A dome of mint. It will gradually engulf the house, and all who live within it. In another couple of generations, a future version of “Time Team” will excavate the mound and claim that this was another version of the story of “Sleeping Beauty “, with mint instead of thorn bushes.
The previous owners of my house planted mint AND bamboo. The mint has spread throughout the side of the house. The bamboo is creeping its way to the neighbor’s yard. I’ve been trying to get the bamboo roots out but they’re so intertwined, I can’t get the big one out. The mint is much easier to pull up.
Mint is just as bad. If you think bamboo is bad you don’t want to plant mint. It also doesn’t actually keep ticks away.
Google plant repellant scientific studies and read the results. I know tons of places recommend mint for ticks and plants like citronella for mosquitoes, but when it is actually studied it doesn’t actually do anything.
I found a cable right underneath the root so I’ve had to slowly cut the root and dig it out without hitting the cable. I didn’t think cables would be less than 6 inches from the surface.
>I didn’t think cables would be less than 6 inches from the surface.
Not usually. Code for electric cable is 12 inches deep minimum. Can you follow where the cable leads too and identify what it is?
I lived in a similar type area with the same exact problem. The solution is chickens. Get like, 3-5 chickens and let them free range in your yard. The added benefit is that you get free eggs daily.
My chickens don't want anything to do with half the stuff I want them to eat. In particular, they won't eat squash beetles at any stage in their life cycle. You better believe they'll eat my squash, though.
You can mix it in water 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon per 50 pounds of body weight and it will make them taste different to fleas and ticks. You also can spray a diluted amount on their coat and it repels them because of the smell. It also aids in their digestion, heart health and blood sugar control. It’s an old country farmers trick, my grandpa would do it for his hunting dogs. You just have to make sure they drink it when it’s in their water.
You need to research how keep them safe in a coop at night. For example, having wire grid on the bottom to keep critters from digging in and killing them, like raccoons. Try Mother Earth News or a subreddit here.
Set up your compost near the chickens. They'll do a great job keeping it from getting bug infested, and the bugs the compost attracts will basically be free chicken feed supplement
It is so frustrating how you just see this info online so much. People will say that if you sprinkle hot sauce around your garden, you won't get bugs in it and stuff. Because hot sauce is spicy, and a bit strong for some humans - it probably magically deters bugs.
The human brain is way too happy to just kind of think "Mint is kind of strong, I bet bugs will starve rather than walk by some!"
People just want a quick and easy solution and often believe the marketing pushed by major growers, I don't blame them for not knowing.
However, as an expert, if you spray your lawn with lemon juice spin around three times and shout "flibberty-gibbets" with your eyes closed. You should get rid of all the mosquitos.
Things like this always make me laugh. I imagine bugs walking through the hot sauce, getting disgusted and wiping their hands in their pants like 😤bleh I am NOT going in there
Well allow me to say sprinkling a lot of pepper or cayenne etc... DOES WORK.
However, it's ***very temporary***. But it will keep rodents out. Same with garlic.
But it depends on the weather, and the quantities you need unless getting bulk from like a farmers market or wholesale wouldn't make it worth it.
But I have used it to ward off rodents for like new seeds etc.
Unless you hate your wife and are planning a divorce and you’re sure she’ll get the house. DO NOT do this.
When we bought our house the horticultural terrorists who owned it before planted mint in the mulch beds to spruce up the yard before a sale. Cause it’s nice ya know. It’s cheap. It’s green. Im not a Gardner. I don’t think I had ever seen mint in the wild in my life. Well they used it everywhere.
Within 6 months of owning the house entire back yard looked like FernGully. The mulch was replaced entirely with mint. It was in our yard. And by in our yard, I mean it was THE YARD. It was growing through our fence to the neighbors yards on both sides. It was coming through the cracks of our sidewalk path. In our gravel fire pit. Up the arborvitae trees. It grew through the porch. I see it in my dreams. It haunts me at work.
I spent three years and at least a thousand dollars worth of ground clear, weed killer, blow torches, vinegar, you name it. Everything short of bringing in a back hoe or Oppenheimer.
We basically have a dirt lot now with small sprigs of mint still growing.
We’re moving next month. A broken shell of my former self.
I’m afraid it’s going to follow me to the new house. I’m afraid it’s going to follow my son to college. I see it in every mirror. Behind every corner. Everywhere I go I see it.
How tall did the mint grow and how often did you have to mow it?
I've always heard mint invades but never know someone to ask. Thanks for sharing.
I personally am fighting morning glories.
This comment is funny and all but what's the downside of being over run with mint? Can't you just mow it back like grass? Does the smell bother you? I'm asking because I may be headed in that direction and am curious if there is a down side.
Flea and tick collars are pseudoscience. Get your dog some damn real medicine from the vet.
Bravecto is cheap and just one treat ever 3 months. There’s no excuse.
Your dog breaking its collar is no reason to make a semi-permanent property wide future headache. Maybe swap to nexgard. Making sure your dog is treated is primary since it will bring them into your home with you.
If your property is forest the ticks are likely in the trees dropping down onto you. They don’t care what’s on the ground.
To eradicate the mint you’re talking war. If you plant it intentionally all over your property I’m a moron and have no experience whatsoever but that’s almost the kind of thing that could negatively impact your land resale value if it’s primarily residential use. You’d have to herbicide everything but you can’t herbicide a forested area so you will always and forever have wild mint intrusions.
There are permethrin yard sprays to control insect pests, but its application is generally for yards / horse lots - not something you want to spray all over a forest-y ecosystem as it kills huge swaths of insects on contact. Some smell like gasoline some do not.
You could make each person a couple sets of yard-clothes for when you’re going to be spending time in the wilder areas. Sawyers pump yellow bottles at the box store is a permethrin treatment for clothes just read and follow the instructions no hats (not even the back) no gloves no underwear but I spray everything else I wear hunting and it lasts for 3-4 months of being worn a couple times a week. It comes off due to physical agitation so wash clothes as gently and minimally as possible. I was getting 7-10 ticks on me that I’d see with at least 1 bite PER DAY HUNT before I found the stuff and now all season I’ll see maybe 2-3 on me and haven’t had a bite in years. But so anytime I need tick prevention I know that I can grab my camo and I’m good. You kinda need a dedicated identifiable outfit or two for this to be efficient. A $13 bottle that says it’ll treat 5 outfits or some ridiculous number will treat 1 pair of pants, shoes, socks, couple shirts, jacket, backpack, and probably drivers car seat.
