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summer mean outdoor play , tramp , horticulture — and tick bites . The creepy - crawlies tend to be most active during the warm month of the twelvemonth in the U.S. , between April and September , and these arachnids are ubiquitous throughout the country .
But tick bites are more than just a bound and summer nuisance . Each class , about 476,000 masses in the U.S. getLyme disease , which is triggered by bacteria transplant to human race from tick bites , theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention(CDC ) estimation . thou more hoi polloi educate other tick - borne diseases each class , such as the malaria - corresponding disease babesiosis , the flu - alike anaplasmosis and the rarified butpotentially deadly Powassan computer virus contagion .
Ticks are more active in the warm months of the year. Here’s how to protect yourself from the disease-carrying pests.
But people can take steps to avert tick bites , beyond the old - standby advice to enshroud up and nullify grandiloquent gage , experts say . From scattering wood chips to place dress on a quick ride in the dryer , here are 10 agency to avoid check bites .
relate : check - hold disease are on the ascent . Is climate change to blame ?
1. Use bug spray
insecticide can be used to repulse ticks , Thomas Mather , a public health entomologist at the University of Rhode Island and the theatre director oftickencounter.org , tell Live Science .
Permethrin , the insecticide find in anti - malarial bed nets , kills grownup tick as well as those in their larval phase , call nymphs , which are the likeliest to shield Lyme disease . Ideally , masses should also buy permethrin - treated wearable , air sock and shoes , Mather said .
By contrast , the mutual germ spray chemical N , N - diethyl - meta - toluamide ( DEET)doesn’t vote down ticks , but it does repel the arachnidsand thus makes check bite less probable .
Ticks often “quest,” or seek potential hosts, from atop long grasses.
" It ’s not toxic to the tick , " Mather tell Live Science . " They still can scamper across a DEET - process surface , and get to places where the DEET is not , " such as a warm human stage , he said . TheEnvironmental Protection Agency ( EPA ) offers a ready to hand search toolto facilitate consumers find the undecomposed EPA - registered insect repellant to become their needs .
2. Be vigilant at home
Hiking and encampment are n’t the most common ways to catch a tick - borne disease , saidKirby Stafford III , a scientist emeritus at The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station and author of the " Tick Management Handbook " ( The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station , 2007 ) .
" We estimate three - fourths of masses pick up the tick in activities in and around the habitation , " with children ’s play and horticulture being some of the hazardous activity , Stafford differentiate Live Science .
parent should also check that to do tick checks on children when they come inside , he said .
Make sure to check your pets for ticks, especially since the pests can spread disease to both animals and humans.
3. Stay in the sun
Tick nymph have leaky cuticles , or outer covers , that rapidly lose moisture . As a result , they ca n’t survive in environs with lower than 80 % humidity for more than eight hours , Mather said .
As a resultant role , nymphs congregate in leaf piles in fishy , humid environment , so sticking to sunny areas can subdue check mark exposure , he said .
4. Change the landscape
Most click around homes remain within a few yards of the interface between the yard and a wooded area , Stafford said .
To keep your yard check - free , use landscaping that deters mice , deer , woodchucks and other animals that carry ticks , he say . People should also absent uncouth tick habitat — such as leaf heap , shrub and ground cover — near the house . Play sets should be keep in the Lord’s Day , away from the shade , he added .
ticking wo n’t cross a roadblock of Sir Henry Joseph Wood chips placed around the yard ’s perimeter , perhaps because the material makes them dry out out too much , he said .
5. Check the dog
Various species of tick — including theAmerican detent tick(Dermacentor variabilis ) andlone star tick(Amblyomma americanum ) — bite dogs and can also carry diseases to humans , so preferent owners should check for the bugs on pet as presently as they add up indoors .
" Give them a near rubdown and give them a good spray with the hose . They hate it but you’re able to make it fun , " saidHolly Donohoe , an appurtenant prof at Flagler College in St. Augustine , Florida . TheCDC propose extra guidanceon how to discipline dogs for ticks and prevent Fido from getting ticks in the first place .
connect : Dog ticks favor humans as Host when temperatures uprise
6. Cover up
cover up as much peel as potential while you ’re outside can forbid ticking from latch on , Donohoe said .
" insert pants into windsock is a altogether nerdy - looking thing , but in this case , it can write you the suffering from a tick - borne disease later on , " Donohoe said .
Of of course , that advice may be hard to follow during peak tick time of year , Stafford said . " In the summertime months , nobody is work to do that ; it ’s too hot . I do n’t , " he say . " I ’ll be protect from ticks but lurch over from heatstroke , " he said . Thus , other prevention measures may be more useful when the mercury rises .
7. Wear light-colored clothing
In gain to providing coverage , the wearing apparel multitude wear should be light in color , saidKathryn Berger , a motorcar see technologist at Development Seed and a former disease ecologist at the University of Calgary in Canada .
" Nymphal ticks are about the sizing of a poppy cum , so if you weary lighter - colored vesture like light wind sock , lighter - coloured pant , you ’re going to have an easy fourth dimension identifying them . "
8. Put your clothes through the dryer
Because ticks are so vulnerable to drying out , the hitchhike parasites can be vote out by giving clothing a quick whirl in the dryer on high oestrus for five arcminute , Mather say .
tick can pull through the wash bike , and citizenry who have to both lap and dry their dress may just flip their vesture into a pile to clean later on . However , it ’s better to do a quick dry cycle immediately when you convey the clothes inside than to let the tick linger on your dirty clothes , he said .
9. Shower and inspect
After spending fourth dimension outside — particularly in grassy , bosky or wooded field — people should directly take off their wearing apparel and do a check mark review of their skin and then shower . the great unwashed who are in the habit of showering instantly after out-of-door activities are less potential to get Lyme disease , perhaps because they can capture any biting ticks before they ’ve transmitted the disease , Stafford said .
— Your pelt should be toxic to tick . Here ’s why it ’s not .
— Lyme disease - carrying ticks may invade young district in the Midwest
— Death from rare check mark - borne virus report in Maine
After biting , ticks can take several hours to transmit Lyme disease , saidLaura Kramer , director of the Arbovirus Laboratory at the New York State Department of Health ’s Wadsworth Center . Usually , a tick must be seize for 36 to 48 time of day or longer for the Lyme - causing bacterium to be transmitted , the CDC states . Removing a tick rapidly ( within 24 hours ) can dramatically reduce your chances of contracting Lyme disease .
10. Remove the tick
If , after taking all these precautions , the great unwashed do get bite by a tick , they should withdraw the arachnid immediately with pincer or forceps , expert said . The CDC recommendspulling the tick straight up with even , steady insistence , rather than twisting the pest , and then strip the bite wounding with rub alcoholic drink or Georgia home boy and water .
It ’s important to visit a doctor if grippe - like symptom or a suspicious rash appear , and to contribute the ticking in for examination by a state health department to see if it harbor any disease , Kramer told Live Science . The skin rash associated with Lyme diseasetypically looks like a reddish bull’s - eye , although it does n’t appear in an estimated 20 % to 30 % of citizenry with the infection .
This clause is for informational function only and is not mean to propose aesculapian advice .
