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The problem with trying to reduce ticks and mosquitoes in unnatural ways is that we often harm the things that eat them too. Since ticks and mosquitoes feed on
by goda90 5y ago
The problem with trying to reduce ticks and mosquitoes in unnatural ways is that we often harm the things that eat them too. Since ticks and mosquitoes feed on us and other larger animals, they're the first to rebound their population, while their predators take longer to come back to keep their numbers down.
- zdragnar 5y agoI live surrounded by hundreds of acres of forest. Wildlife is abundant, but there is absolutely no keeping up with the mosquito and tick population. Using deet and grooming ourselves and our dogs after they come inside every single time is just a fact of life.
- goda90 5y agoIt's a slow moving solution, but abundant bat boxes do wonders for mosquito control. Of course you'll never get rid of them entirely, but the population can be kept really low. Also promoting dragonflies helps a ton. For ticks, wolves are actually really important. They keep deer and coyote populations in check. Deer of course feed ticks, but what's really interesting is that coyotes have a two fold effect on ticks. First they eat some of the tick predators like opossums. And second they eat mouse predators like foxes, with mice being a major part in tick reproduction. Wolves don't usually eat these smaller animals. So wolves help keep a balance.
- toast0 5y ago> Also promoting dragonflies helps a ton. What are good ways to do that? Everything I saw that's good for dragonflies is good for mosquitos, but I'm not going to promote mosquitos. (Sure they've got a place in the world, but I wish it wasn't so close to my house)