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Comment by foobarian | Hacker News Reader

> just stop mowing

... and add a tick check every couple of days to your routine :-(

And be prepared to interact with many other animals. This includes the ones we all seem to love, like birds and bees and fireflies, but also those that are typically considered vermin, like spiders, snakes, mice, wasps, roaches.

Not that there's anything really bad about that. It just requires a change to how you approach your outdoor spaces.

Friend of mine has 2 neighbors who have gone full don't mow back to nature and all that. No, it doesn't look 'natural' or anything else nice. It looks like what is: overgrown weeds, sprawling vines (kudzu, poison ivy), several years of desiccated branches and stems (glad we aren't in a fireprone area), and scraggly, non-native trees trying to take hold.

But the best thing for my friend is how much rats like it. Not mice, rats. Lots of rats.

As someone who lives in the woods of the Ozarks: Every couple of days is not enough. If you're outside from April to November, you check.

Yeah. It depends on the season and the year but I've had days around where I live in MA where, especially in the late spring, I can't walk a mile out through my field--which is typically short at that time of year--down to the river without finding multiple ticks on me when I get back.

This was the case growing up in PA too but it's much more troublesome disease-wise these days.

The forest around my house has be minimally cleared to include about a 30' gravel "yard" and there's no where to be safe from the damned ticks and chiggers. It always requires an application of something. Given the increase of Alpha-gal issues caused by the ticks locally, it's an absolute necessity.

Ticks are not a concern in most of the UK.

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