Permaculture in Arkansas? How to deal with ticks and stuff?

Now that I am back home I want to transform my property into a permaculture food forest. I've watched tons of documentaries, but how do I deal with ticks and such? Letting things grow wild and lushes could spell disaster for me. The only way of dealing with ticks I know of is keeping everything moved to the ground. But that's not really permaculture. So I would love to get some tips from other permies in Arkansas. How do you walk through your food forest without getting infested with ticks? We had such a mild winter. There are already ticks everywhere. I will get some guineas soon, but I feel like there's more I can and should do.

Guineas and chickens will help with the ticks. I don't really know what other predators will eat them. Probably ground beetles and spiders; maybe some species of ants. I think that in some regions you are going to have to deal with ticks at some level. Removing all of them may not be possible.

"Predators, including birds, rodents, shrews, ants, and spiders, play a role in some areas in reducing the numbers of free-living ticks."

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/72120.htm



I'm guessing lizards, frogs, toads, and small snakes are also potential tick predators. So developing good habitat for the greatest number of critters will help keep the tick population down.