Hookworms are a threat to everyone including your pet. They keep sucking blood and the hosts may suffer blood loss pretty fast.
Not just you, plenty of people keep wondering how to get rid of hookworms in yard ASAP. Luckily, there are plenty of hookworm yard treatments available and a lot of them are easy to implement.
So, I will talk about this serious issue in this article. Stay with me for a while.
Getting Rid of Hookworms In Yard
It takes a coordinated approach to treat your yard infested with hookworms. Since the transmission rate is incredible, it is a must to get rid of them from every possible area.
- Deworm Your Pets
When your pets have them, those worms will spread everywhere including your home. So, you need to deworm your pets first. Wear your gloves before you treat your pet.
The best way to treat your dog or cat is using any Pyrantel-based de-wormer for at least 3 to 4 weeks. That will kill the adult hookworms living in their intestinal tract.
Many people use common de-wormers to treat hookworm but only the Pyrantel pamoate works like a charm.
You will be better off taking your pet to the vet for this purpose. You need to bring a sample of fresh feces of your pet for the examination.
Follow the instructions whatever the vet prescribes.
- Never Leave Pet Feces In The Yard
Your yard has hookworms because of your pet’s fecal matter. Even the eggs of hookworms come from the feces. The larvae from the eggs ultimately infect the yard.
So, the best thing you can do is cleaning up the droppings of your pet from the yard. You should clean up pet feces twice a day. Use a rake and scooper for this purpose.
Don’t throw the droppings in the trash without placing them into a garbage bag.
Also, don’t leave your pet unattended in the yard. That’s how your yard got hookworms because you did not notice your pet leaving droppings there. That’s what you must do if you wonder
Also, don’t leave your pet unattended in the yard. That’s how your yard got hookworms because you did not notice your pet leaving droppings there. That’s what you must do if you wonder how to rid a lawn of Giardia as well.
- Deworm Your Yard
Removing pet dropping is vital. But sometimes, it may be too late and the hookworm eggs may already spread in the soil. Make sure to wear shoes before you start treating your yard.
You should never leave it to chances.
So, to kill hookworms along with their eggs and larvae in the soil of your yard, you need to apply something in the soil.
There are plenty of things like DE, bleach, Borax, etc. that can kill hookworms in the soil. I will talk more about this later in this article.
- Treat The Clay or Sandy Patches
Hookworms need grass or plants to keep the soil moist for their survival. But the bare spots of your yard may still have hookworms if they are always moist without any grass.
That’s why it’s important to treat those sandy or clay patches of your yard with boric acid or bleach.
If you go for the boric acid, you need at least 10 pounds to treat every 100 square feet of those patches. Use a rake so that it gets into the soil and does not water those treated areas.
- Keep Your Yard Clean
Hookworm is just one problem you have. Who knows what sort of detrimental worms you have out there?
And it happens when you keep your yard dirty.
When you start deworming your pet, keep rigorous cleaning your yard for the next 3 to 4 weeks too. This is important when your pet is still going through treatment.
A pet going through treatment can still pass hookworm eggs in the yard. So, until the pet is hookworm-free, you should be cleaning up your yard too during that time period.
- Keep Your House Clean
More specifically, you should keep it wherever your pet spends most of the time inside the house to contain the hookworm spread. This is important to keep your whole family safe from hookworms.
If your pet has a blanket and toys, clean them too. I am pretty sure your pet plays on the carpet and rugs too. Once you are sure of hookworm infestation, clean those rugs and pets as well.
Now, when I talk about cleaning this stuff, I mean you have to clean them with hot water. Remember, heat is the key to kill hookworms!
With hot water, you can use bleach to make it even more difficult for hookworms to survive.
And you should maintain this hygiene routine inside your house on a regular basis once hookworm presence is identified.
What Kills Hookworms In Yard?
As I have said earlier, you are lucky that there are many cheap ways to kill and destroy hookworms in the yard.
