Melissa I don't know whether this will work on a large piece of ground but it s worth a try and it is fairly cheap and evironment safe in fact it is used as a fertilized so I know it will not harm your other grasses or flowers. We use it all the time here on the ranch to keep the bugs ,Ticks and flies of off of our animals. You should be able to buy it at any farmer's supply store and it comes in bulk form and it is called sulphur powder. In 1946 I was working on a United States forest surface road in a infected area of the deadly Rocky Mountain ticks and we put this on our under clothes each morning before going to work and I don't know of one single case where one of the worker was bitten and there were no ticks in the bunkhouse of course the bunkhouse smelled like sulphur but so did all the men. If you give it a try let me know if it works and I firmly believe it will Louie Roy