Found a tick on someone?
NSW Health advises freezing an attached tick with an ether-based spray from a pharmacy, and not squeezing it or trying to pull it out. With a known tick allergy, leave it undisturbed and get urgent medical help as soon as you find it. Trouble breathing? Call 000.
What the Northern Beaches brings
Ticks, most of the year
Northern Beaches Council says ticks are active most of the year, particularly after rain and in high humidity. They thrive in damp, humid vegetation close to the ground. NSW Health Pathology says the adult paralysis tick is most likely to be met from September to December.
Hosts in the backyard
Council lists birds, possums, rats, dogs, bandicoots, kangaroos and wallabies among the animals ticks feed on. So a garden that wildlife uses can pick them up.
Possums and hollows
Council says a lack of tree hollows and dense vegetation pushes possums into houses. Trapping or moving one without a catch and release licence is illegal, and release can be no more than 150 metres from where it was caught.
Lagoon mosquitoes
NSW Health's traps at Narrabeen found Stratford virus on 11 March 2025 and Barmah Forest virus on 18 March 2025, and Warriewood's found Trubanaman virus on 25 March. Those are mosquito results, not human cases.
Making the garden harder for ticks
- Keep lawns mown and well maintained.
- Clear weeds and dead vegetation.
- Prune low plants so sunlight reaches the ground.
- Swap wood chip and straw for gravel mulch near where people sit and play.
When it's worth calling someone
Council's own advice is to get a pest controller with a licence if ticks are a recurring problem. Tell them about kids, pets, fish ponds and veggie patches so they can plan the work and explain any precautions.
The whole area sits inside the Sydney funnel-web's main range, so any big black spider deserves care. For rodent control or a pre-purchase pest inspection, say what you've found and let someone look properly.
Where we'd start with pests on the Northern Beaches
Do the garden list in late winter, before the adults get going, and check kids and dogs after time outdoors. If the ticks keep turning up, or you're hearing something in the roof, send us what you've noticed and we'll pass it on.
Want someone to look at it?
Tell us what you've seen and your postcode, and a local pest business that handles exactly that calls you to talk it through.