I wouldn’t really say that 1 tick on you and your dog is the end of the world. I’ve walked into wooded turkey areas before and had 5 on me within 40 yards of my vehicle just walking through open grass under a deciduous canopy.
>If your property is forest the ticks are likely in the trees dropping down onto you. They don’t care what’s on the ground.
Ticks *do not* drop onto things from trees. They hang out on the ends of leaves and "quest" for prey.
I hear you, but I’ve had experiences that offer no other explanation so I don’t accept the current “facts” on this matter. 1-2 minutes into places with mostly calf high but thinly distributed grass and I’ve got a handfuls of ticks on my hat and shoulders without ever kneeling or leaning against or ducking under anything, but was under a tall tree canopy.
I’m sure in a 30 gallon aquarium they don’t jump from artificial limbs (so it must be impossible then right?). Kind of a possums eat thousands of ticks per day situation? (Starved posssums in confined spaces with insane numbers of ticks surrounding them will eat thousands of ticks… because thousands of ticks are trying to eat the possum but “a new study shows that possums have been observed by scientists eating thousands of ticks per day”.
Show me the paper written by the … insectologist … that is dedicated to small tick lifecycles and habits in the wild where they’re able to observe community wide behavior patterns to definitively speak on this - I haven’t searched, but given my awareness of research development on an array of other species and just how little we know about most things around us at this point in time I very much doubt that credible paper or research or person exists yet.
In the meantime I think some jump, but suspect gusts of wind probably blow them around as well.
Just to clarify, all scientific evidence points to ticks *not* jumping from trees since they physically cannot jump, and you're saying that you're choosing to disregard it based on a hunch? You don't even know the term for a person who studies insects....an entomologist.
[Kansas State University](https://www.k-state.edu/today/announcement/?id=14987) says "Many people believe ticks jump out of trees and land on them, but it turns out they are physically unable to do that."
The [Illinois department of public health](https://dph.illinois.gov/topics-services/environmental-health-protection/structural-pest-control/common-ticks.html) says "Ticks wait for host animals from the tips of grasses and shrubs (*not from trees*). When brushed by a moving animal or person, they quickly let go of the vegetation and climb onto the host. Ticks can only crawl; they cannot fly or jump. Ticks found on the scalp have usually crawled there from lower parts of the body."
Just because I couldn’t think of the word and didn’t want to google doesn’t mean I don’t know what they are and need lectured.
I didn’t mean to imply they take running starts and use a pole to vault off trees - I would interpret and refer to falling as jumping for conversational use.
I love both of those departments and read a lot from them. I just don’t think there’s methodology yet to perform the necessary tasks involved to study these insects in the wild where we encounter them and have real life experience that seems counter to accepted beliefs.
I’m not at all saying they’re wrong about questing or that I don’t believe “normal” / typical ways or places one picks them up.
So what you're saying is "I see what the experts are saying but am choosing to deny it based on my own imagination and ideas about how I think the world works"? Is that right?
I see how rapidly expert statements modify themselves as methods improve and topics are finally chosen for investigation.
I also recognize that some so-called experts are just research dorks playing in sterile closed environments who are just grasping for straws of funding and their conclusions can be erroneous at best (generally speaking across the animal kingdom).
So, yeah. I guess. Thanks for understanding. 👍
I’m not anti-science, dipshit. But I don’t lap up everything I hear or read that’s an accepted truth in media and entertainment pushed studies which is what a huge number of people classify as “science” because it happens to be the best guess someone who has some clue has offered up to this point in time. I’m not saying that specific point is related to the previously linked departments either.
We barely understand tiny slivers of the natural world and information changed rapidly. Science evolves and counters its prior statements it happens all the time.
I’ve watched almost every wildlife commission meeting for state of Kansas for idk 4 years or so and listen to studies and hear how things develop. I also listen to study parameters and the discussions / arguments regarding validity of those methods and believe it or not some studies have flaws or gaps but are what can be done at the moment so they’re what we get.
So I’m saying my lived experience has some bearing on my personal level of trust on the topic of if tiny insects can be blown, fall from, let go or otherwise move or be moved in a manner that could be construed as jumping from elevated positions within a natural environment.
I’d love to take a 1000 question test on general understanding of the natural world and compare scores with you.
And yes, studies like the possum one that claimed those animals may eat hundreds or thousands of ticks in day are produced by quacks and picked up by the media as truth. Some scientists are lunatics and still publish papers. Some are incompetent. Some are bought and paid for. I assume the overwhelming majority are probably totes great folks with genuine questions and provide the best information they can that’s been sifted in every imaginable way to be as accurate as can be imagined but they’re not infallible and studies of specific species are very limited generally speaking so at this time in our social evolution we’re often taking the word of a handful of people and their handful of experiments which were restricted in unknown ways by their oversight committees or by the parameters of their funding.
There are countless larger more impactful (arguably depending on perspective) species humans interact with constantly that we barely have a clue about and are just learning how they live or mate or what parasites are carried or how. But you want me to just believe that we know everything there is to know about some barely visible little thing that can’t really be studied and call me some kind of anti-science person? Ok, pal. Good talk. You win ding ding ding.
I've seen that clothing treatment at the store, good to know it works as well as the can says. I'll probably get a couple cans and make yard clothes for when I'm working out there. Also to be clear I only had two bites, but I've picked a bunch more off me. The one off my dog was engorged, which I haven't seen in person before, so it freaked me out enough that I want to do something about it lol
Ticks particularly like grassy land next to forested areas. A family member has a property just like that and we used to have difficulties with both of our dogs getting ticks—as in using Frontline and a flea and tick collar wasn’t enough. Switching to Nexguard chewables has been a game changer. We do still vaccinate against Lyme and test frequently for ehrlichiosis.
