How Tick Experts Protect Themselves Against Ticks
June 27, 2025 — Growing up in the rural Midwest, I had a tick routine after walking in the woods: Shower, scrub my scalp, and feel for ticks. Pluck any I found — a regular occurrence — with tweezers. No problem and no symptoms.
But how do tick experts — people who know where ticks are and how they spread, and employ the latest strategies — handle this growing scourge?
After all, ticks are everywhere. In certain regions, if you're bitten by a tick, there's a good chance it's carrying Lyme. A Dartmouth study found that half of black-legged ticks and a quarter of nymphal black-legged ticks in the Northeast tested positive for the disease over three decades of data.
Other tickborne diseases throughout the country include anaplasmosis, ehrlichiosis, babesiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and tularemia. And while vaccines to prevent Lyme and other tickborne diseases are on the horizon, they're not available yet, so bite prevention is key.
Turns out much of the advice today is the same as when I was a kid in the '90s, but these days technology offers some upgrades. Here's what tick experts do.
Tick Expert Panel
1. They wear pretreated clothing and accessories.
Wearing clothes treated with permethrin (an insecticide that also repels insects) is one of the best ways to protect yourself from ticks and mosquitoes — much more effective than simply wearing long sleeves and pants. Mather did a study of outdoor workers and found that treated clothes reduced tick bites by 65%.
L.L. Bean has a whole line of insect-repellent clothing, and brands like Shoo For Good, Craghoppers, and Insect Shield all offer permethrin-treated pieces. Permethrin-infused accessories like tick gaiters are also growing in popularity.
Treated clothes are a great option for those who can't do proper tick checks because of vision or mobility limitations. Use them for everyday activities like dog-walking, Mather said — don't save them for hiking trips. 'When people have a technology like that, they think it's for a special occasion. Then it actually doesn't get used when it's best to be used.'
2. They re-treat their clothes at least once a year.
In the study's second year, participants had 50% fewer tick bites — a drop from the first year, which is why Mather says to re-treat clothes annually. You can use an at-home spray (like Sawyer Permethrin Fabric Treatment), or ship your items to a company like Insect Shield, which will treat them for you.
3. They check the EPA's online search tool to find repellent spray.
This tool lets you filter products by active ingredient, protection time, and target pest. Look for options with at least 30% DEET, 20% picaridin, or 20% IR3535 — all proven to repel ticks. Oil of lemon eucalyptus (30%) is also effective but needs to be reapplied more often, is toxic to cats, and is not recommended for children under 3. Spray any exposed skin. If you're sweating a lot, you'll likely need to reapply more often than the label says, said Haines and Davis.
4. They go for clothing hacks.
In tick-heavy areas, pull long socks over your pant legs, Swiger said. 'If you plan to be out for a long time, putting tape around the tops of your socks is recommended. The tape is wrapped so the sticky part is facing out and will collect any ticks crawling up the shoes and pant legs.'
Choose light-colored clothes to help you 'find the ticks faster and prevent them from accessing your skin,' said Swiger. And don't wait until you're home to do a scan — if you drove to the trail, check before getting back in the car.
5. They use online tick tracking systems.
Of course there are AI-powered apps for identifying ticks, but Mather said they're not reliable yet. One resource you can rely on is TickSpotters, a crowd-sourced service that Mather manages through TickEncounter (and which Haines and Davis recommend). Anyone can submit a photo of a tick on their body or recently removed (take the shot from above — the top of the insect makes it easier to identify), along with information about how long they think it was attached, for Mather or a colleague to identify. Within roughly 24 hours, you'll receive an email that lets you know if you indeed were bitten by a tick, what kind of tick it is, and what stage of life it was in (all factors that affect disease transmission risk).
Swiger, Haines, and Davis also use the CDC's map of the historical number of Lyme disease cases per state. It could help you avoid areas that are the most tick-infested or take extra precaution where your risk is high.
6. They don't rely on doctors.
Many medical doctors won't be able to identify all ticks and their life stages, so consulting with an entomologist or acarologist through a program like TickSpotters is extremely useful. The information you get can change treatment plans. For example, doxycycline can be used to reduce the risk of Lyme after a tick bite, but if you know the tick that bit you isn't a carrier of Lyme, you can skip this treatment.
