Ticks can turn an enjoyable hike, yard project, or camping trip into a health concern.
To avoid ticks, start by reducing tick exposure before you go outside. Protect your skin and clothing, and check yourself promptly when you come indoors.
The most effective tick prevention plan combines repellent, protective clothing, safer movement through tick habitat, and a thorough tick check after outdoor activity.
Tick season is strongest during warmer months, especially from April through September. However, tick exposure can occur year-round.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, recommends these habits to help reduce tick bites and the risk of tick-borne illnesses.
Build Your Personal Protection Routine
Protect exposed skin, limit contact with brush and tall grass, and treat clothing or gear when appropriate.
Use products exactly as labeled. Make tick checks part of every outdoor trip.
Choose an EPA-Registered Tick Repellent
Choose an insect repellent registered with the Environmental Protection Agency.
Effective tick repellents may contain DEET, picaridin, IR3535, oil of lemon eucalyptus (OLE), para-menthane-diol (PMD), or 2-undecanone.
Check the label for an EPA registration number and follow its directions for application and reapplication.
Apply sunscreen before tick repellent. Do not use OLE or PMD products on children younger than 3 years.
Keep repellent away from your eyes, mouth, and irritated skin.
Cover Skin and Treat Clothing
Wear protective clothing that covers as much skin as practical. Choose long pants, long sleeves, socks, and closed shoes.
Light-colored clothing makes crawling ticks easier to spot.
For added protection, wear permethrin-treated clothing and gear, or treat boots, clothing, and camping equipment with a product containing 0.5% permethrin.
Never apply permethrin directly to your skin. Follow the product label carefully.
Move Safely Through Tick Habitat
Ticks commonly live in wooded areas, shrubs, tall grass, and leaf litter.
Stay in the center of maintained trails rather than brushing against vegetation.
Avoid sitting directly in leaf litter or walking through dense brush when you can take a clearer route.
Check, Clean Up, and Remove Ticks Promptly
A complete routine after outdoor activity helps you find unattached and attached ticks before they remain on your skin.
Shower, change clothes, examine gear and pets, and perform careful tick checks to reduce the chance of a tick bite.
Do a Thorough Tick Check
Check your body as soon as you return, even after time in your own yard.
Use a full-length or handheld mirror, and inspect your scalp and hairline, around and inside your ears, under your arms, inside your belly button, around your waist, between your legs, and behind your knees.
Check children carefully, since they may not notice a tick.
A lint roller can help pick up unattached ticks from clothing, though it does not replace a skin check.
Ticks may be tiny, so do not rely on feeling a tick crawl or bite.
Handle Clothing, Gear, and Pets
Place dry clothing in a dryer on high heat for 10 minutes to kill ticks.
If clothing is damp, allow additional drying time.
If you need to wash items first, use hot water because cold and medium-temperature water may not kill ticks.
Examine jackets, backpacks, shoes, and outdoor equipment.
Check pets after every outing, especially around the ears, collar, toes, and between the legs.
Ask your veterinarian about a tick-control product suited to your pet.
Remove an Attached Tick Safely
Remove attached ticks promptly with clean, fine-tipped tweezers.
Grasp the tick as close to your skin as possible, then pull upward with steady, even pressure.
Avoid twisting, crushing, burning, or covering the tick with petroleum jelly or other substances.
Clean the bite area and your hands with soap and water or an alcohol-based cleanser.
If mouthparts remain in the skin and cannot be removed easily, leave them alone and let the skin heal.
Record the date and location of the bite, and save a clear photo of the tick if you can do so safely.
Make Your Yard Less Hospitable to Ticks
Your yard may contain tick habitats even when it looks tidy.
Focus on the damp, shaded edges where blacklegged ticks and the animals that carry them are more likely to shelter.
Reduce Moisture and Hiding Places
Remove leaf litter, brush, old furniture, and yard debris.
Keep grass mowed and trim shrubs away from play areas, patios, and frequently used paths.
Stack firewood neatly in a dry location, and keep playground equipment and seating away from wooded edges.
These changes can reduce the shaded, moist hiding places that support tick populations.
Create a Tick-Free Border
Create a roughly 3-foot-wide border of wood chips or gravel between lawns and wooded areas.
Keep the border defined and place high-use spaces, such as play areas and patios, away from trees and dense vegetation.
Discourage deer, raccoons, stray dogs, and other wildlife from entering your yard with appropriate fencing and by removing food sources.
These animals can carry ticks close to your home.
Use Yard Treatments Carefully
Targeted pesticide treatments may reduce ticks in selected areas.
Ask local health or agricultural officials about suitable products, application timing, and residential rules.
Follow every Environmental Protection Agency label instruction.
Keep children and pets away from treated areas for the time stated on the label, and avoid applying more product than directed.
Know When a Bite Needs Medical Attention
Most tick bites do not lead to illness, yet symptoms can appear days or weeks later.
Note when and where you were bitten, what the tick looked like, and where you had outdoor exposure so you can give a clinician useful details.
Recognize Symptoms and Regional Risks
Contact a clinician if you develop fever, chills, headache, unusual fatigue, muscle or joint aches, swollen glands, or a spreading rash after a bite.
Lyme disease can follow a bite from a deer tick, also called a blacklegged tick, especially in parts of the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, and Upper Midwest.
A rash is not present in every case.
Other regional risks include Rocky Mountain spotted fever from the American dog tick and other ticks, babesiosis and anaplasmosis from blacklegged ticks, and illnesses associated with the lone star tick.
Powassan virus is uncommon but serious.
A tick key can help with identification, yet tick appearance alone cannot confirm a tick-borne disease or co-infection.
Tick species belong to the family Ixodidae, commonly called hard ticks, and common names can vary by region.
Discuss Follow-Up Care With a Clinician
Seek medical advice after a tick bite if you feel ill, the tick was attached for an uncertain length of time, or you live in or visited an area where tick-borne diseases are common.
Ask whether testing, monitoring, or preventive treatment is appropriate.
A clinician may recommend a single dose of doxycycline for certain high-risk deer tick bites.
Do not take leftover antibiotics or start treatment without medical guidance.
