15 Plants That Secretly Invite Snakes And Ticks (Remove These Immediately)

#OrnamentalPlant #FloweringTrees #Gardenflowers #wonderfultrees #Landscapetrees
You walk through the same yard you have tended for forty years. So does anyone who visits - family, neighbors, the contractor who came to fix the deck last summer, the grandkids when they come through.

The plants you put in for beauty might be the same plants attracting ticks and the wildlife that brings ticks with them. Snakes hide where small mammals hide. Ticks ride small mammals into your yard.

This is not theory. Researchers at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station published research showing that one specific shrub - still sold at national chains across America - supports approximately twelve times more Lyme-infected ticks per acre than land without it.

These are fifteen plants you may already have in your garden. Most American homeowners do not know what those plants are doing to their property at ground level. By the time you see the tick on the back of a child's neck - or hear the rustle in the pachysandra at dusk - the conditions have already been there for years.

After forty years of gardening across American zones 5-7, I had to dig three Japanese barberries out of my own border two falls ago. It took three weekends. The yard is safer for it.
THE 15 PLANTS ATTRACTING SNAKES AND TICKS:

15. Boxwood Hedges (Buxus sempervirens) - mammal foundation corridor
14. Hostas (Hosta species) - large leaves, damp bed underneath
13. Bittersweet Vine / Oriental Bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) - USDA invasive
12. Wisteria when overgrown (Wisteria sinensis) - dense tangle habitat
11. Vinca / Periwinkle (Vinca minor) - continuous ground mat
10. Pachysandra (Pachysandra terminalis) - suburban shade groundcover mat
9. Liriope / Lilyturf (Liriope muscari) - clump shelter
8. English Ivy (Hedera helix) - vertical mouse highway up trees
7. Mulberry Trees (Morus species) - wildlife concentration zones
6. Multiflora Rose (Rosa multiflora) - deer bedding cover
5. Honeysuckle invasive (Lonicera japonica + L. maackii) - extended season cover
4. Pampas Grass (Cortaderia selloana) - dense clump habitat
3. Ornamental Grasses (Miscanthus sinensis) - winter standing mass
2. Ground Cover Junipers (Juniperus horizontalis) - mat cavity underneath
1. Japanese Barberry (Berberis thunbergii) - 12x more Lyme-infected ticks per acre