Bed bugs and biting pests
How long do ticks live without a host?
Unfed Blacklegged tick (deer tick) and American dog tick can persist months in humid leaf litter waiting for a host. You cannot “starve the yard” by staying inside for two weeks. Reduce leaf litter at the lawn edge, keep play equipment off the woods line, and do a tick check. Disease risk is why CDC cares more than a folklore timer.
Pets are not the only host
Deer, mice, and you. A dog-only product does not treat the leaf pile. Follow the Tick control around yards page and CDC tick prevention. Remove an attached tick promptly with fine tweezers — not gasoline, not a match.
Species pages
The question is only the field note. Control sequence, legal notes, and identification live on the species article.
Blacklegged tick (deer tick)
Ixodes scapularis
Blacklegged ticks are the Lyme disease vector in the eastern and north-central United States, and they…
American dog tick
Dermacentor variabilis
American dog ticks are the ornate, larger ticks people pull off dogs after a hike in much of the eastern US…
Lone star tick
Amblyomma americanum
Lone star ticks are aggressive. Females have a single white spot on the scutum. They have been associated…
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