TIck Expert: These Little Sh*ts Are Everywhere Now, and the Advice You've Been Given Is a Joke.

Tick bites just hit their highest level in years, and those little sh*ts are not in the deep woods anymore. They're in backyards, parks, and the grass your family crosses every single day.

Mark M.

Tick Expert

✓ Founder PineGuard

There are more ticks out there right now than at almost any point in your lifetime.

And they are not where you think they are.

Not deep in some forest. In your backyard. The park down the street. The little strip of grass between the parking lot and the front door.

I found that out the hard way.

My name is Mark Murray. I'm not a doctor and I'm not a scientist. I'm a parent who got tired of being lied to about how bad this problem has gotten, and tired of watching the government put out press releases instead of actually fixing anything.

Let me tell you about that night.

And then let me show you what I found when I went looking for answers, because it made me angry, and it changed everything about how my family walks through grass.

The Night It Stopped Being "No Big Deal"

It was a Sunday evening in June.

My kid came running in from the backyard, the way they always did. Grass stains, muddy socks, the whole thing.

I almost missed it.

There, tucked into the soft skin behind the knee, was a that little sh*t tick. Already dug in. Already feeding.

I sat on the edge of the tub trying to pull it out clean, trying not to leave the head in.

And then came the waiting.

Watching that spot every morning for a rash.

Looking up symptoms.

Wondering if this little sh*t tick bite turns into something that follows a kid for years.

My kid had played in our own backyard. That's it. We hadn't gone hiking. We hadn't gone anywhere.

And that's when it hit me. I had no idea how bad this had actually gotten. Or that the people in charge of keeping us safe had basically checked out.

So that week, I started reading.

And I did not stop for months.

It's Not Just You. It's Everywhere Now.

The first thing I found is just a fact.

And it's worse than I thought.

The Stats:

31 MILLION tick bites every year in the US.

476 thousand people diagnosed with Lyme every year.

The tick that spreads Lyme has more than doubled its territory in about 20 years.

~80% of US counties now have ticks that can carry disease.

HighestER visits for tick bites are running at their highest level since 2017.

READ THAT AGAIN!!

The ticks that carry Lyme disease have doubled their range in about twenty years.

Now they are everywhere.
Backyards, parks, places kids actually play.

Here is the part that does not make sense. People keep finding these small boxes on their property. Sometimes buried, sometimes hidden. Farmers are finding them on their land without any warning or permission.

The official story is that it is for research. Universities, government programs.

But if the goal is to reduce Lyme disease, why are we breeding more ticks in boxes scattered across private property? And why hide them?

No one in charge seems interested in answering that.

What's Actually Riding on That Bite

And these aren't the harmless bug bites of when we were kids.

One tick can carry things that change your life.

Lyme disease:
The one most people know. Fatigue, joint pain, and symptoms that can drag on for years if it isn't caught early.

Alpha-gal syndrome:
A bite that can leave you allergic to red meat. Beef, pork, lamb. Sometimes for years. From a bug bite.

Powassan virus:
Rare, but serious. It can pass from a tick into a person in as little as 15 minutes.

This is what's waiting in the grass now. Not an itch. Things that can follow a person, or a child, for a very long time.

The Worst Part? You Won't Even Feel It.

Here's what really got under my skin.

A tick bite doesn't hurt. Their spit actually numbs the skin, so you never feel the bite happen. No pinch. No sting. Nothing.

And the ones most likely to make you sick are the babies, called nymphs. They're the size of a poppy seed. You can look right at one on your own skin and miss it. In hair, you've got no chance.

They ride in on your pant leg. They drop off in the house.

So you can do everything right. Check the kids. Check yourself. And still bring one home and never know until it's already attached.

That's the part that kept me up at night. You can't fight what you can't feel and can't see.

And Here's What Made Me Angry

So ticks have exploded. I interviewed over 30 medical professionals handling people being bit by ticks DAILY

Here is what they said:

"Just check them at bedtime."

"Wear long socks."

"Do a tick check after you come inside."

