If you're worried about ticks, put up an owl box.

The animal driving most Lyme disease in the eastern US is the white-footed mouse. Ticks that feed on them are far more likely to come away infected than ticks that feed on other animals. The bigger the local mouse population, the worse the next year's tick year.

A single barred owl pair raising chicks can take hundreds of rodents in a breeding season. Owls also don't carry Lyme. The bacterium can't survive their digestive tract, so an owl that eats an infected mouse is a dead end for the disease.

Researchers at the Cary Institute, the leading lab on Lyme ecology, have been explicit about this: "Landscapes that support predators have reduced Lyme disease risk."

One owl box on its own isn't going to fix a tick year. But a yard with owls, foxes, bobcats, and weasels in it has fewer mice, and a yard with fewer mice has fewer infected ticks.

If you have woods or fields nearby, a properly sized barn owl or screech owl box (different species, different ...

Here are the main importance differences between the eggs you see in a grocery store in America

• Conventional eggs: Hens are raised indoors with no outdoor access, typically fed genetically modified corn and soy. This is the cheapest option with the lowest quality

• Cage Free: Hens are not kept in cages but still live entirely indoors with no required outdoor access. Very close to conventional

• Free Range: Hens have some (but often extremely limited outdoor access, usually just a small dirt area, and feed quality is not regulated. The label is frequently misleading because the hens likely will never go outside

• Organic: Hens are fed certified organic feed, no GMOs or synthetic pesticides, but outdoor access remains minimal. Better nutrition from feed, but housing is similar to free range. This means likely less nutrient dense

• Pasture Raised: Hens spend most of their lives outdoors with significant space, many are certified humane at 108 sq ft per hen. They eat a diverse natural diet of ...