Are you looking for effective ways to get rid of ticks in your backyard? Looking for ways to protect yourself from ticks when you’re outdoors? It’s smart to take ticks seriously because they can carry Lyme disease. Here are effective ways to help you stay safe from ticks.
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How to Protect Against Ticks
Neat and Tidy Yard
To get rid of ticks in your yard, it’s important to maintain a neat and tidy outdoor space. Ticks tend to avoid sunny areas, preferring to inhabit densely wooded and shaded areas. Make sure to regularly mow the grass, trim the trees, and also move any woodpiles away from your home.
Avoid Wooded areas
You don’t want your kids to play in the wooded areas of your garden. Keep play areas such as sandboxes, swing sets, water tables, and baby pools away from wooded areas. Rock walls are also tick breeding grounds, so you want to keep play areas away from your rock walls.
Protect Your Skin
The best way to protect yourself against ticks is to cover up exposed skin. Wear long pants and a long-sleeve shirt to minimize exposed skin. It’s also a good idea to tuck your pants into your socks for added protection.
Check for Ticks
Always remember to inspect for ticks after being outdoors. Make sure to thoroughly check your entire body for ticks, as some might not have attached completely yet. Remember to check behind your ears, the back of your knees, your hairline, and any skin folds. It’s crucial to remove them right away before they fully attach to prevent them from biting and spreading diseases.
High Heat to Kill Ticks
Ticks can live on clothing! The best way to kill ticks that are stuck on your clothes is to toss all the clothing you wore outside in the dryer for ten minutes on high. This will effectively eliminate any ticks that may have latched onto the fabric. Just washing the clothes won’t cut it – it’s the dryer’s heat that will get rid of the ticks on the clothing.
Shower Immediately
Make sure to thoroughly wash with soap and water to remove any unattached ticks. Be particularly diligent in thoroughly cleansing areas where ticks tend to latch onto, such as around the ears and hair, in the navel, between the legs, and behind the knees.
Timing is Key
The longer a tick stays on, the more likely it is to spread diseases. It usually takes 36 to 48 hours for a tick to give you Lyme disease, but it can happen faster, depending on the situation. That’s why it’s important to do a tick check immediately so you can prevent Lyme disease!
Effective Tick Repellent
Spray Your Yard
The best way to eliminate ticks is to treat your yard with a spray. You can easily do it yourself using a sprayer that attaches to your garden hose, or you can have professionals do it for you.
It’s best to treat your yard for ticks from early spring through summer, starting in April. Treat your yard for ticks every three weeks from April to September.
One of the advantages of treating your yard is that it also eliminates other insects and mosquitoes.
Tick Tubes
Remember, even if you treat your yard, it’s difficult to cover every part, particularly in the wooded areas. The most effective method is to use tick tubes. The tick tubes look like toilet paper rolls. Simply place these in the wooded areas, near wood piles and rock walls.
These tick tubes work by luring mice. The mice will take the permethrin-treated cotton from the tick tubes and use it to build their nests. Ticks feeding on the mice will die from the permethrin exposure.
Use Bug Repellent
You can also add another layer of protection by using insect repellent. Before you head out to your garden or for outdoor activities, be sure to spray insect repellent containing DEET on any exposed skin.
Treat Your Clothes with Tick Repellent
One effective method for safeguarding against ticks is to wear clothing treated with tick repellent. Applying tick repellent spray to your clothes is simple; just spray the repellent onto your clothing and allow it to dry thoroughly. The protection should last through a few washes.
When treating your clothes, it’s important to do so in a well-ventilated area and make sure that the garments are completely dry before wearing them.
This method is highly effective for protecting yourself from ticks while outdoors. You may want to treat socks, outdoor clothing, play clothes, gardening clothes, hats, and gardening gloves with tick repellent spray for clothes. You can also buy pre-treated clothes.
What to do if You Find a Tick On You
If you find a tick on you, there are a few ways to remove it. Experts advise getting the tick with a pair of tweezers and pulling straight upward without twisting or turning. The aim is to make sure no parts of the tick are left inside your body, which could lead to infection.
Things like petroleum jelly or nail polish remover may just irritate the tick and make it release toxins through its mouth, so it’s best to avoid using them.
It’s best to stick to using tweezers! I like this tick check kit with fine-point tweezers for removing ticks.
So, after you pull off a tick, the best move is to put it in a container or a plastic bag so a doctor can check if the tick is carrying Lyme disease. You can also ask your local town if they have labs that will test the ticks for Lyme disease.
If you don’t have the actual tick, look for a circular rash that starts light in the center and gets redder as it spreads. Look for symptoms like headache, fever, and fatigue, and get checked out by a doctor. Your doctor can prescribe antibiotics!
Getting Lyme Disease is a serious matter. The best way to prevent it is to protect yourself from ticks. Checking your body and clothes is important. The key is to catch ticks before they get a chance to bite. By following these simple steps, you can enjoy outdoors with peace of mind, free from concerns about Lyme disease and other illnesses transmitted by ticks.
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