"How big is the property?" was the first thing the man on the phone asked. I told him our backyard is about 32 by 24 feet, with two raised beds in the middle, and he laughed in a friendly way and said their minimum visit covers a quarter acre whether we use it or not.
That set the tone for the week. Two local companies came out to look, and both gave me clear, polite quotes for a season of tick and mosquito spraying. We said no to both. Here's how we got there, because it wasn't a quick no.
Why I called at all
Mateo plays Little League in the spring, and half of his games seem to end with a ball rolling into tall grass. Our back fence line used to collect a deep layer of leaves every fall, the kind of shady, damp edge ticks are said to like. A few houses on our street get the little lawn flags from spray companies every spring. I figured I owed it to the family to at least get numbers.
The two quotes
Company A quoted $79 a visit, seven visits from late May into September, about every three weeks. That's $553 for the season. Company B quoted $95 a visit on the same seven-visit schedule, $665 a season, and theirs included a mosquito treatment for the shrubs along the side of the house.
Both technicians were helpful and neither pushed. I asked each of them the same questions, and I'd ask them again:
- What product do you use, and can you send me the label?
- Do you spray anywhere near the vegetable beds?
- What happens to bees on the plants you do spray?
- Could you skip the back fence, where I'm putting in native plants next weekend?
- How long should a ten-year-old stay off the grass afterward?
The answers were honest, and they're why we passed. Both said they'd skip the vegetable beds, which in our yard leaves maybe half the ground. Both treatments are broad sprays that go on foliage and shady edges, which is exactly where the bees will be once the native plugs I'm buying at a spring sale are blooming. If they skip the beds and the fence, there isn't much yard left to spray. And $553 is more than my entire $450 garden budget for the year.
I want to be clear that this is about our tiny yard and how we use it. A family with woods behind the house or a dog that rolls in everything is in a different spot. For anything health-related, your doctor and the county health department know far more than a gardening blog does.
What we're trying instead
We're starting with cheaper, duller steps this season, and we'll see how they go.
First, the fence line. Last Saturday I raked the leaf litter out from along the back stockade fence and from under the rhubarb in the corner, which turned up two rusted trowels and a tennis ball Mateo lost in 2022. Keeping that edge raked and the grass short costs nothing.
Second, a box of Thermacell tick tubes for $39.99. They're cardboard tubes stuffed with cotton treated with permethrin. Mice take the cotton for their nests, and the idea is that ticks feeding on those mice are killed before they move on. I set them along the fence line and under the shrubs, following the package directions, and the box holds enough for a second round later in summer. Whether they make a noticeable difference in a yard this small, I honestly don't know yet. The tubes go in the household column of the notebook, not the garden budget.
Third, my garden clothes. One pair of canvas pants, two pairs of socks and the rust linen shirt I wear outside have been treated with permethrin according to the product label, and they hang on their own hook in the basement. That's my uniform from now until October anyway, so it isn't much of a sacrifice.
And fourth, the least glamorous: tick checks. After every gardening session and every Little League game, the clothes go straight into the wash and everybody gets checked. Mateo considers this a cruel and unusual ritual. Nate, who would rather be grilling, has stopped arguing.
Where it leaves us
None of this is a guarantee, and I'm not pretending it is. It's a tradeoff we made for this season, with our yard, our budget and the bees in mind. If it isn't enough, the quotes are filed in the notebook and the companies will still be there next spring.
Right now the dusk is coming on later every night, the lawn smells like it was just cut, and the lightning bugs haven't started yet. The two business cards are on the fridge under a magnet shaped like a strawberry, which is about as far as they're going to get this year.