Now, not everyone has access to many things. So, I will talk about much available stuff that you can use to kill hookworms:
- Salt Brine
Salt brine is proven to kill hookworms when applied to the affected area of your lawn or yard. Let’s see how you can decontaminate your lawn with salt brine solution.
The ratio of water to salt brine should be 1.5 pounds of salt brine per gallon of water. You can use this solution to treat 10 square feet of affected areas.
You will be better off with boiling water.
You can use any method to spray the solution on the affected areas of your yard. But beware of the run-off water!
This salt brine mix can kill your beloved grass and plants. It can even prevent the growth of plants and grass for months!
Apply the solution on concrete, brick, and other paved areas too since hookworm eggs can live on those surfaces perfectly.
- Spread Diatomaceous Earth (DE)
Will diatomaceous earth kill hookworms in yard?
Yes, it will!
Killing eggs and larvae of hookworms are challenging and applying salt brine solution is not applicable for everyone. For them, spreading DE can be a great option.
It’s easy to apply and not only diatomaceous earth kills hookworms but also all other harmful worms in the yard too.
After removing the droppings, just spread only 1 or 2 cups of DE on the spots where your pet defecates in the yard and you are done!
The larvae and eggs can survive up to 3 to 4 weeks in the yard but with DE, there is no chance for them! It will dry out the larvae and eggs and kill them softly (!)
The good thing about DE is that it won’t cause any harm to the surrounding grass and plants. And more importantly, it prevents the hookworm or any worms from re-infesting your yard!
- Apply Borax For Hookworms
Borax is nothing but sodium borate and it’s great to kill hookworms eggs and larvae in the soil. So, it’s another option for you to consider if you don’t have DE readily available to you.
Spread Borax directly over the affected areas including the sandy or clay patches of your yard. You need 10 pounds of Borax to treat 100 square feet of your yard.
To make it even more deadly for the hookworms, add acid tannic with Borax.
After spreading, don’t water your yard for at least a couple of days. Let it dry out. Hookworms can’t survive in dry soil and the Borax will kill their eggs and larvae.
Avoid spreading Borax over areas with grass or plants. Borax may damage those plants.
You can use the same Borax or borate sodium to clean up your carpets, rugs, bedsheets, and other parts of your house where your pet spends a significant time.
When To Take The Extreme Measures?
Sometimes, the situation gets beyond control where the hookworms may have spread in the whole yard. Or you may have plants and tall grasses that may make it too difficult to treat the affected areas.
Whatever the case and as frustrating as it may sound, you may have to take extreme measures to get rid of hookworms. It’s useful when it does not get too cold where you live during the winter.
If the shades created by the plants and grass in the yard make it difficult for any topical application, you need to expose the bare soil first by removing the turf.
Give up your yard and rip it up. Rake boric acid or bleach. For a smaller yard, you can scrape off the top 2-inches and apply bleach, DE, or boric acid.
If you scrape off the top 2 inches of your yard and there is plenty of sunlight, this should naturally kill the larvae without using any boric acid.
Sometimes, you may have to burn off the existing turf or grass. But before you do so, have a look at your local fire code or consult with your local fire department first.
Don’t worry about these extreme measures. You can plant your yard again within just a few months.
Preventing Hookworms In The Yard
You can avoid all these hassles just by taking some preventive measures. I have already talked about some preventive measures but there is more you can do about it.
Here are some of the hookworm’s preventive measures you can take:
- Concrete & Gravel
Allow your dog or cat in the yard with gravel or concrete surface only. That way, even if your pet feces has hookworms, they won’t spread throughout the yard.
The larvae won’t be able to get into the soil easily and you will find it easy to clean up those surfaces.
It’s hard but if you can keep your pet off the soil or grass, this will help you greatly to eliminate the chance of hookworms’ infestation.
- Ensure Sunlight Access
Hookworms love moist and wet soil. When your yard or any spot of it does not get enough sunlight, this will keep it moist.
