Hiking, hunting, gardening, and other popular outdoor activities are enjoyed by millions of Americans each year. In most parts of the U.S., such activities carry the risk of tick bites.
These tiny, blood-sucking parasites, ticks, are annoying enough by themselves, but they don’t just bite: they also transmit a variety of potentially serious bacteria, viruses, and parasites. Knowing how to prevent tick bites and how to avoid ticks is important for anyone who enjoys the outdoors.
Knowing the basics of tick protection, including how to identify the blood-sucking little beasts, when they’re most active, and the benefits of tick resistant clothing is all-important in preventing tick bites.
What are Ticks?
Ticks are tiny parasitic arachnids, putting them in the same class as spiders. Like spiders, ticks have eight legs. They have flat, oval bodies that swell up when they feed. An unfed tick is tiny, ranging in size from an apple seed to as small as a poppy seed. A fully-engorged tick can swell to up to 100 times its original weight.
When they are unfed, they are very hard to spot until it’s too late, and they’re engorged. Tick’s feed on anything that has blood, including deer, dogs, birds, other animals, and humans.
So they can feed uninterrupted, ticks have compounds in their saliva that prevent their prey’s blood from clotting. It’s the tick’s salvia that transmits diseases to the host.
Where are Ticks Found?
Ticks live in wooded areas, where they can easily latch onto passing animals or humans. Shrubs, tall grass, weeds, and leaf litter can all harbor ticks, as can overgrown patches in gardens and woodpiles. In some cases, they have been found in bird feeders.
Different types of ticks live in different regions of the United States. The deer tick, for instance, is most often found in the Eastern and upper Midwest U.S. Dog ticks frequent the eastern half of the U.S., but have been reported as far west as California, while the lone star tick is most often seen in the Northeast and Midwest.
Ticks season typically starts when the weather warms, and typically lasts from late March into October. As the weather cools, adult ticks go dormant to survive the winter, although they will remain active as long as the ground is not frozen or snow-covered (so consider tick protective clothing as part of your fall/winter hunting gear). In more temperate climates, ticks may be active year-round.
What Diseases Do Ticks Carry?
Ticks can transmit a number of serious diseases to humans. The most common include:
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Lyme Disease: Carried by deer ticks, Lyme Disease is a bacterial disease capable of causing fever, chills, muscle pain, and skin rashes. Lasting symptoms can include arthritis of the joints, cognitive difficulties, and chronic fatigue.
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Babesiosis: Also carried by deer ticks, babesiosis is a parasitic disease that causes rare, but life-threatening red blood cell infections.
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Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever: Transmitted by dog ticks, this bacterial disease begins with fevers and a red, non-itchy rash. Left untreated, the disease can cause potentially fatal organ and tissue damage.
- Tularemia: Another disease caused by dog ticks, Tularemia causes fever, chills, exhaustion, and skin ulcers at the bite site.
- Ehrlichiosis: Carried by lone star ticks, ehrlichiosis causes flu-like symptoms and can be serious if left untreated.
- Southern Tick-Associated Rash Illness: Also transmitted by the lone star tick, this illness causes a rash similar to that seen in Lyme Disease, along with fatigue, headaches, fever, and muscle pain.
How to Prevent Tick Bites
Knowing how to avoid ticks is the best way to prevent tick-related diseases. When working or playing in areas where ticks may be present, take the following steps:
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wear tick resistant clothing that covers your arms and legs,
- tuck your pants into socks or boots,
- wear light-colored clothing to help spot ticks,
- when in the woods, keep to the center of trails whenever possible (ticks prefer to lurk in shrubs and bushes),
- use a chemical repellent containing DEET, picaridin, or permethrin.
Once home or back at your campsite, check your body carefully for ticks (having someone else look you over helps for hard-to-see spots like your back). Be sure to check any skin folds for signs of ticks, and use a fine-tooth comb through your hair. Shower, and wash clothing on high heat to kill any ticks that may be on your clothes.
If you find a tick on your skin, don’t panic. It typically takes 36 hours for diseases in the tick’s intestine to make their way to the parasite’s salivary glands and into your body. Use a pair of tweezers to grasp the whole tick and pull it off the skin.
Tick-Resistant Clothing
Tick-repellent clothing describes clothing treated with an insecticide, usually permethrin. Tick-resistant clothing has been around for at least fifteen years, but its efficiency was unproven until a 2018 study revealed just a minute of contact with permethrin-treated clothing incapacitates ticks, resulting in the nasty little critters falling off the fabric.
To make tick resistant clothing, a small amount of insecticide is infused into the fabric. Skin contact with such clothing is not dangerous, and the EPA considers tick-repellent clothing safe for children and pregnant women.
Examples of tick-resistant clothing include these Gamehide products:
Stay safe and protected during your hikes and other outdoor adventures this summer with these tips on preventing tick bites, and remember ticks are hardly the only outdoor hazard. Heat and cold are also potential dangers. During the summer, consider using the types of sun protection used by construction workers, and be sure to protect yourself against frostbite in the winter months.