That's not protection. That's catching it after it already happened. It puts the whole job on you, every night, forever, with a flashlight.

So like any parent, I went and bought the spray. The "natural, plant-based, safe for kids" one, because I refused to soak my child in the harsh chemical stuff every day.

It did nothing.

And when I dug into why, I found the part that's genuinely not right.

Most "natural" bug sprays fall under a rule that lets them skip efficacy testing completely.

Read that twice.

They are allowed to put a bottle on a shelf, print "tick repellent" on the label, and never once prove it actually keeps a tick off a human being. No test required. None.

Because if you solved the problem, you'd stop buying. And if you stopped buying, certain people stop getting rich.

When You Mess With an Multi-Billion Dollar Industry, They Come For You

First, it was "friendly" warnings.

A public health official I'd known through local outreach pulled me aside after a community meeting:

"Mark, what you're doing is reckless. People need REAL protection—vaccines, proper medical intervention. You should stop before we lose our funding... "

Then came the cease and desist letters.

Three law firms. All representing

"concerned pharmaceutical stakeholders" who claimed I was "making unsubstantiated claims about prevention."

The final straw?

My biggest essential oil supplier - a company I'd bought from for 8 years - suddenly "restructured their bulk sales division."

"Sorry Mark, corporate decision from the top. Nothing we can do."

They wanted me gone because I'd exposed the thing they were hoping you'd never figure out.

A prevention method that:

Fixed the ACTUAL problem (ticks getting on you in the first place—not just treating the diseases after)

Worked in one 30-second spray (not a $500 vaccine series that might not even cover the strain in your backyard)

Cost less than ONE urgent care visit (not thousands in long-term Lyme treatments)

Let people protect themselves at home (not dependent on their system)

But here's what those pharmaceutical reps didn't count on..I'd already partnered with a team of entomologists and formulation chemists who were tired of watching families get sick.

And we'd turned my kitchen-table recipe into something even more potent—strong enough that 52,000 families now use it, and the ticks still can't stand it.

Why Nothing Anyone Tries Actually Works

Once I understood the boarding zone, it all came together. To actually keep a tick off you, your protection has to do three things. Not one. All three.

1. Cover the boarding zone
It has to be down where ticks get on. Shoes, socks, ankles. Spraying your arms is aiming at nothing.

2. Mask your scent.
Ticks hunt by smell. They sense the carbon dioxide you breathe out and the warmth of your skin, and they lock on. Cover that trail and the tick loses you before it ever reaches you.

3. Last long enough to matter
A walk, a hike, an afternoon in the yard. If it quits in twenty minutes, it didn't protect you. It just made you feel protected.

A tick tastes you before it bites you.

It does not just land on you and chomp. It runs a chemical ID check first.

A tick has real taste sensors built into its mouthparts, and it samples your skin for the exact signals that say:

"live host, start feeding." Things like salt, glucose, ATP, and a blood compound called glutathione. If the chemistry checks out, it commits and digs in. If it is wrong, it backs off.

The Four Plants Ticks Can't Stand

So what actually drives a tick away? It's not a secret. The research kept pointing to the same short list.

Peppermint. Strong, sharp, and ticks hate it.

Citrus. Throws off the scent trail they follow.

Lemon. Adds to the masking layer.

Garlic. The one nobody expects, and the one ticks really back away from.

But here's the corner most sprays cut. They use one watered-down oil, at a weak strength, and call it a tick repellent. Because, remember, they never have to prove it works.

One soft oil on its own fades fast. You need them stacked together, at a real strength, so the scent barrier actually holds up outside.

Four plants. Working as one. Down on the boarding zone. That was the whole answer I'd been looking for.

And I couldn't buy it anywhere.

So My Family Made Our Own

If I couldn't buy it, I'd build it.

So we did. At our kitchen table, with a lot of batches that smelled terrible and a few that didn't work.

My family testing every version on every walk, every camping trip, every evening in the yard.

We called it PineGuard.

It's a plant-based tick spray built on those four oils, at a strength meant to actually hold, made to be sprayed low on the boarding zone.