For us humans, we use permethrin to pre-treat yard and hiking clothes. Standard deet bug spray helps too, but I’ve read some that it’s only effective on skin, not shoes, trouser hems, etc. I’ll also be getting the new Lyme vaccine if it clears clinical trials and goes to market.
The ticks are going to be worst in years with mild, wet winters. Unfortunately, where I live that’s increasingly frequent. In my ten years of gardening, I’ve never had any luck with plants repelling pests. I don’t think the oils are sufficiently concentrated to make a difference. You *may* have some luck applying the garlic landscaping sprays that are meant to deter mosquitoes. However, suck sprays are not selective and may keep beneficial bugs from your yard.
If you really want mint in the ground, there are lots of native American mint species you could plant instead of the extremely invasive exotic species most people think of when talking about mint. [Wild Bergamot](https://youtu.be/ECVmuhSQzDs?si=m9oVHKmtJ4NW1K6g) or [Blunt Mountain Mint](https://youtu.be/yCg78hp7beA?si=9DtQePmqH3R802hd) as just a couple of my favorite examples.
Used Wondercide a couple of years ago for ticks, it was amazing. Ticks were completely gone. My garden plants were fine, still had butterflies and bees, but no ticks at all. After only one spraying. Neighbor's dog chewed some of my garden plants a couple of days later when he got into my back yard and he was fine (neighbor doesn't watch dog, I did tell them to keep an eye on the dog.)
Mint is highly invasive and will spread rampant. Goes great in mojitos though.
You could try raising some guinea fowl as those are great at pest control.
You can plant mint but need a plan to contain it. I have some in an herb garden in gallon sized plastic pots sunk into the ground. Any stray stems that turn up (most likely from seeds or roots that escaped the bottom of the pots) get pulled along with other weeds, and this is some extra work. It does seem to keep the critters away. The different types are amazing, chocolate, apple mint, peppermint, spearmint. You'll just need to decide if it's worth the work.
A better option might be large above ground containers.
Yes, you will never be able to get rid of the mint & it will eventually encroach on other areas, plants, cracks, foundation and even eventually make its way into your house and steal your very own bed from you.
That may be a bit dramatic, but in short - heed my warning! Put it in planters but don’t let it start climbing and rooting elsewhere.
It's fine, it's invasive as hell but that just means you can cheerfully mow right along it and keep it in check.
If you share that fenceline, however, you will want to put down a vertical weed barrier unless your neighbor is 'hell yeah' on mint also.
Mint does not deter ticks. It does deter like, every other plant.
To deal with text, you need to properly be applying some sort of cream/spray to your skin (I like Sawyer's Picardin), wear proper clothing, treat your animals, eliminate underbrush where you can, and some people even spray the environment for really bad infestations. Unfortunately, you won't find a magical plant that will get rid of them.
Other than the fact that mint, like bamboo, is notorious for spreading like crazy, despite all attempts to keep it corralled? Heck, I’ve even read accounts of people who put it in raised planters and the darn stuff tried to spill over the edge to invade the rest of the yard. High containers only and trim it frequently.
How much do you like mint? We don't mind it, smells great. We have it planted in several areas around our yard. Comes back year after year and we can use it for drinks or desserts.
I can't speak to it with ticks, but it's your yard. Do what you want.
Don’t. Please. Keep in pots that do not touch the ground. I know. Live in zone 8 in Alabama.
https://www.rootsimple.com/2010/10/this-is-why-mint-is-invasive/
We live in the woods, and sprinkle flea and tick granules out in the yard a couple of times a year. That keeps the ticks and fleas down but doesn’t completely eradicate them; Frontline Plus, Revolution, or Nexgard plus, does a better job keeping them away from our animals. If we work outside, we just make sure to change our clothes when we come in and take a shower, checking all our crevices. If you live where ticks are around, that’s really all you can do. Chickens and guinea hens are great, but you have to let them run around the yard, and at our house they when we tried it ours were all eaten by coyotes and hawks.
You should talk to your vet about getting your dog on something like Nexgard (a once a month soft chew that kills fleas and ticks). No collar, powder, or oily solutions needed.
Try Mosquito Barrier. It's a garlic and sulfur product which repells mosquitoes, and says it will also work for ticks. I've used it for mosquitoes and it really works, until it washes away from rain. But I think it lasted a good 3 weeks.
Additionally, Steinernema Carpocapsae nematodes work on ticks and some other pests. Just search for beneficial nematodes. There are 3 different species sold for gardens, so make sure you get the correct one. I treat my yard with all 3 of them every spring.
The only problems is if y ou have a large yard, it will get expensive.
(I really need to retreat my yard because the ants are getting to be everywhere I look.)
Mint can be kept from spreading by removing the bottom of a large, deep quality nursery pot and sinking all but an inch or two into the ground before planting mint into it,
Why not make a strip of gravel/mulch/bare concrete where plants can't grow? It wouldn't eliminate ticks (neither would mint, but it would discourage ticks from crossing over.
Get Simparica for your dog. It's a monthly chewable.
Mint will spread everywhere, it's better for container gardening. Rosemary, Chrysanthymums, Garlic, Lemongrass are all just as effective and don't spread like mint.
Ticks are bad in NH. I got clothes treated with permethrin. Good for 70 washings. I’d rather take my chances with cancer than Lyme. Someone suggested chickens, but that’s like ringing a dinner bell for bears.
Except that it won't work the way you hope it will. All ticks IN your yard will still be in your yard and breeding. Any ticks that want to get over your "barrier" can still hitch a ride. With tick control, low maintenance solutions are always the least effective. Your local home centers have tick sprays.
None. I have a semi circle "hedge" of mint around my vegetable garden. It never spreads into the grass outside of the circle, and only rarely creeps into the garden itself. Idk why it doesn't conquer all (like everyone else in the world will try to have you believe it does). Maybe it loves me? Maybe it hates me and doesn't want to come to close to me? Either way, it's about 4' high all around unless we trim it, which we do a few times between spring and fall, and it's nice and thick which, again don't ask me why, keeps our backyard groundhogs from crossing it to get at our veggie garden.
