How do we reduce ticks on our HOA trails and open space?

By OurHOA · General information · Revised October 29, 2026

How an HOA board cuts tick bites on trails and open space: find the hot spots, mow and clear trail edges, post signs, and hire a licensed applicator if you spray.

Part of the HOA board handbook: vendors, projects and upkeep.

The short answer

Ticks wait on tall grass and brush at the edge of a path and climb onto whoever brushes past. The board will never clear them out of a greenbelt, but it can make the trail corridor a poor place for a tick to wait and teach owners what to do after a walk. Find the worst stretches with a tick drag. Mow and clear the trail edges, open up shade, and pull benches and play equipment back from the brush. Post signs at every trailhead. Spray only the hot spots, only if habitat work isn't enough, and only through a company with the state license. Pesticide licensing rules differ by state, and your declaration and plat decide which land the association has to maintain, so read this as education, not legal advice.

Know which ticks you are dealing with

Most tick advice online is written for Lyme country. The CDC says most Lyme disease cases happen in the Northeast, mid-Atlantic and upper Midwest. Texas, Florida and Colorado boards are mostly dealing with other ticks, and the owner messages should match. In Texas and Florida, the lone star tick is the one to know. The CDC lists it as widely distributed in the South and as a carrier of ehrlichiosis, tularemia and the Heartland and Bourbon viruses. The CDC also says it is the tick most often tied to alpha-gal syndrome, an allergy to red meat, and that most reported cases come from the South, East and Central states. The American dog tick, found east of the Rockies, can carry Rocky Mountain spotted fever. The Gulf Coast tick lives mainly in the Southeast. The Florida Department of Health says spring and summer are the peak, but tickborne disease can occur all year in Florida, and most infections come from nymphs small enough to miss. In Colorado, the state health department names the American dog tick, the Rocky Mountain wood tick and the brown dog tick. The wood tick spreads Colorado tick fever, and the CDC places it at 4,000 to 10,500 feet, so foothill communities see more of it than plains neighborhoods do. Texas DSHS will identify and test a tick that was attached to a Texas resident at no charge, with results usually within two weeks. It does not take ticks picked off dogs or the ground. Treat that program as a way to learn what is biting people on your trails. The CDC says tick test results should not drive anyone's treatment decisions.

Find the hot spots before spending money

Texas A&M's school pest management program describes the method: drag a white flannel cloth across grass or low brush and count the ticks on it at fixed intervals. A cloth on a pole, called a flag, does the same for taller brush and edges. The program says a drag catches about one in every ten ticks, so a few ticks on the cloth means many more in the grass. A workable volunteer version: pick six to ten stretches on the trail map, including both ends of every boardwalk, the edges near the playground and any spot where the trail runs through tall grass. Drag each stretch for the same number of steps, write the count on the map, and photograph the cloth. Do it on a dry afternoon in late spring and again in midsummer, wearing treated clothes with pants tucked into socks. Two years of counts tell the board whether mowing changes worked and where a treatment, if any, belongs. Without counts, the board ends up spraying wherever the loudest owner walks.

Make the trail edges a bad place for ticks

The CDC says ticks live in grassy, brushy or wooded areas. For yards it lists the steps that carry over to common ground: keep grass mowed, remove leaf litter, clear tall grass and brush, trim trees and shrubs to let in sun, and keep play equipment, decks and patios away from grassy, brushy or wooded areas. It also suggests a 3-foot-wide strip of wood chips or gravel between lawn and woods. Texas A&M's plan gives the same 3-foot-or-wider border. On HOA land that becomes a short work list. Mow a strip along both sides of every grass or natural-surface trail on each mowing visit, at least a mower deck wide. Blow leaves off the trail edges in late fall and again in early spring. Cut back branches and brush that lean into the path. Lay a chip or gravel band where a mowed lawn, playground or picnic area meets the woods, and move benches and tables out of the brush line. The CDC tells walkers to stay in the center of the trail, which only works if the trail is wide enough to have a center. Write these tasks into the landscaping contract as their own line, with a frequency and a map, so they don't get cut when the crew is behind. Before mowing land the association was told to leave natural, check the plat, any conservation easement and any city permit conditions. If deer cross the open space daily, our guide on how to handle residents feeding deer in an HOA covers why a fed herd brings more ticks.

