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They naturally consume ticks in large quantities within their territories. Not something I have dug into deeply, but they apparently are quick to detect and eat ticks which climb aboard their fur and since they rummage around underbrush like drunken rat-kangaroos, they incidentally come into contact with a lot of ticks.
Button quail and some other birds also work well for pest control, but the more wildlife on the land, the greater chance of button quail getting wrecked quickly by a predator. Keeping most fowl here unprotected means a fancy meal for an owl, hawk, snake, bobcat, or other animal, so quail are not a solution for me, but they are for some people. The quail would be hunted by one of the species of tortoise I keep, too, which is another reason they do not work for me. Opossums and my adult tortoises get along fine, though. The marsupials steal the excess fruit and pellets at worst, but that also helps keep the pens curated. Between the opossums and the dung beetles, cleaning pens for me only involves removing fallen Spanish moss clumps. No feces, no food scraps, no smell, fewer endoparasite concerns, and fewer ticks.
Some years are worse than others, but the permethrin usage and the opossum presence seem to do a lot for us here. I also like being able to pet an opossum (much to its confusion) here and there, but that does not relate to ticks.
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