You can also use apps like The Tick App to report your experiences with ticks. Researchers use this info to monitor tick populations and disease risk in various places.
7. They keep their property neat and protected.
Mather sprays the wooded edges of his property with synthetic pyrethroid once a year. He also recommends tick tubes (he invented them!). These are biodegradable tubes filled with permethrin-treated cotton, which mice use for their nests, making them less likely to carry ticks. These work best around properties where many mice are present and won't work with all tick-carrying animals, Mather said.
Keeping your lawn well-groomed helps keep ticks away. These insects seem to prefer the protection, moisture, and complexity of tall grass and some non-grass lawns, Mather said.
Keep grass short, rake up leaf litter (especially oak leaves), and trim overgrown vegetation in the spring and autumn. A robotic lawn mower — like a Roomba for your yard — can reduce tick habitats around your home even when you're away on vacation. Adding a wood chip or gravel border between your yard and wooded areas, and fencing your yard to keep out deer (a common tick host) are also good ideas, said Haines and Davis.
8. They use a special tool to remove ticks.
Mather recommends a tick remover, which lays flat against the skin and can be easier to use than standard tweezers. 'The most important thing to remember is that the tick should be pulled straight up out of the skin,' said Swiger. Don't twist the tick; you'll pull it apart and leave the mouth attached.
But if you don't get it all out, don't panic. Mather said if a tiny bit of the tick's mouth is left behind, it doesn't change your risk of infection and your body will naturally expel it. But picking at it could make infection risk worse. He recommends wiping the area with an alcohol pad after removal and keeping the tick in a bag in the freezer for identification and potential disease testing. Check your state health department to see if it offers free testing, said Swiger.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Novo Nordisk announces WeightWatchers collaboration for Wegovy
Novo Nordisk (NVO) said it expanded patient access to Wegovy through a new collaboration with WeightWatchers, beginning July 1. WeightWatchers will work with CenterWell Pharmacy as the dispensing pharmacy managing prescription fulfilment and delivery for NovoCare Pharmacy. 'By extending access to Wegovy through their integrated support system, WeightWatchers aims to provide patients with a more streamlined experience, along with convenient access to FDA-approved medication with the lifestyle support shown to improve outcomes,' the company said. Starting on July 1, Novo Nordisk is also introducing a new cash-offer price of $299 available through July 31. This $299 introductory price is available for self-paying patients who are new to the Wegovy savings offer or those who have not previously filled a prescription through NovoCare Pharmacy. This builds on the previous $199 Wegovy cash-offer patient price that expires on June 30, Novo added. Patients who redeemed the $199 Wegovy savings offer between May 22 and June 30, will be eligible for the $299 price on one fill between July 1 and July 31. For subsequent months, self-paying patients will pay $499 per month. Easily unpack a company's performance with TipRanks' new KPI Data for smart investment decisions Receive undervalued, market resilient stocks right to your inbox with TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter Published first on TheFly – the ultimate source for real-time, market-moving breaking financial news. Try Now>> See today's best-performing stocks on TipRanks >> Read More on NVO: Disclaimer & DisclosureReport an Issue Is the Hims & Hers Stock (HIMS) Crash a Hidden Buying Opportunity? Citi sees tiered orforglipron pricing $15B opportunity for Eli Lilly Needham Downgrades Hims & Hers Stock (HIMS) on Novo Nordisk Fiasco. Wall Street Sees Legal Risks California seeks to cut Medicaid coverage for weight loss drugs, Bloomberg says Hims & Hers litigation risk 'back on the table', says Truist Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
The Verge
an hour ago
- The Verge
How extreme heat disproportionately affects Latino neighborhoods