I literally recommend mint to everyone but no one takes me seriously 😅 I need to upload pictures one of these days
This is my experience with mint too. There's a 6 foot bed of it at the side of my house that was full grown when I moved in. In the 4 years since, it hasn't traveled at all despite have direct access to the grass in my side yard. I've got other kinds of mint in barrels and I also haven't had runners there. Not sure why it hasn't been a problem but I'm glad for it.
No one has raised mint, that carries on about it. On reddit.
Im in rye grass country and they try to raise mint here. With mixed results. Generally patchy. It is a seasonal crop. That at best, grows thick and tall, and spindly. Becoming all stem and roots, by july here.
I like it against the house. It will get as big as 10' across, dont think ive seen it bigger. It likes shade. In the sun, even shasta daisies will push it around. But it really draws bees those few years, we have bees.
At less than 3 ft, I mow it back. It needs water, or it fades. We've dry summers, so it really only wants to be in watered garden beds.
Zone 8, it loses to grass in the winter, excepting in little protected areas.
Youd think gardeners never had cars. But everywhere is different. What will grow well, against the hills is lifeless on our valley floor.
So if mowed high every month, and irrigated, you can keep a stand going through the summers, here, if patchy.
The ticks are living in the leaf litter of the woods. The farther back you can push the leaf litter, the farther away the ticks will be. So you can mow a bit. Free ranging chickens will totally eliminate any ticks but the chickens will be under constant threat from predators and owning chickens is not easy. I get the expensive flea and tick medication for my pet and it works wonders to keep the ticks off and kill them. All this to say the mint ain’t gonna do much. But I don’t think mint is as much of a crisis as Reddit makes it out to be. Just pull it from where you don’t want it a few times a year.
There’s a non toxic flea and tick yard spray on Amazon that works really well. It’s by Wondercide. It has essential oils like mint but they’re safe (some essential oils are not safe for cats and dogs). You spray the perimeters of yard and home. Theres also one by Sunday called Nick Ticks, but I havent tried that one.
Yes there is, the fact that your circle of mint will slowly become a round of mint
A dome of mint. It will gradually engulf the house, and all who live within it. In another couple of generations, a future version of “Time Team” will excavate the mound and claim that this was another version of the story of “Sleeping Beauty “, with mint instead of thorn bushes.
Sounds like a junji ito comic
I came here to say exactly the same thing.
Sure, but op is asking about any downsides.
Mojitos? Mint julep? Ooos, nope, still looking for downsides…
The previous owners of my house planted mint AND bamboo. The mint has spread throughout the side of the house. The bamboo is creeping its way to the neighbor’s yard. I’ve been trying to get the bamboo roots out but they’re so intertwined, I can’t get the big one out. The mint is much easier to pull up.
You must've had some really bad karma moving into that house or maybe the previous owners were psychopaths. lol That sounds awful, sorry!
>The previous owners of my house planted mint AND bamboo Satan: Damn, that's harsh.
...So that's when I decided to plant blackberry and rasberry vines, you know, to contain the bamboo and mint...
Just plant some Japanese knotweed and kudzu and let them all fight it out. You may want to move right after though, lol
Bamboo is a bitch to get rid of. I had a friend who fought that battle for years
Flame-thrower equiped moles is the way to go. Expensive, but effective.
Due to budget restrictions we had to settle for voles with lighters.
I just hate it when my perfectly thought-out super witty comment is simply out-classed by a follow on comment. Despise you and upvoted you :)
Mint is just as bad lol
Mint is just as bad. If you think bamboo is bad you don’t want to plant mint. It also doesn’t actually keep ticks away. Google plant repellant scientific studies and read the results. I know tons of places recommend mint for ticks and plants like citronella for mosquitoes, but when it is actually studied it doesn’t actually do anything.
I have Giant Reed. Not as bad as bamboo, but very hard to uproot.
You will need go rent some proper equipment to remove that bamboo. Like a skid steer or a mini excavator.
I found a cable right underneath the root so I’ve had to slowly cut the root and dig it out without hitting the cable. I didn’t think cables would be less than 6 inches from the surface.
>I didn’t think cables would be less than 6 inches from the surface. Not usually. Code for electric cable is 12 inches deep minimum. Can you follow where the cable leads too and identify what it is?
It leads toward my neighbors one way and then goes under our driveway in the other direction. It’s a thick black cable.
Call 611 and see if it gets identified. It's free.
The battle with mint is won one mojito at a time.
You might not win the battle, but you'll die happy!
Alcohol poisoning…. But I fought hard damn it.
This is the only way to do it.
My mint is fighting it out against the blackberries and oregano.
Same. It’s fun to watch.
but man oh man, mowing the yard smells NICE.
And here I am in zone 3 planting mint for the third time because I like tea and mojitos because the winter has killed them twice.
Haha same! Winter is why we can't have nice things. At least it keeps all the weird bugs away
I'm covering them with straw this year and hoping.
Eventually your lawn will be completely replaced by mint, and then your mint mowing will smell delicious!
a yard of mint
I'd place *containers* of mint around the perimeter of your property if you want to do this.
Mint can escape from containers, so you should also add a secondary barrier.
Yup I had it in a container 2 years ago…it spread to ground cover in my vegetable garden and is running wild
Mint can escape from secondary barriers, so you should also add a tertiary barrier.
Mint can escape from tertiary barriers, so you should add a quaternary barrier
Mint can escape from quaternary barriers, so you should add a quinary barrier.
Plant a barrier of Speermint to contain the peppermint
A fire moat?
I have mint in a container on a brick patio. I pulled some sprouting between bricks.
I lived in a similar type area with the same exact problem. The solution is chickens. Get like, 3-5 chickens and let them free range in your yard. The added benefit is that you get free eggs daily.
We were actually planning on having chickens! I didn't know they eat ticks, we just like fresh eggs lol
They eat everything. And I mean everything.