So, I would pay attention to landscape control to ensure ample sunlight. This means cutting trees and plants to eliminate shadow areas. This will keep the yard dry and hookworms will find it inhospitable.
In fact, hookworms can’t tolerate direct sunlight at all! In an experiment run by the University of Florida, it has been observed that only the 2 hours of direct sunlight per day can kill the hookworms!
So, ensure there are no wet spots in your yard and there is plenty of access to the sunlight.
- Maintain Personal Hygiene
Walking in the yard barefoot is never a good idea. So, neither you nor your kids should spend time in the yard barefoot.
When you remove the pet’s droppings from the yard or clean up the hookworms’ infected areas, you come in close contact with hookworms.
Even if you wear hand gloves or take other safety measures, don’t forget to wash your hands and legs. Do the same for your kids.
How Long Do Hookworms Live?
Depending on the condition of your yard, hookworms can live from 3 to 4 weeks at max. If there are shady and moist areas in your yard, they will surely live this long.
Within this time, they try to infect a host to survive further. When they fail to find a host, the hookworm larvae usually die.
On the other hand, in the areas with direct sunlight, and the spot stays dry, hookworms can’t live there for more than 2 hours. They will die within 2 hours whether they find a host or not.
So, if you have a yard where you get direct sunlight most of the time, you don’t need to worry about that too much. Do proper maintenance check on the areas that don’t get adequate sunlight and have a moist texture on the soil.
Also, stop your pets from going to such areas as they can become the host of hookworms.
What Are The Harmful Effects Of Hookworms?
Hookworms can be very harmful, not only for your pets or your yard but also for you. If you let them live in your yard, sooner or later, you will get infected by them.
Even though the treatment isn’t that serious, it’s always better to avoid them as much as you can.
Now, if you have pets, then hookworms pose the most threat to them. Severe infection of hookworms can cause your pets to get sick with anemia, protein deficiency, and sometimes they may even die.
Especially if you let them go untreated, you will indeed be pushing your pet towards death.
Aside from infecting your pets, they can also infect you if they live in your backyard. If you wish to take a walk in your yard barefooted, hookworm larvae will surely get to your feet and then reach your intestine.
Once you get infected with hookworms, you will be getting yourself into a lot of trouble without even knowing what happened.
The first set of issues you may face are rashes, diarrhea or fever, and severe abdominal pain. In the later stages, things will get worse for you.
You may go through the loss of iron in your body, anemia, fatigue, malnutrition, and the worst of all, internal bleeding.
Since hookworms like to feed on human blood, this can get pretty serious for you if it goes untreated. In the worst cases, hookworms can even cause death to the host.
So, the best thing you can do is to get rid of them from your backyard in the first place to save your pets and yourself.
Also, if you get infected by hookworms, get treatment as soon as you can. Don’t let it go untreated, as this can be fatal for your health.
Some researchers say hookworms can be a source of treatment for allergies. They can give you relief from certain forms of allergies.
However, they can be far more deadly in their current condition, and there are better treatments with lower risks for allergies.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
When the larvae become adults, they can live from a few months to 2 years!
Since the best course of action in removing hookworms from the yard is simply removing the feces of your pet, you can treat your yard for sure. This is not rocket science.
You can use pumpkin seeds, apple cider vinegar, turmeric, chamomile, etc. to get rid of hookworms naturally.
Depending on how early you can detect it, it will take 3 to 5 days for the symptoms to disappear.
Such worms can damage the immediately affected areas of your yard or lawn severely.
Final Thoughts
The consequences of having hookworms in the yard are severe and affect everybody in the family. There is no time to spare.
You just learned how to get rid of hookworms in yard. There is no other way around than what I have just described above.
Not it’s your turn to get in action and make your yard healthy again for your family and pets. Let me know your secret tips on hookworm yard treatment in the comment box.
I will be sure to include your tips in this article.
More Resources:
- Hookworms of dogs and cats as agents of cutaneous larva migrans.
- Human Enteric Infection with Canine Hookworms.
- Hookworms of Dogs and Cats.
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