If you are planning a backyard barbecue or a camping trip this summer, chances are you will pick up a can of bug spray. You might even hire a company to spray your yard, or set up citronella candles around your patio. When we think of summer pests, mosquitoes are public enemy number one. We spend massive amounts of time, energy, and money trying to keep them away.
But what about ticks?
Despite the fact that ticks cause the vast majority of vector-borne diseases in the United States, they receive a fraction of the attention, funding, and personal prevention effort compared to mosquitoes. We are terrified of the buzz, but we routinely ignore the bite. Why do we prioritize mosquito prevention so heavily when ticks pose such a significant, and growing, threat to our health?
The answer comes down to a mix of psychology, annoying behavior, and how our public health systems are funded.
The Threat: Ticks Actually Cause More Disease
If you asked the average person which bug is more dangerous in the United States, most would probably guess the mosquito. Mosquitoes are infamous globally for spreading malaria, dengue, and Zika. In the U.S., they are known for spreading West Nile virus.
But the data tells a very different story. Ticks are actually responsible for more than 75% of all vector-borne disease cases in the United States [1].
Since 2004, the number of diseases spread by mosquito, tick, and flea bites has more than doubled, and ticks are driving that surge [1]. Lyme disease alone accounts for the lion’s share of these illnesses, with nearly 476,000 Americans diagnosed and treated for it every year [2]. Ticks also transmit Rocky Mountain spotted fever, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, and can even cause a lifelong allergy to red meat known as alpha-gal syndrome [3].
Yet, despite this massive disease burden, our prevention efforts do not match the risk.
The Annoyance Factor: Why Mosquitoes Win Our Attention
The biggest reason we spend so much money fighting mosquitoes is simple: they are incredibly annoying.
Mosquitoes are loud. They buzz in your ear. They swarm your face. When they bite, you usually feel it, and within minutes, you are left with a red, incredibly itchy welt that demands your attention for days. Mosquitoes actively ruin outdoor experiences by making you physically uncomfortable in the moment.
Ticks, on the other hand, are stealthy. They do not fly or buzz; they wait patiently on tall grass or brush for you to brush past them. When a tick bites, it injects a tiny amount of numbing saliva into your skin, meaning you almost never feel it happen [1]. A tick can stay attached to you for days, feeding quietly, without causing any immediate itching or pain.
Because mosquitoes cause immediate, highly visible discomfort, our brains register them as an urgent threat. A study on risk perception found that the perceived harm of being bitten by mosquitoes is a massive driver for people to take preventative action [4]. We buy repellent not necessarily because we are afraid of West Nile virus, but because we hate being itchy. Ticks do not trigger that same immediate annoyance, so we forget about them.
The Money Trail: Public vs. Private Spending
This psychological difference in how we view the two pests is reflected in how we spend our money, both as individuals and as a society.
The mosquito control industry in the United States is massive. Local and state governments spend an estimated $1.5 million on average per district to control mosquitoes through publicly funded programs [5]. These programs use trucks and aircraft to spray adulticides, treat standing water to kill larvae, and monitor mosquito populations. The federal government even authorized $100 million in annual grants specifically for mosquito prevention and control programs [5].
Tick control, however, is almost entirely left up to the individual homeowner. While publicly funded vector control programs are highly willing to tackle mosquitoes, very few are willing or equipped to spray for ticks on private residential properties [6]. If you want your yard treated for ticks, you have to pay a private pest control company out of your own pocket.
This creates a massive disparity. We have built a societal infrastructure to fight mosquitoes collectively, but we treat tick prevention as a personal responsibility.
The Consumer Market: Buying Peace of Mind
The consumer market reflects this divide as well. The global insect repellent market is booming, valued at over $12 billion and expected to keep growing [7]. Walk down the aisle of any pharmacy or outdoor store, and you will see dozens of products marketed specifically for mosquitoes: sprays, lotions, coils, electronic repellers, and yard foggers.
While many of these DEET and picaridin sprays also work against ticks, the marketing is almost always heavily skewed toward mosquitoes. Furthermore, the most effective tick-specific prevention method—treating clothing and gear with permethrin—remains a niche practice, used mostly by serious hikers and hunters rather than the general public [8].
People are willing to spend money on mosquito prevention because the feedback loop is immediate: you spray the repellent, and the mosquitoes stop biting you. With ticks, the feedback loop is invisible. You do not know if the permethrin worked because you never felt the tick in the first place.
Changing Our Habits
We need to align our prevention habits with the actual risks we face. While mosquitoes are annoying and do carry diseases, ticks are quietly causing a public health crisis in our own backyards.
Here is how you can level up your tick prevention to match your mosquito efforts:
- Shift Your Mindset: Stop thinking of bug spray as just “mosquito spray.” When you apply DEET or picaridin, make sure you are applying it to your ankles and legs, where ticks are most likely to latch on.
- Embrace Permethrin: If you spend time in wooded areas, tall grass, or brush, treat your shoes, socks, and pants with 0.5% permethrin. It binds to the fabric and kills ticks on contact through multiple washes [8].
- Make Tick Checks Routine: The most effective tick prevention costs nothing. When you come inside, take two minutes to check your body in a mirror, paying special attention to your hairline, underarms, belly button, and behind your knees [8].
- Manage Your Yard: Since the government isn’t going to spray your yard for ticks, you have to manage the habitat. Keep your grass mowed short, clear away leaf litter, and create a barrier of wood chips between your lawn and any wooded areas to discourage ticks from crossing over [8].
Conclusion
It is human nature to react to the loudest, most annoying threat in the room. Mosquitoes demand our attention with every itchy bite, driving us to spend billions of dollars on sprays, candles, and community control programs. But while we are busy swatting at mosquitoes, ticks are quietly transmitting hundreds of thousands of diseases every year. By understanding this blind spot, we can start taking ticks just as seriously as we do mosquitoes—and protect ourselves from the bites we never feel coming.
References
[1] The Conversation. Ticks and mosquitoes bringing more diseases – what can we do? 2018. https://theconversation.com/ticks-and-mosquitoes-bringing-more-diseases-what-can-we-do-96688 [2] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lyme Disease Surveillance and Data. https://www.cdc.gov/lyme/data-research/facts-stats/index.html [3] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About Ticks and Tickborne Disease. https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/about/index.html [4] Herrington JE. A national survey of risk perceptions and practices to prevent tick-borne Lyme disease and mosquito-borne viral encephalitis. https://mountainscholar.org/items/9cfce48b-c06d-47ce-9071-9a2d56cf0454 [5] Kline & Company. Public Health Is At The Heart Of The $100 Million-Dollar U.S. Mosquito Control Industry. 2023. https://klinegroup.com/chemicals/agspecialty-pesticides/public-health-is-at-the-heart-of-the-100-million-dollar-u-s-mosquito-control-industry/ [6] Burtis JC, et al. Willingness and capacity of publicly-funded vector control programs in the USA to engage in tick management. Parasit Vectors. 2024. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11265149/ [7] Fortune Business Insights. Insect Repellent Market Size, Share & Growth Forecast [2034]. https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/insect-repellent-market-103882 [8] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Preventing Tick Bites. https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/prevention/index.html
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Educational information only. Trail Ready Solutions does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, treatment, prescription guidance, or emergency services. Information on this page is not a substitute for evaluation by a qualified healthcare professional.
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