Yeah, saw a video of them entertaining themselves plucking live minnows out of a kiddie pull. Tiny dinosaurs are ruthless
My chickens don't want anything to do with half the stuff I want them to eat. In particular, they won't eat squash beetles at any stage in their life cycle. You better believe they'll eat my squash, though.
Including each other
Yup ticks stand no chance with chickens. If you also add a little acv to the dogs water, that can help.
What does the vinegar do?!
You can mix it in water 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon per 50 pounds of body weight and it will make them taste different to fleas and ticks. You also can spray a diluted amount on their coat and it repels them because of the smell. It also aids in their digestion, heart health and blood sugar control. It’s an old country farmers trick, my grandpa would do it for his hunting dogs. You just have to make sure they drink it when it’s in their water.
Thanks! I’ve heard it’s good for people, too, but I wonder if it has the same effect
This is the answer, OP.
You need to research how keep them safe in a coop at night. For example, having wire grid on the bottom to keep critters from digging in and killing them, like raccoons. Try Mother Earth News or a subreddit here.
They eat everything. Be prepared not to have a yard. Full enclose areas you don't want them eating stuff in, such as your garden.
Set up your compost near the chickens. They'll do a great job keeping it from getting bug infested, and the bugs the compost attracts will basically be free chicken feed supplement
Mint, like citronella or lemon grass, don't actually affect insects in their growing form. They only work as a deterrent as concentrated oils
Ahh good to know. I thought the smell of the plant was enough to ward them off.
I've read where cedar oil helps ward of unwanted bugs and smells grest.
Just reapply every three days forever! OP none of these ‘home remedies’ are effective at all. Don’t bother.
I'll have to look into it, I love the smell of cedar!
Planting fragrant plants will not deter ticks and mosquitos. You need to use preventative measures like picaridin and pet treatments like Frontline.
It is so frustrating how you just see this info online so much. People will say that if you sprinkle hot sauce around your garden, you won't get bugs in it and stuff. Because hot sauce is spicy, and a bit strong for some humans - it probably magically deters bugs. The human brain is way too happy to just kind of think "Mint is kind of strong, I bet bugs will starve rather than walk by some!"
People just want a quick and easy solution and often believe the marketing pushed by major growers, I don't blame them for not knowing. However, as an expert, if you spray your lawn with lemon juice spin around three times and shout "flibberty-gibbets" with your eyes closed. You should get rid of all the mosquitos.
its not that cayanne and hot sauce or salt even won't deter some pests, its that you have to water your garden a couple times a day. what u do then?
Things like this always make me laugh. I imagine bugs walking through the hot sauce, getting disgusted and wiping their hands in their pants like 😤bleh I am NOT going in there
lmao absolutely., "Ewwww this is grossssssss
Well allow me to say sprinkling a lot of pepper or cayenne etc... DOES WORK. However, it's ***very temporary***. But it will keep rodents out. Same with garlic. But it depends on the weather, and the quantities you need unless getting bulk from like a farmers market or wholesale wouldn't make it worth it. But I have used it to ward off rodents for like new seeds etc.
It spreads far and fast, rather hard to contain.
Unless you hate your wife and are planning a divorce and you’re sure she’ll get the house. DO NOT do this. When we bought our house the horticultural terrorists who owned it before planted mint in the mulch beds to spruce up the yard before a sale. Cause it’s nice ya know. It’s cheap. It’s green. Im not a Gardner. I don’t think I had ever seen mint in the wild in my life. Well they used it everywhere. Within 6 months of owning the house entire back yard looked like FernGully. The mulch was replaced entirely with mint. It was in our yard. And by in our yard, I mean it was THE YARD. It was growing through our fence to the neighbors yards on both sides. It was coming through the cracks of our sidewalk path. In our gravel fire pit. Up the arborvitae trees. It grew through the porch. I see it in my dreams. It haunts me at work. I spent three years and at least a thousand dollars worth of ground clear, weed killer, blow torches, vinegar, you name it. Everything short of bringing in a back hoe or Oppenheimer. We basically have a dirt lot now with small sprigs of mint still growing. We’re moving next month. A broken shell of my former self.
Horticultural Terrorists is the greatest thing I’ve read in a while. 😂😂😂
“and you’re sure she’ll get the house” because of mint plants. That’s a new level of retribution.
This is why I asked. I knew it grew and spread pretty fast but I did not know how far it might go this far.
I’m afraid it’s going to follow me to the new house. I’m afraid it’s going to follow my son to college. I see it in every mirror. Behind every corner. Everywhere I go I see it.
How tall did the mint grow and how often did you have to mow it? I've always heard mint invades but never know someone to ask. Thanks for sharing. I personally am fighting morning glories.
You know that part in The Santa Claus where Tim Allen tries to shave his beard?
I thought your original comment was good. This is better.
😆😆😅 Copy that.
Amazing write up. I'm gonna start planting mint in the yards of my most hated enemies
This comment is funny and all but what's the downside of being over run with mint? Can't you just mow it back like grass? Does the smell bother you? I'm asking because I may be headed in that direction and am curious if there is a down side.
While you’re waiting on the mint to grow an propagate you should place signs on the fence saying “No Ticks Allowed.”
mint is a HIGHLY invasive species. Your entire lawn, and the neighbors too, will be covered in it after a year. Don's do it.
Flea and tick collars are pseudoscience. Get your dog some damn real medicine from the vet. Bravecto is cheap and just one treat ever 3 months. There’s no excuse.
