Tick Bite Prevention
Preventing tick bites is the best way to prevent tick-borne disease! Following these simple strategies can help protect you and your family:
Before you go outside:
- Use an EPA-registered insect repellent
- Pre-treat your clothing with permethrin
- Choose long sleeves and pants that are light in color so that it’s easier to see if ticks are crawling on you
While outdoors:
- Tuck your pants into your socks and your shirt into your pants to reduce access to the skin
- Stay in the middle of paths and trails and avoid tick habitat along the edges
After you’ve been outside:
- Take a hot shower shortly after returning indoors
- Place your clothes in the dryer on a high heat cycle
- Perform a full body tick check on yourself, your children, and your pets.
You can help reduce tick habitat in your yard by doing the following:
- Mowing regularly
- Removing leaf litter
- Discarding trash and other debris
- Placing playsets in the center of the property as opposed to next to a wooded edge
- Using woodchips to create a barrier between a manicured lawn and wooded areas
- Reducing rodents around the home
If you find a tick attached to you, remove it right away! Most ticks need to be attached for longer than 24 hours before they can spread a disease-causing pathogen while blood feeding, so the sooner an attached tick is removed, the less likely you are to get sick!
To remove an attached tick, use tweezers to grab the head of the tick as close to the skin as possible and pull it straight out. Wash the bite area with soap and warm water. Ticks can be flushed down the toilet, but if you want to save the tick for future reference, it can be stored in ethanol or rubbing alcohol or a sealed plastic bag.
Visit the Centers for Disease Control website for more information.