How To Repel Ticks: 5 Overlooked Solutions That Are So Simple

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Ticks can cause everything from fatal meat allergies to Lyme disease, babesiosis, anaplasmosis, spotted fever, and many others. Given the serious threat that they pose, it's natural to turn to extreme measures to control them. Yet these might not be warranted if you can repel them with simple strategies. 

In a 2026 article published in Ticks and Tick-borne Diseases, entomologist Lars Eisen states: "There is a clear winner in the ongoing contest between humans and ticks. And it is not us." He acknowledges the need for a national strategy to curb the growth of the tick population but concedes that control on a national scale is likely impossible. With that said, there are a few steps you can take to repel these arachnids. Just bear in mind that the simple methods presented here aren't necessarily scientifically verified. Even if they work, you still have to check your clothes for ticks before you come into the house after a walk in the woods, and you need to regularly monitor your pets as well.

If you don't want ticks to latch onto your legs as you're walking through the yard and hitch a free ride into the house, take away all their hiding places. These include leaf piles and tall grass, so become a mowing expert and keep the grass fairly short (about 3 to 4 inches). When leaves start to fly, rake them up promptly. Overgrown shrubs are another favorite hiding place, so pruning them and keeping them well-manicured is bad for ticks — and good for the plants.

If you have a woodpile, move it as far from the house as possible, preferably to a sunny, dry spot. Ticks are less likely to hide there if the wood is dry. Treat other hiding places, like storage sheds, doghouses, and stacked stone walls, with tick tubes. You can buy them (like the Thermacell Tick Control Tubes, available on Amazon for $70.95), or you can make your own from old toilet paper tubes, cotton or dryer lint, and permethrin spray for an easy DIY solution.

Even with a clean yard, you should still be sure to tuck your pant legs into your socks to prevent ticks from crawling onto you while you're working. And before you head outside, it's also a good idea to treat yourself with a tick repellent for extra protection.

A number of plants that make attractive additions to your garden or landscape are known for their tick-repellent properties. These include lavender, rosemary, garlic, mint, catnip, sage, marigolds, geraniums, chrysanthemums, and lemongrass. Some need to be grown with caution, though. Mint and catnip, for example, are aggressive growers — even invasive — and need to be separated from the rest of your herbs. And geraniums are toxic to pets, so keep them in a protected enclosure.

You can use these plants to keep ticks out of the house and garden by drying them. Bundle them into sprigs and display them near doors and windows, preferably near the floor, where ticks are most likely to be lurking. You can also crush the dried flowers, stems, and leaves into a powder and make sacks that you can put into drawers and closets, under sofa and chair cushions, and in dark corners.

In the case of sage, consider smudging your house by burning the leaves and wafting the smoke around various rooms. Besides keeping ticks away, this traditional practice is said to purify the air by helping neutralize the negative effects of mold, pet dander, and other pollution, though there's no scientific evidence to confirm this.

You can use the essential oils from some of the plants mentioned above, as well as others, to make a tick-repellent spray or for an aromatherapy diffusion. Mint and lavender are particularly fragrant choices, and lemongrass contains citronella, which is known to have insecticidal value. Combining citronella and thyme oil into a spray is particularly effective against ticks. You can also put widely available commercial oils into a diffuser. If you have these plants in your garden, you can make your own infused oils by drying them, grinding them, mixing them with olive or safflower oil in a jar, and letting the container steep for two weeks or more. 

Evidence exists to show that a number of other commercially available essential oils have tick-repellent properties. Studies conducted in 2017 and 2018 suggest that clove bud oil is effective at deterring ticks, and a 2008 study showed that neem seed oil could repel ticks and kill their larvae. Tansy is an overlooked flower that also has a history of use as a bug and tick repellent, but when purchasing the essential oil, be careful. The plant with the tick-repellent properties is common tansy (Tanacetum vulgare), not blue tansy (Tanacetum annuum), which is the one you're more likely to find on the store shelves.  

Ticks, like most other organisms, need water to survive and will seek it out, being particularly attracted to humid and moist environments. If you want to keep them out of the house, a good place to start is to lower the humidity. This is also an effective remedy against toxic mold and other pathogens, and it's good for the house in general. 

If ticks do make it into your house, they won't survive long in the low-humidity environment, with the exception of one species: the brown dog tick. Blacklegged ticks (deer ticks) can survive for about a day, and the American dog and lone star ticks maybe a few days. None of these will last long enough to begin a new feeding cycle. The brown dog tick, on the other hand, can complete its entire life cycle in a low-humidity environment, so checking your dogs regularly for the pests is still crucially important.

An easy way to control the humidity in your house is to run the air conditioner, because it removes moisture from the air as it cools. Increasing ventilation with fans or by opening windows can also help, as long as the outside humidity is low. But in humid climates, it's better to close the windows and run an air conditioner or dehumidifier. Closing the windows also reduces the likelihood of a tick being carried in on an errant leaf, and it makes essential oil infusions more effective.

As far as humans and pets are concerned, food-grade diatomaceous earth (DE) is a harmless white power. But for crawling insects like ants, fleas, cockroaches, and yes, ticks, it's a death trap. DE is the crushed-up remains of seashells, and for these insects, walking over it like walking over broken glass. It shreds their exoskeletons and kills them by dehydration, and because ticks are so small, they are particularly vulnerable. 

Spread DE in places where ticks are likely to congregate, such as around baseboards, in dark corners of the basement, and in closets. A barrier around a chair, bed, and sofa legs will prevent ticks from climbing and latching onto you while you're sleeping or relaxing. Ticks that approach DE barriers will probably avoid crossing them, because they can see what the human eye can't: A forbidding terrain of sharp edges that will kill them.

The FDA classifies food-grade DE as "generally recognized as safe," but you should still spread it carefully. Although people and pets can ingest it without ill effects, inhalation of or contact with the airborne dust can irritate the lungs, eyes, and skin.