The Tick Commandments
#1. Have fun but watch out for ticks!
#2. Know where ticks live and dress accordingly!
#3. Treat clothing/gear with products containing 0.5% permethrin.
#4. Use EPA-registered insect repellents on your skin.
#5. Avoid brushy areas with high grass and leaf litter.
#6. Walk in the center of trails.
#7. When you come inside, check for ticks everywhere
on your garments and body and on your children and/of pets.
#8. Shower soon after coming inside.
#9. If you find a tick, remove it quickly and consider sending it to a laboratory for identity and possible diseases.
#10. If you have been bitten, consider taking a prophylactic antibiotic.
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#1. Have fun but watch out for ticks!
Click on the button below for a variety of instructive videos that bring together much of the public health knowledge about ticks and the diseases they carry. You will find step-by-step guides on (1) how to prevent bites (2) how to remove ticks and (3) where to find further help.
#2. Know where ticks live.
Ticks are often found in forests and wooded regions where they can easily attach to passing animals. Brushy Areas and dense underbrush provide ideal conditions for ticks to wait for hosts. Ticks also thrive in tall grasses, which offer cover and access to potential hosts. Warm and humid conditions are particularly favorable for tick populations. When venturing into these areas, it is best to wear treated, light-colored clothing (see #3) thatwill allow you to detect any ticks as soon as they land on you. Consider wearing a treated hat and tuck your light-colored and to pant cuffs into your socks, so the ticks will not be able to sneak onto your legs. Here are links to two superb sources on this topic.
#3. Treat clothing/gear with products containing 0.5% permethrin.
Permethrin for clothing is a 0.5% fabric treatment that bonds to fibers and repels/kills ticks and mosquitoes on contact—apply it to clothes and gear, never to skin. It’s not a skin repellent — permethrin works by treating clothing
and equipment so bugs drop off or die when they touch it. Most consumer sprays made for clothing are 0.5% permethrin, which is the sweet spot for safety and effectiveness on fabrics. Insect repellents for your skin repel the ticks, but they do not kill the ticks.
Permethrin kills ticks by paralyzing their nervous system on contact, causing muscle spasms and death within seconds. It is 2,250 times more toxic to ticks than to humans and remains effective through multiple washings when applied to clothing or gear.
Here is an excellent source for advice on this topic
#4. Use EPA-registered insect repellents on your skin.
Remember: Insect repellents for your skin repel the ticks, but they do not kill the ticks.
Mosquitoes and ticks are attracted to skin odors and the carbon dioxide we exhale. They also use heat, movement, and visual cues to find a possible host. Repellents affect an insect's senses such as smell and taste to prevent it from finding a human or animal host.
There are multiple active ingredients in insect repellents registered with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). DEET, picaridin, IR3535, and oil of lemon eucalyptus are referred to common insect repellents. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends using products with one of these EPA registered ingredients. They can be applied to human skin and some can be used on clothing. They come as sprays, wipes, or lotions.
DEET is an insect repellent that is used in products to prevent bites from insects such as fleas, mosquitoes and, biting flies, and small flying insects. DEET stands for N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide. DEET is a colorless liquid that has a faint odor and does not dissolve easily in water. DEET was developed by the U.S. Army in 1946 for protection of soldiers in insect-infested areas. Insect repellents containing DEET have been used by the public in the United States since 1957. It has been estimated that about 30% of the U.S. population uses one or more products that contain DEET every year.
Picaridin is an insect repellent that can be applied directly to the skin or clothing, effective against various pests like mosquitoes and ticks. It is odorless, non-greasy, and does not dissolve plastics, making it a popular alternative to DEET.
I R 3 5 3 5 i s 3 - [ N - B u t y l - N - ac e t y l] - aminopropionic acid, ethyl ester. IR3535 has been used as an insect repellent in Europe for 20 years with no substantial adverse effects. Toxicity tests show that the IR3535 is not harmful when ingested, inhaled, or used on skin. Eye irritation could occur if the chemical enters a person’s eyes.
Lemon eucalyptus essential oil comes from lemon-scented gum trees, Corymbia citriodora, and its active ingredient is the molecule para-menthane-3,8-diol, also known as PMD, oil of lemon eucalyptus, or Citriodiol. It has recently been shown to be effective as a fabric spray that is repellent to deer and wood ticks.
#5. Avoid brushy areas with high grass and leaf litter.
#6. Walk in the center of trails.
Commandments #5 and #6 seem like common sense, especially if you’ve already gone through all the trouble of obeying Commandments #1-#4. However, if you are walking with a dog or another pet, they might not have paid attention to the earlier commandments.
#7. When you come inside, check for ticks everywhere on your body and on your children and/or pets.
#8. Shower soon after coming inside.
Remember that ticks have an uncanny knack of finding the most secret and private parts of your body. They like heat and moisture. They are tiny and hard to spot. Their saliva has an anesthetic that prevents you feeling them when they bite. They secrete a chemical glue that firmly bonds with your skin, no matter where they bite you, and their jaws bear barbs- like the barbs on fishing hooks - that secure them firmly in place while they suck your blood. Great illustrations of tick anatomy can be found here:
#9. If you find a tick, remove it quickly and consider sending it to
a laboratory for species identityand to analyze possible diseases. To remove a tick, use fine-tipped tweezers to grasp the tick as close to your skin's surface as possible and pull it straight out with steady, even pressure. Avoid twisting or jerking the tick, and clean the bite area thoroughly afterward. More information can be found at the CDC.
To check your tick for identity and possible diseases, there are many labs to choose from. We recommend the lab at U.Mass Amherst. You can mail them your tick and get results back quickly. Visit their website to see their prices and services.
#10. If you have been bitten by a tick, consider taking a prophylactic antibiotic.
After removing a tick and applying an antibiotic ointment to the wound, it is thought beneficial to take a single dose of antibiotic. Most often the medicine recommended is doxycycline - 200 mg for adults. This is thought to prevent the possible development of Lyme disease. It may also prevent other tick-borne diseases. The time-frame window for the medicine is usually considered within 72 hours of the bite. Traditionally it has been thought that a tick must be attacked for at least 24 hours to transmit disease. However, that clinical paradigm may be shifting as more research is done.
If a person has been bitten by a lone star tick, it is unlikely that the antibiotic will protect that patient from acquiring alpha-gal syndrome. However, having the tick analyzed and identified by the laboratory may inform a patient’s decisions about any allergic symptoms he may experience to meat or dairy or other diet components.