Scorching hot days tend to hit certain neighborhoods harder than others, a problem that becomes more dangerous during record-breaking heat like swathes of the US experienced over the past week. A new online dashboard shows how Latino neighborhoods are disproportionately affected in California. Developed by University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), the tool helps fill in gaps as the Trump administration takes a sledgehammer to federal climate, race, and ethnicity data resources. 'We want to provide facts, reliable data sources. We don't want this to be something that gets erased from the policy sphere,' says Arturo Vargas Bustamante, faculty research director at the UCLA Latino Policy and Politics Institute (LPPI). 'We don't want this to be something that gets erased' The Latino Climate & Health Dashboard includes data on extreme heat and air pollution, as well as asthma rates and other health conditions — issues that are linked to each other. High temperatures can speed up the chemical reactions that create smog. Chronic exposure to fine particle pollution, or soot, can increase the risk of a child developing asthma. Having asthma or another respiratory illness can then make someone more vulnerable to poor air quality and heat stress. Burning fossil fuels — whether in nearby factories, power plants, or internal combustion vehicles — makes all of these problems worse. Latino neighborhoods have to cope with 23 more days of extreme heat a year compared to non-Latino white neighborhoods in California, the dashboard shows. LPPI defined extreme heat as days when temperatures climbed to 90 degrees Fahrenheit or higher. If you've ever heard about a phenomenon called the urban heat island effect, big differences in temperature from neighborhood to neighborhood probably wouldn't come as a surprise. Areas with less greenery and more dark, paved surfaces and waste heat from industrial facilities or vehicles generally tend to trap heat. Around 1 in 10 Americans lives in a place where the built environment makes it feel at least 8 degrees Fahrenheit hotter than it would without that urban sprawl according to one study of 65 cities from last year. And after years of redlining that bolstered segregation and disinvestment in certain neighborhoods in the US, neighborhoods with more residents of color are often hotter than others. The dashboard includes fact sheets by county to show what factors might raise temperatures in certain areas. In Los Angeles County, for example, only four percent of land in majority-Latino neighborhoods is shaded by tree canopy compared to nine percent in non-Latino white neighborhoods. Conversely, impervious surfaces like asphalt and concrete that hold heat span 68 percent of land in Latino neighborhoods compared to 47 percent in majority non-Latino white areas in LA County. For this dashboard, LPPI defines a Latino neighborhood as a census tract where more than 70 percent of residents identify as Latino. It used the same 70 percent threshold to define non-Latino white neighborhoods. Latino neighborhoods in California are also exposed to twice as much air pollution and have twice as many asthma-related ER visits as non-latino white neighborhoods, according to the dashboard. It brings together data from the Census Bureau, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the state's environmental health screening tool called CalEnviroScreen, and other publicly-available sources. The Trump administration has taken down the federal counterpart to CalEnviroScreen, called EJScreen, as part of its purge of diversity and equity research. Researchers have been working to track and archive datasets that might be targeted since before President Donald Trump stepped back into office. Efforts to keep these kinds of studies going are just as vital, so that people don't have to rely on outdated information that no longer reflects current conditions on the ground. And other researchers have launched new initiatives to document the Trump administration's environmental rollbacks. The Environmental Defense Fund and other advocacy groups, for instance, launched a mapping tool in April that shows 500 facilities across the US that the Environmental Protection Agency has recently invited to apply for exemptions to air pollution limits. UCLA's dashboard adds to the patchwork of more locally-led research campaigns, although it can't replace the breadth of data that federal agencies have historically collected. 'Of course, we don't have the resources that our federal government has,' Bustamante says. 'But with what we are able to do, I think that one of the main aims is to keep this issue [at the top of] the agenda and provide reliable information that will be useful for community change.' Data like this is a powerful tool for ending the kinds of disparities the dashboard exposes. It can inform efforts to plant trees where they're needed most. Or it can show public health officials and community advocates where they need to check in with people to make sure they can find a safe place to cool down during the next heatwave.
