Look into "tick tubes", which you scatter around your yard. Tick tubes have permethrin impregnated cotton inside them, which mice collect and use as bedding. Mice are a critical part of the tick life cycle. The permethrin kills ticks that feed on the mice, and over a season or two you can seriously eliminate infestations of ticks without indiscriminate pesticide spraying.

The good thing is, we're just approaching the best time to apply tick tubes, early spring to summer.