Protect yourself and your family from tick-borne diseases

How can we prevent tick-borne disease for ourselves and our loved ones? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) gives these recommendations to protect yourself from ticks:  “  know where to expect ticks (in humid, grassy, wooded places)…use a repellent with DEET (on skin or clothes) or permethrin (on clothing and gear)…and perform daily tick checks”  If you’ve been working outside, walking, camping,etc., look yourself over for ticks, taking special care to look “under the arms, in and around the ears, inside belly button, back of the knees, in and around all head and body hair, between the legs and around the waist.”  More details can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/Features/LymeDisease/  Remember that baby ticks (larvae and nymph stages) can be really small so we need to look closely for ticks.

What can we do to make our home environment safe from tick infestation?  Keep our pets tick free (tick and flea collars are recommended by CDC).  They also recommend a ‘tick-safe zone’ which we can achieve by treating our yard with a tick-repellent such as acaricide, discourage the deer population from entering our yard by planting shrubs and flowers that deer do not like, and keep tall grasses, shrubs and vegetation away from patios and play areas.    http://www.cdc.gov/Features/LymeDisease/

What do you do if you find a tick?  The CDC recommends “remove an attached tick using fine-tipped tweezers as soon as you notice it.  If a tick is attached to your skin for less than 24 hours, your chance of getting Lyme disease is extremely small.  But to be safe, watch for signs or symptoms of Lyme disease”  Find these at http://www.cdc.gov/lyme/signs_symptoms/index.html