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- Stay Away: when possible, avoid tick-infested areas, especially deep grass, leaf litter, or moist wooded areas. Try not to be on the ground in or near such areas.
- Dress Wisely: wear light-colored clothes that can help you to see ticks more easily on clothing.
- Cover Up: wear a long-sleeved shirt and long pants outdoors. Tuck shirt into pants and pants into socks and wear a hat or cap.
- Spray Away: tick repellents are useful, though controversial. Most contain DEET which can be sensitive to some people, especially children. Permethrin-based repellents such as Permanone can be a safe and effective alternative. Spray repellents on your clothing, never directly on the skin.
- Do a Tick Check: conduct frequent thorough tick checks, inspecting clothing and all exposed skin. Typically, ticks will attach and feed on areas of the body that are warm and moist such as the creased areas behind the knees, the groin, and the armpits. Shower and shampoo your hair after being outdoors.
- Practice Pet Care: carefully check pets for ticks especially around their ears, neck and head. Check with your veterinarian for currently available products.
- Outsmart Lyme: be mindful of the heightened incidence of ticks in your area, especially during, but not limited to, March through November.
- Tick Removal: If you find a tick embedded in your skin, with a pointed tweezer, grab the tick as close to the skin as possible and gently pull straight out. When tweezers are not available, use gloves or at minimum, a tissue or leaf.Do not squeeze the main body of the tick since this can inject infectious contents of the gut into the host.
NEVER use bare hands to remove a tick because infected fluids can be absorbed into the skin through tiny cuts that you may not be able to see.
NEVER use heat (e.g. lighters, matches) or any chemicals or solvents (e.g. Vaseline, lighter fluid, nail polish) in an attempt to coax the tick out. This may cause it to panic and regurgitate the contents of its gut, including the bacteria directly into the host.
Once removal is completed, thoroughly clean the bite site with an antiseptic such as alcohol.
Do not kill the tick - put it in a dry vial or jar (a plastic film container works well) with a moist blade of grass and take or send it to a reliable lab for analysis. UL>