No DEET. No harsh chemicals. No corporate lies about what it can do.

That was seven years ago. Today, more than 52,000 families use it. We still read every email. We still pack a lot of the orders by hand.

It's still a family thing—not some boardroom product designed to keep you coming back for more.

Here's Exactly What Happens When You Spray It

Step into the yard with PineGuard on, and here's what's going on down at your feet.

The moment you spray:

You coat the boarding zone. Shoes, socks, ankles, lower legs.

The barrier forms:

The four oils put up a scent barrier over your skin and clothing that covers the trail ticks follow.

The tick loses you:

A questing tick reaches out as you brush past, but it can't lock onto your scent through the barrier. So instead of grabbing on and climbing, it backs off.

Up to 8 hours of that, from one spray.

No grease. No chemical cloud. You spray low, and go live your day.

Now let me be straight with you about one thing, because I won't insult you.

PineGuard cannot treat Lyme, or alpha-gal, or any other illness. No spray can, and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. Its only job is the one that actually matters: stop the bite before it ever happens.

PineGuard Herbal Tick Repellent

EPA-registered · DEET-free

• Four plant oils, lasts up to 8 hours
• Spray socks, shoes & ankles

★★★★★ 4.7 · 52,000+ protected

Check Availability Now →

Here's What Real Customers Are Saying!

The thing I hear most isn't even about the spray. It's about the relief. The not-lying-awake.

What Ticks Are Really Costing You

Let me show you what a tick problem actually costs, the way I had to add it up myself.

A bottle of PineGuard is $29.99.

Less than one urgent-care copay. Less than the pile of sprays that didn't work. And it's built to actually cover the boarding zone and stop the bite.

Get Ahead of It This Season

Here's the honest reason to do this now, and it's not a fake countdown.

Tick season is already here. The bites in those CDC numbers are happening this week, while it's warm. Every walk in the grass between now and fall is a roll of the dice if you're not covered.

This is the part where you get ahead of it, instead of sitting there with the tweezers again.

Every first order comes with our free Tick & Lyme Field Guide, so you know exactly where they hide, how to check, and how to pull one out the right way if you ever have to.

PineGuard Herbal Tick Repellent

EPA-registered · DEET-free

• Four plant oils, lasts up to 8 hours
• Spray socks, shoes & ankles

★★★★★ 4.7 · 52,000+ protected

Check Availability Now →

My 30-Day "Send It Back" Guarantee

Look, I get it. You've been burned before.

You've bought the bottle with the pretty leaf and the big promises, and it sat in a drawer doing nothing.

So here's my promise to you, parent to parent.

Try PineGuard for 30 days. Spray it low. Use it on every walk, every hike, every evening in the yard.

If it's not for you, for any reason at all, email us and send it back. I'll refund you. We even cover the return shipping. No forms. No "store credit." No questions.

The risk is on me, not on you.

That's the only way I'd want to sell something to another family.

You've Got Two Choices

Right now, you're at a fork.

Path 1: Hope for the best

Keep sending everyone out into the grass and hoping. Keep spraying arms and missing ankles. Keep telling yourself you'll check them all at bedtime. Keep waiting to see if the next bite is the bad one. Keep trusting the same system that let those boxes of ticks get dumped in the first place.

Path 2: Cover the boarding zone

Spray low with four plant oils built to actually repel ticks, not just smell nice. Head outside without the knot in your stomach. Stop finding bites after the fact. Get your summer back. Stop being a meal for some little bloodsucking shit that never should have been there in the first place.

The choice seems pretty clear to me.

Here's Exactly What to Do Next

PineGuard Herbal Tick Repellent

EPA-registered · DEET-free

• Four plant oils, lasts up to 8 hours
• Spray socks, shoes & ankles

★★★★★ 4.7 · 52,000+ protected

Check Availability Now →

© 2026 PineGuard. All rights reserved.

This is an advertisement and not an actual news article. PineGuard is a tick repellent and does not prevent or treat any disease. Always check for ticks after outdoor activity.