How can I prevent a tick-borne illness?
Last updatedMechanical protection
This is basic. Cover yourself. Wear long pants, tuck your pants into socks, wear light colored clothes. Or – here's where we come in – wear TheTickSuit™. Wear the suit over your clothes. The suit reduces the chance of a tick attaching to you. Take the suit off outside, you don't want to bring ticks into your home. Put the suit in its bag and dry the suit in a dryer at high heat for at least 15 minutes to destroy any ticks you may not have seen. If the suit needs washing, wash in hot water and dry at high heat for ~1 hour. Now it's ready to wear again! Ticks die if dried (desiccated). If clothes are wet, it takes longer for the ticks to dry out.
Chemical protection
Chemical agents can be applied to clothes (permethrin) or repellents can be applied to clothes or skin. Clothes sprayed with permethrin can withstand several washes (please check with the manufacturer). Clothes treated by Insect Shield® with permethrin can withstand 70 washes. If clothing is coated appropriately with permethrin, the tick will die when it contacts the chemical. Repellents include those with ≥ 20% DEET, picaridin, IR3535 or some essential oils (EPA: Find the repellent right for you). Oils applied to the skin must be reapplied regularly and you need to check for toxicity. Use a lint roller to remove hidden ticks on your clothes.
Disclosure: TheTickSuit™ earns a commission if you buy through our Insect Shield link, at no extra cost to you. We only link to products we'd use ourselves.
Avoidance
Avoid areas that ticks like, such as high grasses, gardens, bushes, woods. Hmmm, that's a bit difficult if you want to garden, do yard work, hike, or just take a walk in the woods.
What's tasty to a tick?
Ticks change their favorite host depending on their life cycle. Larvae and nymphs feed on small mammals (white-footed mice, voles, and some birds). Adult ticks prefer larger animals (dogs, deer). Both nymphs and adults feed on humans. Lone star ticks can feed on birds, but not rodents. All stages of the lone star tick feed on humans but the female lone star, the one with the white spot (scutum) on its back, is the most likely to bite humans. Most hard ticks actually never find a host and die after a few months, but some tough ticks can last for years even without a host. Dog ticks can be carried from outdoors into the home where they can survive for as long as two years without feeding.
How does a tick bite?
Larval ticks climb a blade of grass and prepare to attach to any unsuspecting host by assuming a "questing" position. The tick hangs on the grass with its back legs, stretches out its front legs, and waits. A tick knows you're there by your smell (carbon dioxide, ammonia, or other body odors), body heat, moisture, vibration, or shadow. When a tick senses these signals, it gets excited, waves its front legs, and grabs on. Ticks don't jump – they have to have direct contact with their host. Immature ticks stay in low vegetation, whereas adults like areas with higher growth.
A tick doesn't really bite – it grasps the skin, cuts into it, and secretes "cement" that holds its mouthparts in place while it feeds. It takes 10 to 120 minutes for the tick to insert its mouthparts. The mouthparts of the adult are larger than those of the larval or nymphal tick, and can pierce the skin more deeply – an adult's mouthparts can reach the subdermal layer of skin making it more difficult to remove. The lone star tick has a very long mouthpart and its bite can be especially painful and irritating. Ticks attach and feed for days. To see how a dog tick "bites," watch this from National Public Radio.