the heart, joints, and nervous system if left untreated.
A telltale sign of Lyme disease is usually a bullseye- or donut-shaped rash. Other signs on your skin can include burning or itching, hives, redness of the cheeks and under the eyes, and swollen eyelids with bloodshot eyes.
Ticks are built for survival.
When temperatures drop, they don’t just curl up and die; they adapt. Ticks find cozy hiding spots under leaf litter, in tall grasses, underground, or in the fur of a host animal.
In North Mississippi, where winters are mild, ticks can easily survive. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released its winter weather outlook, and West Tennessee can expect a slightly warmer-than-average winter from 2024 to 2025.
The warmer weather is driven by a La Niña climate pattern, which cools rather than warms ocean waters. During La Niña, weather conditions will be cooler in the North and warmer in the South.
Do ticks hibernate? Technically, ticks don’t hibernate like mammals do. Instead, they enter a state of dormancy called diapause. During this state, they slow their metabolism and conserve energy. Ticks even have a natural antifreeze called cryoprotectant that helps them survive freezing temperatures.
But diapause isn’t a deep sleep; it’s more like hitting the pause button while watching a movie. Once temperatures rise above 40 degrees Fahrenheit, ticks can become active again and start looking for their next meal.
Around winter, in spring and fall, ticks can be fully active again.
Ticks have surprisingly long lifespans for such small pests.
Ticks can live up to three years. They go through several life stages during this time, from egg to larva, nymph, and adulthood. And at each stage, they require a blood meal to survive. According to the Minnesota Department of Health, ticks usually have only 3 or 4 blood meals.
Winter doesn’t automatically end a tick’s life. Without proper tick control, you could be dealing with ticks year-round, or they could come back worse when temperatures warm up after a cold spell.
While tick activity generally peaks from April through September or October, it increases as the weather warms.
Even if ticks are less active in winter, they can still cause you some headaches.
In regions like North Mississippi, where winters are relatively mild, ticks can remain a problem in multiple ways.
Even if ticks are less present in winter in Memphis and North Mississippi, that doesn’t mean that with the weather fluctuations, they can’t hitch a ride on your dog or cat and end up in your home.
Cold weather can let your guard down when it comes to ticks. But anytime you have pets that go outdoors, they are likely to encounter ticks.
Professional tick control programs can help keep your pets safe, too.
In the Mid-South, you'll find some specific tick species, including the American dog tick, the brown tick, and the deer or black-legged tick. The black-legged tick is most worrisome here because it carries Lyme disease. Dog ticks can spread Rocky Mountain spotted fever and ehrlichiosis.
To find blood meals, ticks crawl up tall weeds and grasses and use their third and fourth pairs of legs to hold on, extending their front legs to wait for people or animals to pass by so they can latch on. When you try to remove a tick, you want to remove the head and body together.
Ticks can transmit more diseases than any other blood-sucking pest. These can affect you, your family, and your pets. Winter, unfortunately, doesn’t stop the risk of transmission. Looking for early signs of tick-borne illnesses like fevers, chills, aches, headaches, fatigue, and rashes is a good idea to stay ahead of any issues. Usually, a tick has to stay on you for about 24 hours before transmission occurs.
While a person’s chances of contracting Lyme disease from a tick can range from 0 percent to 50 percent, limiting tick exposure with tick controls is the best strategy for avoiding Lyme disease.
Ticks prefer shade and hide along wood or brush lines around your yard's perimeter, as well as in tall grasses, leaf litter, tree limbs, and branches. All it takes is a brisk walk past where these pests hide so they can jump onto you or your pet.
So, without regular yard maintenance and tick control, you might accidentally create a haven for them to overwinter and be ready to latch onto you or a pet when temperatures warm up.
Trimming overgrown plants, especially at your property’s borders or if you back up to woods, a prairie, or a preserve where other wild animals who may be carrying ticks hang out, can help deter ticks. Also, regularly mowing your grass to keep it trimmed and manageable can help.
To keep wild animals out of your yard, secure your trash with tightly sealed lids so you don’t draw them in.
Start your tick control strategy by mowing your lawn regularly and eliminating large leaf piles or tall, grassy areas where ticks can rest in winter.
Also, keep children’s play sets, sports equipment, and tree and dog houses away from wood or brush lines at the far edges of our property. That way, children aren’t always playing near the spots where these pests hang out.
Companies offering tick control and pest control in North Mississippi can also provide treatments.
You want to hire a pest control company that employs experienced technicians trained to recognize a tick problem in your yard.
Lawn & Pest Solutions uses a mosquito, flea, and tick control treatment plan that includes monthly applications from March through October. The best part about this is that if we have a mild winter and you see a tick problem, as a customer, you can call for treatment during winter as part of the company's 360 customer service strategy.
Ticks are menacing pests you don’t want in your yard or near your family and pets.
While you might be trying to combat them on your own, it can feel overwhelming, or you can easily forget about staying up on treatments when they are needed. You are busy and don’t have the time to stay on top of this.
Let a professional step in and help. Lawn & Pest Solutions' Pest 360 program can manage mosquito and tick populations in your North Mississippi yard. Then, you can relax knowing these disease-carrying pests aren’t making your yard their home.
Want to learn more about what it will cost to get those ticks out of your North Mississippi yard? Get started today with a free quote. We’ll review your options together so you can make a great choice. Then, you can kick the ball with your kids or play fetch with your dog in your backyard without worry.