If the board decides to spray

Texas A&M's plan says treatments should stay in high-risk tick habitat and that spraying open fields and lawns is not necessary. For blacklegged tick nymphs it times one application in May or early June, with an October application for adults. The plan is written around blacklegged and American dog ticks, so ask the applicator to time the work to the ticks your drag found. Every product must be registered with the EPA and the state, and some are restricted to licensed applicators. The license is not optional. Texas Occupations Code section 1951.003 defines the business of structural pest control to include identifying and controlling ticks, and pests of plantings in a park or next to a residence, for pay, including work done as part of someone's job. Section 1951.301 requires a license for that business. Florida Statutes section 482.071(1) makes it unlawful to operate a pest control business without a license from the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. In Colorado, the Department of Agriculture says anyone applying pesticides for hire must hold a commercial applicator business license under C.R.S. 35-10-103. So the landscaper who offers to throw in a tick spray needs the license, and a paid maintenance worker does too. Don't hand a volunteer a backpack sprayer. A motion the board can adapt: 'Move that the association hire [company], [state] license number [number], to treat the trail edges marked on the attached map in [month] and [month], at a cost not to exceed $[amount], with signs at each trailhead on treatment days and the treated areas closed until dry as the label directs.' Florida and Colorado keep registries of people who must be told before certain pesticide applications; our guide on how to set up an HOA mosquito control program covers those notice rules.

Give owners the habits that actually prevent bites

Habitat work lowers the odds. What owners do before and after a walk matters as much. The CDC's list: use an EPA-registered repellent with DEET, picaridin, IR3535, oil of lemon eucalyptus, para-menthane-diol or 2-undecanone, but keep oil of lemon eucalyptus and para-menthane-diol off children under 3. Treat boots, clothes and gear with 0.5% permethrin. Walk in the center of trails. Shower within two hours of coming in, dry clothes on high heat for 10 minutes, and check under the arms, in and around the ears, inside the belly button, behind the knees, in the hair, between the legs and around the waist. For an attached tick, the CDC says to grab it close to the skin with clean, fine-tipped tweezers and pull with steady, even pressure, without twisting. Skip the petroleum jelly, heat and nail polish. Anyone who gets a rash or fever within several weeks should see a doctor and mention the bite. Trailhead sign wording you can copy: 'Ticks live in the grass and brush along this trail. Stay in the center of the path and keep dogs on it. Check yourself, your children and your pets when you get home, and shower within two hours. Found an attached tick? Pull it straight out with fine-tipped tweezers. Report a problem spot to [email].' Run the same text in the spring newsletter, and add a line for Texas and Florida owners that a new reaction to red meat after a tick bite is worth raising with a doctor.

A season calendar and the mistakes to avoid

January and February: put edge mowing, leaf clearing and brush cutting into the landscaping bid, and decide whether to price a treatment. March and April: signs up, first edge mowing, winter leaf piles cleared. May and June: the first tick drag, and the nymph treatment window if the board treats. July and August: a second drag and steady edge mowing. In Florida and much of Texas, keep the summer pace, since the Florida health department says spring and summer are the main season. October: fall leaf clearing and the adult treatment window. November: a short board report with the drag counts, costs and owner reports. The usual mistakes: spraying the whole greenbelt when the ticks are in the edges, hiring a crew without checking its license, writing every notice about Lyme when the local ticks carry other diseases, letting trails narrow until walkers brush both sides, and telling owners a tick test will say whether they are sick. Our guide on how to maintain a gravel or crushed stone HOA trail covers keeping the trail itself wide and clear.

Sources

These guides are general education for HOA boards and residents, not legal, tax, or financial advice. Rules vary by state and by your community's governing documents - check with a professional for your situation.

More on living with an hoa

Or browse all living with an hoa guides.