If you’ve ever encountered chiggers, chances are you’ll never forget the experience. Living in grassy areas during spring and summer, these relatives of ticks feed on the skin of their hosts, causing extreme, often painful skin irritation that can stay with you for months. Also known as red bugs, harvest mites, and berry bugs, chiggers can put a serious damper on summer activities. Here are 5 tips to get a chigger-free lawn this summer without harsh chemicals.
1. Deter Wild Animals
Small animals like rodents, turtles, and birds often introduce and attract chiggers to our lawns. Reducing clutter, regularly trimming shrubbery, and sealing trash cans helps deter wild animals thereby limiting the chigger population in your yard.
2. Protect You and Your Pets
Chiggers sometimes enter our lawns by hitching a ride on our clothing and pets. To prevent this and avoid painful bites, spray yourself and your pup before exploring wooded areas and spaces with tall grass.
3. Maintain Your Yard
Chiggers and the wildlife they feed on thrive in cluttered, unkempt spaces. Regularly mowing the yard, trimming bushes, and clearing brush like weeds and leaves helps deny chiggers the shelter and shade they need to survive.
4. Treat Your Yard
Treating your yard monthly with a non-toxic pesticide like PCO Choice is one of the most efficient approaches to killing and repelling chiggers.
5. Remove Unnecessary Moisture
Without adequate moisture, chiggers simply cannot survive. Removing or repairing sources of unnecessary moisture like leaky hoses and avoiding overwatering can substantially limit the number of chiggers in your yard.