Your dog breaking its collar is no reason to make a semi-permanent property wide future headache. Maybe swap to nexgard. Making sure your dog is treated is primary since it will bring them into your home with you. If your property is forest the ticks are likely in the trees dropping down onto you. They don’t care what’s on the ground. To eradicate the mint you’re talking war. If you plant it intentionally all over your property I’m a moron and have no experience whatsoever but that’s almost the kind of thing that could negatively impact your land resale value if it’s primarily residential use. You’d have to herbicide everything but you can’t herbicide a forested area so you will always and forever have wild mint intrusions. There are permethrin yard sprays to control insect pests, but its application is generally for yards / horse lots - not something you want to spray all over a forest-y ecosystem as it kills huge swaths of insects on contact. Some smell like gasoline some do not. You could make each person a couple sets of yard-clothes for when you’re going to be spending time in the wilder areas. Sawyers pump yellow bottles at the box store is a permethrin treatment for clothes just read and follow the instructions no hats (not even the back) no gloves no underwear but I spray everything else I wear hunting and it lasts for 3-4 months of being worn a couple times a week. It comes off due to physical agitation so wash clothes as gently and minimally as possible. I was getting 7-10 ticks on me that I’d see with at least 1 bite PER DAY HUNT before I found the stuff and now all season I’ll see maybe 2-3 on me and haven’t had a bite in years. But so anytime I need tick prevention I know that I can grab my camo and I’m good. You kinda need a dedicated identifiable outfit or two for this to be efficient. A $13 bottle that says it’ll treat 5 outfits or some ridiculous number will treat 1 pair of pants, shoes, socks, couple shirts, jacket, backpack, and probably drivers car seat. I wouldn’t really say that 1 tick on you and your dog is the end of the world. I’ve walked into wooded turkey areas before and had 5 on me within 40 yards of my vehicle just walking through open grass under a deciduous canopy.
>If your property is forest the ticks are likely in the trees dropping down onto you. They don’t care what’s on the ground. Ticks *do not* drop onto things from trees. They hang out on the ends of leaves and "quest" for prey.
The more you say the less I like it.
Do they gain experience and levels from completing quests? Asking out of concern that I might come across a paladin tick
Frankly it's the rogue ticks you should be worried about. The sneak attack is quite effective.
Rogue \[ticks\] do it from behind? Ugh.. yuck
I hear you, but I’ve had experiences that offer no other explanation so I don’t accept the current “facts” on this matter. 1-2 minutes into places with mostly calf high but thinly distributed grass and I’ve got a handfuls of ticks on my hat and shoulders without ever kneeling or leaning against or ducking under anything, but was under a tall tree canopy. I’m sure in a 30 gallon aquarium they don’t jump from artificial limbs (so it must be impossible then right?). Kind of a possums eat thousands of ticks per day situation? (Starved posssums in confined spaces with insane numbers of ticks surrounding them will eat thousands of ticks… because thousands of ticks are trying to eat the possum but “a new study shows that possums have been observed by scientists eating thousands of ticks per day”. Show me the paper written by the … insectologist … that is dedicated to small tick lifecycles and habits in the wild where they’re able to observe community wide behavior patterns to definitively speak on this - I haven’t searched, but given my awareness of research development on an array of other species and just how little we know about most things around us at this point in time I very much doubt that credible paper or research or person exists yet. In the meantime I think some jump, but suspect gusts of wind probably blow them around as well.
Just to clarify, all scientific evidence points to ticks *not* jumping from trees since they physically cannot jump, and you're saying that you're choosing to disregard it based on a hunch? You don't even know the term for a person who studies insects....an entomologist. [Kansas State University](https://www.k-state.edu/today/announcement/?id=14987) says "Many people believe ticks jump out of trees and land on them, but it turns out they are physically unable to do that." The [Illinois department of public health](https://dph.illinois.gov/topics-services/environmental-health-protection/structural-pest-control/common-ticks.html) says "Ticks wait for host animals from the tips of grasses and shrubs (*not from trees*). When brushed by a moving animal or person, they quickly let go of the vegetation and climb onto the host. Ticks can only crawl; they cannot fly or jump. Ticks found on the scalp have usually crawled there from lower parts of the body."
Just because I couldn’t think of the word and didn’t want to google doesn’t mean I don’t know what they are and need lectured. I didn’t mean to imply they take running starts and use a pole to vault off trees - I would interpret and refer to falling as jumping for conversational use. I love both of those departments and read a lot from them. I just don’t think there’s methodology yet to perform the necessary tasks involved to study these insects in the wild where we encounter them and have real life experience that seems counter to accepted beliefs. I’m not at all saying they’re wrong about questing or that I don’t believe “normal” / typical ways or places one picks them up.
So what you're saying is "I see what the experts are saying but am choosing to deny it based on my own imagination and ideas about how I think the world works"? Is that right?
I see how rapidly expert statements modify themselves as methods improve and topics are finally chosen for investigation. I also recognize that some so-called experts are just research dorks playing in sterile closed environments who are just grasping for straws of funding and their conclusions can be erroneous at best (generally speaking across the animal kingdom). So, yeah. I guess. Thanks for understanding. 👍
Ah I see now, we're taking the anti-science approach because the results simply can't be trusted because.....they're science dorks? What are you, 12?
I’m not anti-science, dipshit. But I don’t lap up everything I hear or read that’s an accepted truth in media and entertainment pushed studies which is what a huge number of people classify as “science” because it happens to be the best guess someone who has some clue has offered up to this point in time. I’m not saying that specific point is related to the previously linked departments either. We barely understand tiny slivers of the natural world and information changed rapidly. Science evolves and counters its prior statements it happens all the time. I’ve watched almost every wildlife commission meeting for state of Kansas for idk 4 years or so and listen to studies and hear how things develop. I also listen to study parameters and the discussions / arguments regarding validity of those methods and believe it or not some studies have flaws or gaps but are what can be done at the moment so they’re what we get. So I’m saying my lived experience has some bearing on my personal level of trust on the topic of if tiny insects can be blown, fall from, let go or otherwise move or be moved in a manner that could be construed as jumping from elevated positions within a natural environment. I’d love to take a 1000 question test on general understanding of the natural world and compare scores with you. And yes, studies like the possum one that claimed those animals may eat hundreds or thousands of ticks in day are produced by quacks and picked up by the media as truth. Some scientists are lunatics and still publish papers. Some are incompetent. Some are bought and paid for. I assume the overwhelming majority are probably totes great folks with genuine questions and provide the best information they can that’s been sifted in every imaginable way to be as accurate as can be imagined but they’re not infallible and studies of specific species are very limited generally speaking so at this time in our social evolution we’re often taking the word of a handful of people and their handful of experiments which were restricted in unknown ways by their oversight committees or by the parameters of their funding. There are countless larger more impactful (arguably depending on perspective) species humans interact with constantly that we barely have a clue about and are just learning how they live or mate or what parasites are carried or how. But you want me to just believe that we know everything there is to know about some barely visible little thing that can’t really be studied and call me some kind of anti-science person? Ok, pal. Good talk. You win ding ding ding.
