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Ticks Suck. Here's A Guide To Identifying Them And Avoiding Bites

To avoid a tick encounter, you'll want to be vigilant about taking precautions whenever you're spending a significant amount of time outdoors in tick territory, whether you're hiking or mowing your lawn. Fortunately, the same prevention techniques work for all types of ticks...

1. Get dorky: Repelling ticks starts with your outfit. Choose long sleeves and pants if possible. "And it may feel dorky, but tucking your pants into your socks gives ticks less access into the areas they can bite," says Pritt, who wears white coveralls and duct-tapes the legs to her socks when going on tick drags. Spray exposed skin with a good repellent. And treat clothes likely to be worn in tick habitat…

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Articles of Interest

It's Tick Season -- Know Your Enemy

Any time it is above freezing is a risk, but April-September is prime time for the buggers. There are many different types of ticks, but the one we need to be most careful to avoid is the blacklegged or deer tick, Ixodes scapularis (or Ixodes pacificus on the west coast) because it transmits Lyme disease, often difficult to diagnose and treat, and a number of other infections.

LOOK: What's Really Inside Your Bug Spray?

The bad news: there's no sure, completely safe way to prevent bug bites. All bug repellents have pros and cons. The good news: some repellents are effective and relatively low in toxicity -- provided you take precautions when using them, particularly on children.

Matchless strategy for tick removal; 6 steps to avoid tick bites

There are several folk remedies for removing a tick. Touching it with a hot match is a common one. Others include covering it with petroleum jelly or nail polish (in theory to suffocate it), or freezing it off. These are all supposed to make the tick “back out” of the skin on its own. But they often have the opposite effect, forcing the tick to hold tight, burrow deeper, and possibly deposit more of its disease-carrying secretions into the wound, which increases the risk of infection.

Prevention of tick-borne diseases: an overview

Washing clothes at ≤40°C is ineffective and ticks will easily survive. Therefore all clothes should be washed or dried at 60°C. Ticks that have fallen off the host or clothes can easily survive for 1 or 2 weeks and will be searching for a new host.

Reduce your risk of tick bites and Lyme Disease

After you’ve been outside, take a shower, and wash and (tumble) dry your clothes...

Tick bite risk reduction

Where possible, keep to paths and avoid walking through deep vegetation. If practical, keep your legs covered to make it harder for ticks to reach your skin. Check for ticks regularly and brush off any you see on your clothing before they have a chance to attach to you.

Tick bite? What you should do to reduce your chances of getting sick

If you are planning an outdoor activity, especially those in a heavily wooded area, it is important to follow a few simple precautions to protect yourself from tick bites...

Tick Disease Prevention

Wear light-colored clothing with long pants tucked into socks to make ticks easier to detect and keep them on the outside of the clothes. Larval and nymphal ticks may penetrate a coarse weave sock. Do not wear open-toed shoes or sandals. Use a DEET or permethrin-based mosquito and tick repellent, which can substantially increase the level of protection.

Tick Talk: A Guide to Preventing and Treating Tick Bites

Tick bites can be a real buzzkill for outdoor enthusiasts. Luckily, there are several effective ways to prevent them. The key is to use a multi-faceted approach that includes personal protective measures and environmental control methods.

Tick-ing Time Bomb? Why Protection Against Parasites is Essential for People and Pets

Here in the Northeast, checking for ticks after a walk in the woods is fairly commonplace, mostly because of the prevalence of Lyme disease -- a potentially debilitating disease spread to humans by the nefarious deer tick. If you live in the Northeast and you have pets, checking for ticks isn't just commonplace -- it's second nature.

Tips on how to reduce your risk of a tick bite

"Cover up a lot, use deet, definitely check for ticks, shower, wash your hair after being out on a hike or out of the woods, and try and keep them from getting embedded on you at all,” said Missoula County Health Department Director, Ellen Leahy.

Wear Tick Repellent Clothing. Insect Shield Your Own Clothes!

Wearing tick repellent clothing is the best-- and easiest --way for people to prevent tick bites when they venture outdoors. Did you know you can turn your own favorite clothes into tick repellent clothes?

You’re less likely to get a tick bite if you steer clear of these spots

We know that dense, shrubby patches of vegetation tend to be tick magnets. But scientists are only just starting to understand how different plants and features of the landscape amass or repel ticks. If you want to minimize your chances of encountering these disease-ridden pests, though, there are a few things you can watch out for.

Resources

10 Important Ways to Avoid Summer Tick Bites

It's summertime, which means outdoor play, hiking, gardening — and tick bites. The creepy crawlies tend to latch on during the summer months and these arachnids are ubiquitous throughout the U.S.

6 Ways to Cut Your Tick Bite Risk

These simple hacks will keep you disease free...

Stop Ticks

STOP Ticks is dedicated to finding safe environmental solutions to tick control, reducing the incidence and prevalence of tick-borne disease through education, research and prevention.

The Tick App

The Tick App also provides information on how to remove ticks, prevent tick bites, and general information about ticks. If available, information is also provided about blacklegged / deer tick activity in your area.

Be Tick Aware

Tick bite prevention is critical. Ticks are more active than ever before, and in more areas than ever before. To prevent Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses it’s crucial to Be Tick AWARE™. Follow these easy steps to protect yourself, family, and pets from ticks.

CDC

Know where to expect ticks. Ticks live in grassy, brushy, or wooded areas, or even on animals. Spending time outside walking your dog, camping, gardening, or hunting could bring you in close contact with ticks. Many people get ticks in their own yard or neighborhood.

To Repel Ticks, Try Spraying Your Clothes With A Pesticide That Mimics Mums

There's new evidence to support a decades-old strategy for preventing the tick bites that lead to all sorts of nasty diseases, including Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. The remedy involves spraying your clothing with permethrin — a pesticide that's chemically similar to extracts of the flowering chrysanthemum plant.