Tick Treatments
There are three main reasons why it takes a long time to eradicate a tick infestation: ticks have a very long reproduction cycle of four to six months, ticks lay about 5000 eggs at a time, and ticks are very migratory. They travel looking for a place to hide; when they find a wall, they travel on the wall until they find a way to get inside the wall.
Many people try bombs and sprays to treat for ticks. These products, whether over the counter or professionally applied, are designed to give a powerful toxic burst that lasts from a few hours to a couple of days. When their effects wear off, there is no protection against the new ticks that will hatch. Such short-term applications must be repeated many times over the four to six month period in order to kill the ticks that emerge from their hiding places inside walls. With any break in this treatment schedule, more eggs will be laid and the cycle starts all over again. This can be very troublesome for the home owner since an evacuation period is always necessary when using poisonous products.
The Eco Smart solution to a tick problem is to use products that are long-lasting, effective, and environmentally friendly for both the home and the yard. The indoor Eco Smart powder for ticks is less toxic than table salt, will not harm humans or pets, and requires no evacuation during treatment. The indoor treatment for carpets lasts about one year, which is long enough to end the tick infestation with one treatment.
Below are detailed descriptions of the tick treatments offered by Eco Smart for your home and yard.
Home Tick Treatment – Carpeted
Our service technician applies the patented Eco Smart powder to all of the carpeted areas within the home. The Eco Smart powder is less toxic than table salt and pH neutral, so it will not cause skin irritations; it has no odor and will not harm humans or animals. The powder is machined deeply into the carpet fibers and is electrostatically charged so that it adheres to the carpet fibers within 48 hours. As the ticks hatch from their eggs and emerge from their hiding places inside walls, they will begin to travel on the treated areas looking for a host. As the ticks travel across the carpet they come into contact with the powder which adheres to their outer skeleton and kills them. Ticks are larger than fleas and spend less time inside the carpet, therefore it takes longer for the tick to die once it has been exposed to the powder. Since the tick reproduction cycle lasts four to six months, it can take that long to end the infestation. The application usually takes about an hour to complete depending on the size of your home. Unfortunately, we cannot offer a time guarantee for this treatment like we do for fleas, as ticks are migratory. We do guarantee we will solve the problem, however, if an outdoor treatment is also applied.
Home Tick Treatment – Non-Carpeted
Because ticks like to hide inside the walls of your home, the service technician applies a non-staining, non-odorous water based spray mixture along the bottom edge of the walls and approximately three feet up the wall. Then the technician applies a small amount of the patented Eco Smart powder along the bottom edge of the baseboards, leaving a six to eight inch powder barrier throughout the infested areas of the home. This insures that when the ticks emerge from the walls looking for a host they are exposed to the product that will kill them. The fact that the ticks are so migratory and hide inside the walls and under furniture, makes this type of infestations much more difficult to control and the process may require one or two return visits.
Yard Granular Tick Treatment
For yard treatments, our service technicians use two products: one is a granular product that looks like and has the same consistency as beach sand, and the other is a liquid spray. The granule is impregnated with a long lasting time release formula that is moisture activated. This product is applied to the yard, concentrating on areas that your pet frequents. This granular product stays active in your yard for two to three months, thus providing you with long lasting protection. Once the service technician has applied the granular product, he then sprays the yard with a water based mixture that will activate the granules and kill any adult ticks. It can take four to six months for all the ticks to hatch, emerge from their hiding places and contact the powder, so a second treatment may be necessary.
Home and Yard Spray Tick Treatment
When there is no infestation, the spray treatments are a good solution for the required pet treatments in real estate transactions or to satisfy a lease agreement when moving out of a rental property. The interior spray treatment for ticks consists of a one time spray of a non-staining, non-odorous water based mixture over the entire floor area of the home. Yards can also be sprayed to satisfy real estate transactions.
Because the reproductive cycle of the tick is four to six months and the residual effect of the spray is only approximately three to four days, the spray treatments are not a long term solution when there is an infestation; in the case of infestation the indoor powder treatment and the outdoor granular treatment will give superior results.
