Rewild your yard to fight ticks – and support wildlife

Ticks are a growing concern as climate change expands their range. But the right landscaping choices at home, like planting native species, can help reduce tick risks and support biodiversity.

If thoughts of ticks are keeping you and your family from enjoying the outdoors, you’re not alone. As Canada warms, ranges of tick populations are expanding northward. This is especially true for black-legged ticks that carry Lyme disease. A National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health review confirms that climate change and urban development are driving tick habitat expansion.

One of the best ways to reduce tick encounters might start at home: rethinking your lawn.

Canadian public health experts highlight the role of landscaping in preventing tick exposure. Traditional advice often focuses on keeping lawns short and brush cleared. But a growing body of ecological evidence — including from entomologist and renowned conservation guru Douglas Tallamy — shows that replacing lawns with native plant gardens can disrupt tick-host interactions and reduce tick-borne disease risk, while also restoring biodiversity.

More biodiversity, fewer ticks

It may seem counterintuitive, but more nature doesn’t mean more ticks. In fact, landscapes with a higher diversity of plants and animals tend to have fewer ticks carrying Lyme disease. That’s because simplified environments, like turfgrass lawns, favour white-footed mice, a key reservoir for Lyme disease in Canada.

The NCCEH reports that habitat type, host availability and predator presence all shape tick abundance. And these are all influenced by how we design our yards and communities. In more complex, naturalized environments, predators like foxes, possums and birds help regulate tick populations by feeding on the ticks or their rodent hosts.

The trouble with turfgrass

A traditional lawn is one of the worst landscapes for wildlife — and one of the best for ticks. Short-cut grass creates “edge habitats” where ticks lie in wait for a host. These homogeneous spaces lack the predators, pollinators and native plants that sustain healthy ecosystems.

But a yard filled with native wildflowers, grasses, shrubs and trees provides food and shelter for birds, insects and small mammals. That helps build the kind of biodiversity that keeps tick populations in check.

Bringing rewilding home

How the David Suzuki Foundation helps people throughout the country turn lawns into life-friendly landscapes:

01

Lawnshare

invites people to reimagine their yards as spaces for wildflowers, pollinators and neighbourhood biodiversity. In the process, they help tackle ecological challenges like tick-borne diseases.

02

The Butterflyway Project

volunteers help build local networks of native plant gardens throughout school yards, parks and private yards. To date, Butterflyway Rangers have planted more than 100,000 native plants in gardens all over Canada.

03

BIMBY (Butterflies In My Backyard)

is a community science project that helps you log butterfly sightings on iNaturalist Canada. The observations help researchers track broader ecological trends and changes in wildlife behaviour.

Five ways to reduce ticks and rewild your yard

Attract pollinators in Ontario with native New England aster.

1. Replace lawn with native plants

Plant locally-sourced native wildflowers like goldenrod, milkweed, wild strawberry, wild bergamot or native ferns. Steer clear of tick-hosting Japanese barberry, a popular landscaping plant. Choose plants that support local pollinators and wildlife. Need help choosing what to plant? Use our eco-region planting guides.

2. Skip pesticides

Tick sprays kill more than ticks. They harm birds, beetles and wasps that naturally regulate pest populations. Rewilding works with nature, not against it.

Stumps growing in a lush forest

3. Add layers and habitat

Include trees, shrubs, groundcovers and logs or leaf litter. This helps beneficial wildlife thrive and reduces edge zones where ticks gather.

4. Keep paths trimmed

Clear walkways through wilder areas. That way you can enjoy your yard while reducing contact with questing ticks.

Group of people laughing by produce in garden

5. Grow the movement

Ticks don’t respect fences. Encourage your neighbours, local schools or your city to join you. With Bylaws for Biodiversity, we’re helping shift municipal policies to support nature-based solutions.

From fear to flourishing

Rewilding your yard isn’t only good for butterflies and bees — it’s also good public health. The NCCEH says landscape-level interventions are key to integrated tick-borne disease prevention. Rewilding also builds resilience to climate change, restores ecological balance and reconnects us with nature.

Take the LawnShare pledge

You’ll receive a LawnShare toolkit with cost-saving tips for maintaining your lawn plus guidance on how to create habitat that supports native bees, butterflies and other local wildlife.

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