Ticks don't care all that much what they can suck blood out of.

Linn, the cayenne won't stay on the leaves. One thing I did that seemed to work was to make a tea out of it, strain it and put it in a spray bottle. You DO have to keep re-applying it because moisture rinses it off. I think olddude was talking about putting the pepper on the ground, but I can't see that it would work for leaf-munchers.