Associated Press
an hour ago
- Associated Press
Takeaways from interviews with families forever changed by diseases that vaccines can prevent
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — In the time before widespread vaccination, devastating infectious diseases ran rampant in America, killing millions of children and leaving others with lifelong health problems. Over the next century, vaccines virtually wiped out long-feared scourges like polio and measles and drastically reduced the toll of many others. Today, however, some preventable, contagious diseases are making a comeback as vaccine hesitancy pushes immunization rates down. And well-established vaccines are facing suspicion even from public officials, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist, running the federal health department. 'This concern, this hesitancy, these questions about vaccines are a consequence of the great success of the vaccines – because they eliminated the diseases,' said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. 'If you're not familiar with the disease, you don't respect or even fear it. And therefore you don't value the vaccine.' Anti-vaccine activists even portray the shots as a threat, focusing on the rare risk of side effects while ignoring the far larger risks posed by the diseases themselves — and years of real-world data that experts say proves the vaccines are safe. Some Americans know the reality of vaccine-preventable diseases all too well. Here are takeaways from interviews with a few of them by The Associated Press. Getting a disease while pregnant can change two lives. Janith Farnham has helped shepherd her daughter Jacque through life for decades. Jacque, 60, was born with congenital rubella syndrome, which resulted in hearing, eye and heart problems at birth. There was no vaccine against rubella back then, and Janith contracted it in early pregnancy. Though Janith, 80, did all she could to help Jacque thrive, the condition took its toll. Jacque eventually developed diabetes, glaucoma, autistic behaviors and arthritis. Today, Jacque lives in an adult residential home and gets together with Janith four or five days a week. Janith marvels at Jacque's sense of humor and affectionate nature despite all she's endured. Jacque is generous with kisses and often signs 'double I love yous,' even to new people she meets. Given what her family has been through, Janith finds it 'more than frustrating' when people choose not to get children the MMR shot against measles, mumps and rubella. 'I know what can happen,' she said. 'I just don't want anybody else to go through this.' Delaying a vaccine can be deadly. More than half a century has passed, but Patricia Tobin still vividly recalls seeing her little sister Karen unconscious on the bathroom floor. It was 1970, Karen was 6, and she had measles. The vaccine against it wasn't required for school in Miami where they lived. Though Karen's doctor discussed immunizing the first grader, their mother didn't share his sense of urgency. 'It's not that she was against it,' Tobin said. 'She just thought there was time.' Then came a measles outbreak. After she collapsed in the bathroom, Karen never regained consciousness. She died of encephalitis. 'We never did get to speak to her again,' Tobin said. Today, all states require that children get certain vaccines to attend school. But a growing number of people are making use of exemptions. Vanderbilt's Schaffner said fading memories of measles outbreaks were exacerbated by a fraudulent, retracted study claiming a link between the MMR shot and autism. The result? Most states are below the 95% vaccination threshold for kindergartners — the level needed to protect communities against measles outbreaks. Preventable diseases can have long-term effects. One of Lora Duguay's earliest memories is lying in a hospital isolation ward with her feverish, paralyzed body packed in ice. She was three years old. It was 1959 and Duguay, of Clearwater, Florida, had polio. It was one of the most feared diseases in the U.S., experts say, causing some terrified parents to keep children inside and avoid crowds during epidemics. Given polio's visibility, the vaccine against it was widely and enthusiastically welcomed. Given polio's visibility, the vaccine against it was widely and enthusiastically welcomed. But the early vaccine that Duguay got was only about 80% to 90% effective. Not enough people were vaccinated or protected yet to stop the virus from spreading. Though treatment helped her walk again, she eventually developed post-polio syndrome, a neuromuscular disorder that worsens over time. She now gets around in a wheelchair. The disease that changed her life twice is no longer a problem in the U.S. So many children get the vaccine — which is far more effective than earlier versions — that it doesn't just protect individuals but it prevents occasional cases that arrive in the U.S. from spreading further and protects the vulnerable. When people aren't vaccinated, the vulnerable remain at risk. Every night, Katie Van Tornhout rubs a plaster cast of a tiny foot, a vestige of the daughter she lost to whooping cough at just 37 days old. Callie Grace was born on Christmas Eve 2009. When she turned a month old, she began having symptoms of pertussis, or whooping cough. She was too young for the Tdap vaccine against it and was exposed to someone who hadn't gotten their booster shot. At the hospital, Van Tornhout recalled, the medical staff frantically tried to save her, but 'within minutes, she was gone.' Today, Callie remains part of her family's life, and Van Tornhout shares the story with others as she advocates for vaccination. 'It's up to us as adults to protect our children – like, that's what a parent's job is,' Van Tornhout said. 'I watched my daughter die from something that was preventable … You don't want to walk in my shoes.' ____ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
