Tick Control

Treatment for Ticks

Ticks are small biting and blood-sucking pests that can cause serious health problems for humans and pets. A tick can attach itself to your skin and start feeding off you, and you won’t even know it. Among the diseases the parasites can cause are Lyme disease and bourbon virus.

Pro Pest Control Melbourne is dedicated to keeping Melbourne homes and businesses free of ticks. Our professional and customised treatment plans are specifically designed to eliminate ticks and give you peace of mind.

Using the latest technologies and approaches, we´ll protect your property from ticks and the viruses and illnesses they transmit.

Call us at 03 4062 5000.

Why Are Ticks Considered Pests?

Ticks are not insects. They are arachnids, relatives of spiders and scorpions. These potentially dangerous parasites are considered pests because they feed on human and animal blood. The tiny critters bite and burrow into your skin (or your pet´s), suck blood and transmit some nasty diseases.

Examples of diseases that ticks can transmit include:

• Lyme disease
• Tick-borne relapsing fever
• Babesiosis (a malaria-like infection)
• Rocky Mountain spotted fever
• Bourbon virus
• Tularemia

How We Treat Ticks

Our comprehensive tick treatments for homes and businesses target all tick species found in Melbourne.

• Inspection

One of our specialist pest control technicians will perform an extensive interior and exterior inspection of your property to identify potential tick activity sites. We´ll check vegetation, grassy areas, cracks, crevices, pet beds, garden beds and more.

• Treatment

We´ll apply insecticides to several locations inside and outside your property, including near where pets sleep. The chemicals are safe for humans and animals but fatal for ticks. They get to work immediately and eliminate tick eggs and nesting sites.

• Post-Treatment Inspection

We´ll conduct a walk-through to ensure no ticks, nests, or eggs remain.

As part of our service, we will also give you some useful tips to keep ticks away from your property. This will include advice on how to make your outdoor spaces less tick friendly.

Common Tick Species in Melbourne

Among the common tick species you may find are:

• Hard ticks (Ixodidae family) – oval-shaped, flat ticks that range from 3 millimetres to 23 millimetres in size. Females are larger than males because they consume more blood. Hard ticks transmit several diseases, including Rocky Mountain spotted fever and Q-fever.
• Soft ticks (Argasidae family) – have a wrinkled body with the mouth parts on the underside. They prefer hot and dry areas and are known to transmit tick-borne relapsing fever.
• Paralysis ticks (Ixodes holocyclus) – these ticks inject a neurotoxin into their hosts while biting them. If left untreated, the toxin can paralyse muscles.
• Cat ticks (Ixodes hirsti) – these ticks have an oval-shaped body and can grow up to 3.3 millimetres in size.

Common Signs of Infestation

How Do You Know If You Have A Tick Problem?

If your home has a tick infestation, you may find large numbers of ticks on yourself, your pets and other people who live with you. One thing that makes ticks so dangerous is that they´re small and difficult to spot. Among the most common tell-tale signs of a tick infestation are:

• The presence of ticks on the skin of family members and pets. Ticks are especially attracted to hidden areas such as the backs of knees, inside belly buttons and armpits.
• If someone is allergic to tick bites, they may develop a rash that covers their entire body. Other symptoms of tick bites can include headaches, nausea, weakness and stiffness of the neck.
• Ticks in your vacuum cleaner.
• Tick eggs near windows, rugs, curtains, door frames and baseboards.

How To Keep Ticks at Bay: DIY Control and Prevention Tips

• Wear tick repellent if you´re going hiking or strolling through the countryside. Apply it to your clothing and shoes.
• Wear full-coverage clothing when on countryside walks. For example, long sleeves, long trousers, long socks and boots. If you´re walking/hiking in the summer months, you can do the same but wear breathable fabrics.
• Before coming back inside after a country walks, thoroughly inspect your family members and pets.
• Bathe immediately after spending time in the great outdoors.
• Neatly stack any firewood in your garden in the sunlight. This is because ticks can make themselves at home in sloping wood piles in shaded areas.
• Sprinkle diatomaceous earth on your lawn. This natural product kills off ticks by drying them out.
• Plant tick-repellent plants in your garden, such as sage, lavender and rosemary.
• Spray your plants with organic pesticides.
• Ticks like shaded spots, so mow your lawn regularly.
• Rake piles of grass and leaves to eliminate tick hiding places.
• Create a one-metre border between your lawn and trees/wooden areas in your garden. This discourages tick migration from trees to other areas of your property. Fill the gap with mulch or rocks.
• Perform routine and thorough tick checks on your pets.

FAQ

Where do ticks live?

Ticks tend to live in fields, wooded areas, on animals and any other place where they have ready supplies of food. These small parasitic organisms need blood from their animal or human hosts to survive.

How long can a tick survive indoors?

That all depends on whether they find a host and the life cycle stage they´re in. Tick eggs don´t need blood to survive and can live for several weeks without a host until they hatch. Ticks in the larval, nymph and adult stages can live for varying amounts of time without blood. Some ticks can live for several months or even 2-3 years without a blood meal.

Do ticks fly?

Ticks don’t have wings, so they cannot fly. They can’t jump either as they don´t possess jumping legs. The external parasite crawls and climbs. When ticks land on a host, they tend to crawl upward.

Will I feel a tick crawling/climbing on me?

Ticks are tiny and are adapted to avoid detection by their hosts. This makes it extremely unlikely that you will feel them. Therefore, it is important to check yourself for ticks every day if you live or are spending time in a tick habitat.

Why Choose Us

• Fully licensed Pest Management Technicians from Victoria Health
• $20 Million Public Liability Insured
• 20 Years In The Pest Control Industry
• Australian Environmental Pest Managers Association and Government
• Local Melbourne Business
• Eco-friendly Tick Control Treatments
• Fast and Reliable Exterminators
• 100% Customer Satisfactio Guaranteed
• Free Quotations
• We Turn up on time.

Services

• Professional Tick Control Service
• Tick treatments from $99

It is hard to provide a warranty on ticks as many external factors determine the success of complete removal.

Melbourne Locations

• Central Suburbs
• Melbourne CBD
• Inner City -South Yarra, Prahran, Richmond, Essendon, Collingwood
• Eastern Suburbs and South East
• Northern Suburbs
• Western Suburbs
• Mornington Peninsula

Get In Touch

Contact Pro Pest Control Melbourne today on 03 4062 5000 to discuss your requirements.