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The Best Bee Safe Tick Control Options!

Not only has the awareness of the declining bee population become a more well known problem over the last couple of years, the number of people keeping their own home beehives to produce honey and beeswax has also been increasing.

This has resulted in a spike in the number of people reaching out to ask various questions about trying to do their bit to protect bees with one common question that we have seen asked time and time again being for tips on bee safe tick control options.

The best bee safe tick control option if you are keeping your own beehives is to get yourself some backyard chickens or ducks as they will eat huge numbers of ticks each day as they forage.

If you are a hiker or gardener and wanting a bee safe tick product for being on the move then a bee safe insecticide such as most fungicides, herbicides and miticides is probably going to be the best option.

If you do live in a rural area and are having problems with bees then you can also try to cultivate the shrubbery where you walk to prevent ticks from easily being able to transfer from the plants you will brush up against when walking to your clothes or skin.

In most situations, even small changes to the shrubbery where you live can drastically reduce the number of ticks that can make their way onto you or your children while having a minimal effect on the local bee population.

Chickens, Ducks, And Other Fowl!

Chickens, ducks, and other fowl have to be the best bee-safe tick option for anyone who is keeping their own beehives or maintaining a bee-friendly garden due to the sheer number of ticks that these birds can eat.

Not only will chickens and ducks eat huge numbers of ticks but they will also eat large numbers of other pests that can cause problems for your plants and vegetables while being relatively bee safe.

Chickens will usually eat more ticks than ducks but the main advantage of keeping ducks over chickens is that ducks tend not to scratch the roots of your plants or vegetables up while foraging for insects.

This is usually considered to be a good trade off for most people who are picking up some backyard birds for pest control as they will still eat a large amount of ticks while rarely eating many bees.

Additional benefits of opting for the chicken or duck strategy to control the local tick population without cause problems with the local bee population is that they can also be a source of meat and eggs for you too.

The initial spike in keeping backyard chickens was due to people wanting a quick, easy, and reliable source of organic, free-range eggs with most people being surprised by how many pests such as ticks their chickens and ducks would eat while foraging for food.

Try Bee Safe Insecticide!

The majority of traditional insecticides are not considered to be bee safe and will often result in declining bee populations but there are a number of bee safe insecticide products on the market with most fungicides, herbicides and miticides being fine to use around bees.

The effectiveness of these products will depend on a number of factors though with fungicides often being better in colder wetter areas with lots of rain where as herbicides tend to be better in hot areas with minimal rain.

Depending on your requirements this could be a quick and easy way for you to keep ticks away from you without causing problems for the local bee population.

Different types of these products work in slightly different ways though with the majority of them simply creating a strong scent on your clothes and skin that discourage ticks from trying to attach to you and although they do work, they can be questionable when compared to the chemical based anti-tick products.

Still, if you are looking for something to use while you go hiking or something to put on your children while they play in your garden then fungicides, herbicides and miticides can be a cheap, easy, and bee safe protection against ticks that you can pick up at your local store.

You can often get these products online but they generally have a drastically inflated price that can be as much as four times as much as you can get them for in your local store so keep that in mind.

Cultivate The Local Habitat!

The majority of tick species live in heathland and long grass so trying to remove these habitats from your property can be a way to reduce the number of problems you, your children, and your pets will have with ticks while causing minimal problems for the local bee population.

In some situations, you may be able to remove heathland and long grass from your yard or garden and replace it with some flowers that can attract bees.

This can end up being a great way to brighten up an area of your yard or garden that looks wild and untamed while housing a tick population and turn it into an eye catching flower bed that can attract and support the local bees.

The majority of the time, it is relatively easy to remove heathland and long grass without having to use specialist tools too but just be sure to remove as much of the roots as possible to prevent any regrowth.

In some situations, it may not be realistic to remove the heathland and long grass either due to it being a large area or due to being difficult to remove plants.

In this situation, you can consider trying to carve yourself a safe path through the heathland or long grass where ticks are more likely to live or just avoid that area of your property altogether.

Conclusion

That brings our article going over our recommendations for bee safe tick control products to an end. Although the options are limited, we have tried to cover something that can work in the three most common situations that we see people asking for tick treatments in while avoiding any potential problems for the local bee population.