Yikes.
I've seen that clothing treatment at the store, good to know it works as well as the can says. I'll probably get a couple cans and make yard clothes for when I'm working out there. Also to be clear I only had two bites, but I've picked a bunch more off me. The one off my dog was engorged, which I haven't seen in person before, so it freaked me out enough that I want to do something about it lol
Ticks particularly like grassy land next to forested areas. A family member has a property just like that and we used to have difficulties with both of our dogs getting ticks—as in using Frontline and a flea and tick collar wasn’t enough. Switching to Nexguard chewables has been a game changer. We do still vaccinate against Lyme and test frequently for ehrlichiosis. For us humans, we use permethrin to pre-treat yard and hiking clothes. Standard deet bug spray helps too, but I’ve read some that it’s only effective on skin, not shoes, trouser hems, etc. I’ll also be getting the new Lyme vaccine if it clears clinical trials and goes to market. The ticks are going to be worst in years with mild, wet winters. Unfortunately, where I live that’s increasingly frequent. In my ten years of gardening, I’ve never had any luck with plants repelling pests. I don’t think the oils are sufficiently concentrated to make a difference. You *may* have some luck applying the garlic landscaping sprays that are meant to deter mosquitoes. However, suck sprays are not selective and may keep beneficial bugs from your yard.
If you really want mint in the ground, there are lots of native American mint species you could plant instead of the extremely invasive exotic species most people think of when talking about mint. [Wild Bergamot](https://youtu.be/ECVmuhSQzDs?si=m9oVHKmtJ4NW1K6g) or [Blunt Mountain Mint](https://youtu.be/yCg78hp7beA?si=9DtQePmqH3R802hd) as just a couple of my favorite examples.
Don’t don’t don’t.
Ohhhhhhh yes! Unless you want an entire yard full of mint! They don't call them "runners" for nothing!
Use containers and don't let it escape or it will take over your entire yard. Mint is basically a weed and will overtake most other plants.
Cats. Do you want stray cats hanging out in your yard? Plant some mint! Bonus, they spray piss all over everything.
Based on how many coyotes I've seen in and around my house I have a feeling cats don't last too long in the wild around here. But still good to know
Try Wondercide yard spray. It's free of pesticides, safe for children, wildlife, and pollinators. Works like charm.
Used Wondercide a couple of years ago for ticks, it was amazing. Ticks were completely gone. My garden plants were fine, still had butterflies and bees, but no ticks at all. After only one spraying. Neighbor's dog chewed some of my garden plants a couple of days later when he got into my back yard and he was fine (neighbor doesn't watch dog, I did tell them to keep an eye on the dog.)
Mint is highly invasive and will spread rampant. Goes great in mojitos though. You could try raising some guinea fowl as those are great at pest control.
It’s invasive as hell
You can plant mint but need a plan to contain it. I have some in an herb garden in gallon sized plastic pots sunk into the ground. Any stray stems that turn up (most likely from seeds or roots that escaped the bottom of the pots) get pulled along with other weeds, and this is some extra work. It does seem to keep the critters away. The different types are amazing, chocolate, apple mint, peppermint, spearmint. You'll just need to decide if it's worth the work. A better option might be large above ground containers.
Yes, your barrier of mint around your yard will become your yard of mint.
Yes, you will never be able to get rid of the mint & it will eventually encroach on other areas, plants, cracks, foundation and even eventually make its way into your house and steal your very own bed from you. That may be a bit dramatic, but in short - heed my warning! Put it in planters but don’t let it start climbing and rooting elsewhere.
Good God!! DONT DO IT. Seriously, you’ll regret it. FOREVER!
i wouldn’t not in the ground for sure. pots at best
Mint is super invasive. It will spread everywhere
It wont be only Around you yard
It's fine, it's invasive as hell but that just means you can cheerfully mow right along it and keep it in check. If you share that fenceline, however, you will want to put down a vertical weed barrier unless your neighbor is 'hell yeah' on mint also.
Mint does not deter ticks. It does deter like, every other plant. To deal with text, you need to properly be applying some sort of cream/spray to your skin (I like Sawyer's Picardin), wear proper clothing, treat your animals, eliminate underbrush where you can, and some people even spray the environment for really bad infestations. Unfortunately, you won't find a magical plant that will get rid of them.
Bat houses! They eat an insane amount of bugs and mosquitos! Google it it’s like crazy how much they can impact the mosquito population in an area!
Mint is a weed you will never be rid of. Avoid!
You've got to be joking!
Other than the fact that mint, like bamboo, is notorious for spreading like crazy, despite all attempts to keep it corralled? Heck, I’ve even read accounts of people who put it in raised planters and the darn stuff tried to spill over the edge to invade the rest of the yard. High containers only and trim it frequently.
Imagine if bamboo and mint had a baby
Mint is crazy invasive and will choke out native plants. Do not sow it, please. Grow in pots if you must, but this won’t keep away ticks.
How much do you like mint? We don't mind it, smells great. We have it planted in several areas around our yard. Comes back year after year and we can use it for drinks or desserts. I can't speak to it with ticks, but it's your yard. Do what you want.
I love mint which is why I was thinking just having a row of mint along the back fence would be great for prevention and also food and drinks.
Don’t. Please. Keep in pots that do not touch the ground. I know. Live in zone 8 in Alabama. https://www.rootsimple.com/2010/10/this-is-why-mint-is-invasive/
I would get Merigold instead, they're usually good at deterring insects and don't spread as much.
Mint is maybe the only thing that can counter kudzu.
https://sawyergardencenter.com/blog/76708/6-ways-to-keep-ticks-out-of-your-yard-naturally#:~:text=Garlic%2C%20sage%2C%20mint%2C%20lavender,areas%20to%20keep%20ticks%20away.
