Tips To Avoid Ticks

Blacklegged ticks, also known as deer ticks or bear ticks, live in wooded, brushy areas with high humidity. When you walk through wooded trails or the fringe area between the woods and grass areas, you may become a host for the tick. They wait on low-lying vegetation and shrubs for an animal or person to pass by, and then crawl on to attach themselves for their next meal! Adult female blacklegged ticks and the nymphs can transmit infections and disease through their bite.

Commonly transmitted tick-borne diseases in the United States include Lyme, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, babesiosis, anaplasmosis, tularemia, and ehrlichiosis.

How Can You Control the Tick Population?

Unfortunately, it is not possible to completely eliminate ticks from your yard or wooded areas. But you can make some changes to help reduce the number of ticks around your home as well as take precautions to reduce your risks of getting a tick-borne disease from a tick bite.

To reduce the number of ticks living around your home, you can take steps to change environmental conditions so your yard and property are not as attractive to ticks. For example:

• Eliminate sources of water and moisture.

• Trim brush and keep leaf litter away from your home.

• Mow lawns frequently to keep the grass short.

• Clear vegetation from the trails or paths in your wooded areas.

• Use tick control collars or topical solutions for pets.

In addition to cleaning up your lawn and wood areas as much as possible, you can also take steps to reduce your individual risks for getting tick bites by:

• Using DEET tick repellents.

• Checking for ticks whenever you come inside after being outside and removing any that you find.

• Showering after being outdoors.

• Drying clothes worn outside on high heat for ten minutes to kill any ticks on clothing, or washing in hot water.

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