Ticks can stick to clothes, especially after you walk through tall grass, leaf litter, or brush. They usually crawl rather than burrow into fabric and move toward a warm area where they may reach your skin.
If you find ticks on clothes, remove the garments carefully and use high heat in the dryer before washing them.
A tick on clothing does not automatically mean you have been bitten. Ticks on clothes can move to furniture, bedding, pets, or your body, so a prompt clothing and body check helps reduce the chance of tick bites.
How Ticks Interact With Fabric
Ticks cling to textured fabric with their legs and crawl along seams, folds, and waistbands. Knowing where they hide helps you find them before they reach your skin.
Why Ticks Cling to Clothing
Ticks commonly grab onto clothing when you brush against vegetation. Rough materials, loose weaves, and fabric folds give them places to hold on as they travel upward.
Dog ticks and other common species may remain on a garment while searching for a host. They can hide in dark seams or pockets, where a quick glance may miss them.
Ticks do not glue themselves permanently to fabric. Their hooked legs help them stay attached long enough to crawl toward an opening, such as a cuff, waistband, collar, or sleeve.
Whether Ticks Can Bite Through Clothes
Ticks generally cannot bite through tightly woven clothing. They need access to skin, so they often crawl until they reach an opening or an area where fabric fits closely against your body.
Long sleeves, tucked-in shirts, and pants tucked into socks create useful physical barriers. Clothing can reduce exposed skin, though it does not replace a complete tick check.
Where Ticks Hide on Garments
Check the areas most likely to touch grass first, including socks, shoe edges, pant cuffs, and lower pant legs. Then inspect waistbands, pockets, collars, sleeve cuffs, and seams.
Turn garments inside out and examine folds under bright light. Light-colored clothing makes dark ticks easier to spot, especially when you inspect it before bringing it indoors.
What To Do When You Find a Tick on Clothing
Handle the garment away from beds, couches, and carpets. Inspect it, remove loose ticks, and use high-heat drying to address ticks on clothes before storing or wearing them again.
Inspecting Clothes Before Bringing Them Inside
If you are still outdoors, remove a visible tick with fine-tipped tweezers or a piece of tape. Avoid crushing it against your skin, and place it in alcohol, a sealed container, or a sealed piece of tape for disposal.
Once indoors, keep potentially exposed clothes contained. Put them directly into the dryer, or place them in a sealed bag until you can dry them.
Do not leave them in a hamper, where a tick may crawl out. Inspect shoes, backpacks, jackets, and pet gear as well.
A systematic check is more reliable than shaking garments outdoors.
Using a Lint Roller for Small Ticks
Run a sticky lint roller over both sides of each garment, paying special attention to cuffs, seams, collars, waistbands, and pockets. A lint roller can capture loose adult ticks and tiny nymphs that are difficult to see.
Use several passes with a fresh adhesive sheet when clothing has a rough texture. Dispose of the used sheet in a sealed bag, then wash your hands.
Killing Ticks With High-Heat Drying
Place dry clothing in a dryer on high heat before washing it. Experts recommend at least several minutes of high heat, while a longer cycle gives you more practical assurance.
If the clothing is wet, use a complete high-heat drying cycle before putting it away. Washing alone may not reliably kill ticks, so do not assume a normal wash has made the garment safe.
Follow the care label and use the hottest safe setting. For delicate or non-dryer items, ask a cleaner about heat-safe handling and keep the clothing isolated meanwhile.
Preventing Ticks From Hitchhiking Home
You can make ticks easier to detect and less likely to reach your skin by combining clothing barriers, treated garments, and properly used insect repellent. Check yourself and your gear whenever you return from a potentially infested area.
Choosing Clothing That Makes Ticks Easier To Spot
Choose light-colored clothing, such as white, khaki, or tan, so dark ticks stand out. Smooth, tightly woven synthetic fabrics give ticks fewer fibers to grip than rough or loosely woven materials.
Wear long sleeves and long pants when practical. Tuck your pants into socks or boots, and tuck your shirt into your waistband to limit openings.
After outdoor activity, inspect your clothing from the ankles upward. Pay extra attention to places where fabric touches vegetation or gathers around your body.
Treating Clothing With 0.5% Permethrin
Apply products containing 0.5% permethrin to clothing and gear according to the label. Permethrin-treated fabric can kill or disable ticks that contact it, adding protection while you hike or work outdoors.
Do not apply permethrin clothing treatments directly to your skin. Use only products labeled for clothing, follow drying and reapplication instructions, and keep treated items away from cats while wet.
Factory-treated garments may retain protection through multiple washings. Check the product label for its expected duration and care requirements.
Using Skin Repellent Safely
Apply an EPA-registered insect repellent to exposed skin as directed. DEET is one option, and other registered repellents may also provide protection when used according to their labels.
Do not spray repellent under clothing or on irritated skin. Wash treated skin after coming indoors, and follow age-related directions for children.
Repellent works best with long sleeves, clothing checks, and avoidance of brush and tall grass.
When a Clothing Check Should Lead to a Body Check
A tick on clothing means you may have entered an area with ticks, so check your body even if you did not notice a bite. Prompt inspection can help you remove an attached tick before it feeds for a longer period.
Checking Skin, Hair, Gear, and Pets
Remove clothing and inspect your skin in a well-lit room. Use a mirror or ask someone to check your scalp, hairline, ears, neck, armpits, waist, groin, backs of knees, and between your toes.
Showering soon after outdoor activity can help wash away unattached ticks and gives you a chance to perform a careful check. Inspect backpacks, shoes, jackets, and outdoor equipment before setting them down.
Check pets, especially around the ears, collar, toes, and between the legs. Use your veterinarian’s recommended tick-control plan for your animals.
Watching for Symptoms After Tick Exposure
If you find an attached tick, use fine-tipped tweezers to remove it. Grip it close to the skin, pull upward steadily, clean the area, and record the date and location if you can.
Watch for fever, chills, headache, fatigue, muscle or joint aches, swollen glands, or a spreading rash. Tick-borne illnesses, including Lyme disease, do not always cause an obvious rash, so contact a healthcare professional if symptoms appear after a possible exposure.
A tick bite can be painless and easy to miss. Seek medical advice if the tick was attached for an unknown length of time, you cannot remove it completely, or you develop concerning symptoms.