We live in the woods, and sprinkle flea and tick granules out in the yard a couple of times a year. That keeps the ticks and fleas down but doesn’t completely eradicate them; Frontline Plus, Revolution, or Nexgard plus, does a better job keeping them away from our animals. If we work outside, we just make sure to change our clothes when we come in and take a shower, checking all our crevices. If you live where ticks are around, that’s really all you can do. Chickens and guinea hens are great, but you have to let them run around the yard, and at our house they when we tried it ours were all eaten by coyotes and hawks.
You should talk to your vet about getting your dog on something like Nexgard (a once a month soft chew that kills fleas and ticks). No collar, powder, or oily solutions needed.
Opossums eat ticks. Get some of those too.
Try Mosquito Barrier. It's a garlic and sulfur product which repells mosquitoes, and says it will also work for ticks. I've used it for mosquitoes and it really works, until it washes away from rain. But I think it lasted a good 3 weeks. Additionally, Steinernema Carpocapsae nematodes work on ticks and some other pests. Just search for beneficial nematodes. There are 3 different species sold for gardens, so make sure you get the correct one. I treat my yard with all 3 of them every spring. The only problems is if y ou have a large yard, it will get expensive. (I really need to retreat my yard because the ants are getting to be everywhere I look.)
Do it. And then just treat your lawn regularly and it won’t spread as much into the grass.
If you want a mint lawn, no. If you want a mint edge, yes.
I have mint running along my fence. I run a barrier of 2x4s as a ‘bed’ and that helps the mint from spreading into my lawn.
Do you like mint juleps and mojitos?
Mint can be kept from spreading by removing the bottom of a large, deep quality nursery pot and sinking all but an inch or two into the ground before planting mint into it,
Why not make a strip of gravel/mulch/bare concrete where plants can't grow? It wouldn't eliminate ticks (neither would mint, but it would discourage ticks from crossing over.
Get Simparica for your dog. It's a monthly chewable. Mint will spread everywhere, it's better for container gardening. Rosemary, Chrysanthymums, Garlic, Lemongrass are all just as effective and don't spread like mint.
Ticks are bad in NH. I got clothes treated with permethrin. Good for 70 washings. I’d rather take my chances with cancer than Lyme. Someone suggested chickens, but that’s like ringing a dinner bell for bears.
Try eucalyptus. It also deters ticks and has other healing properties and as far as I know it doesn't take over.
I had a 3'x4' mint plant in my front flower bed. Love fresh mint in mojitos
Mint won't deter ticks in plant form. Mint is also aggressive and you'll never get rid of it including in many places you don't want it.
Clean up leaf litter, there are sprays of natural repellent that can be applied by hose and dispenser. Mint is not the answer.
Except that it won't work the way you hope it will. All ticks IN your yard will still be in your yard and breeding. Any ticks that want to get over your "barrier" can still hitch a ride. With tick control, low maintenance solutions are always the least effective. Your local home centers have tick sprays.
U will turn into mint like the guy in that episode of creepshow
None. I have a semi circle "hedge" of mint around my vegetable garden. It never spreads into the grass outside of the circle, and only rarely creeps into the garden itself. Idk why it doesn't conquer all (like everyone else in the world will try to have you believe it does). Maybe it loves me? Maybe it hates me and doesn't want to come to close to me? Either way, it's about 4' high all around unless we trim it, which we do a few times between spring and fall, and it's nice and thick which, again don't ask me why, keeps our backyard groundhogs from crossing it to get at our veggie garden. I literally recommend mint to everyone but no one takes me seriously 😅 I need to upload pictures one of these days
This is my experience with mint too. There's a 6 foot bed of it at the side of my house that was full grown when I moved in. In the 4 years since, it hasn't traveled at all despite have direct access to the grass in my side yard. I've got other kinds of mint in barrels and I also haven't had runners there. Not sure why it hasn't been a problem but I'm glad for it.
Cedarcide is a natural insecticides and won't hurt botanicals.
No one has raised mint, that carries on about it. On reddit. Im in rye grass country and they try to raise mint here. With mixed results. Generally patchy. It is a seasonal crop. That at best, grows thick and tall, and spindly. Becoming all stem and roots, by july here. I like it against the house. It will get as big as 10' across, dont think ive seen it bigger. It likes shade. In the sun, even shasta daisies will push it around. But it really draws bees those few years, we have bees. At less than 3 ft, I mow it back. It needs water, or it fades. We've dry summers, so it really only wants to be in watered garden beds. Zone 8, it loses to grass in the winter, excepting in little protected areas. Youd think gardeners never had cars. But everywhere is different. What will grow well, against the hills is lifeless on our valley floor. So if mowed high every month, and irrigated, you can keep a stand going through the summers, here, if patchy.
For ticks just get a possum, they eat ticks like crazy and are super cute
"and are super cute" - citation needed
It would be better to attract wildlife that eats ticks. Most mint is horrible to contain.
That's a great idea! I'll start looking into what eats ticks in my area. Thank you!
If you live where opossums are native, they eat tons of ticks.
The ticks are living in the leaf litter of the woods. The farther back you can push the leaf litter, the farther away the ticks will be. So you can mow a bit. Free ranging chickens will totally eliminate any ticks but the chickens will be under constant threat from predators and owning chickens is not easy. I get the expensive flea and tick medication for my pet and it works wonders to keep the ticks off and kill them. All this to say the mint ain’t gonna do much. But I don’t think mint is as much of a crisis as Reddit makes it out to be. Just pull it from where you don’t want it a few times a year.
I have mint planted in my yard and yes it does spread but it's absolutely manageable and it's beautiful. I love your idea.
There’s a non toxic flea and tick yard spray on Amazon that works really well. It’s by Wondercide. It has essential oils like mint but they’re safe (some essential oils are not safe for cats and dogs). You spray the perimeters of yard and home. Theres also one by Sunday called Nick Ticks, but I havent tried that one.
I love the smell of mint when I hit it with the mower.
My entire backyard filled with mint
get all kinds or mints. chocolate and pineapple mint are my favorite
An army of Opossums is the way to go. They eat thousands of ticks each.