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Home » Travel Tips: Staying Safe From Ticks & Bites

Travel Tips: Staying Safe From Ticks & Bites

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As if we didn’t have enough to worry about this summer, with delayed flights and lost baggage and high gas prices for family road trips, if you are headed into a wooded area, staying safe from ticks and tick bites are an additional concern.

preventing tick bites
Photo: National Park Service

These tips for protection against Lyme disease and other tick-borne ailments are from the CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention).

Consider tick repellent clothes

Ticks will attach anywhere on your shoes or clothing and then crawl onto your skin.

Consider insect repellent clothing to keep ticks from latching on and crawling up.  Brands and stores which offer insect-repellant clothing include:

  • Ex Officio
  • REI
  • LL Bean
  • Insect Shield

Top advantages of insect repellent  clothing:

  • Long-lasting and invisible
  • Don’t have to reapply it every time you step outside
  • Effective
  • Odorless

Even if you don’t buy an entire treated wardrobe, at least consider protective socks, since ticks are normally close to the ground, where your feet are.

Also, be sure to tuck your shirt into your pants  and your pants into your socks, to make it tougher for the little beasts to find skin.

Use a spray tick repellent

When clothes are treated with tick repellent, ticks may grab on, but after a few seconds of exposure, they will generally fall off.

Use Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-registered insect repellent containing DEET, picaridin, IR3535, Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus (OLE), para-menthane-diol (PMD), or 2-undecanone.

EPA’s helpful search tool can help you find the product that best suits your needs.

Always follow product instructions.

Do not use products containing OLE or PMD on children under 3 years old.

When clothes are treated with permethrin, ticks may grab on, but after a few seconds of exposure, they will generally fall off.


See Also

How to Avoid Bedbugs on Vacation


Walk down the center of the trail

Ticks are usually more abundant on the edges of trails, so walking down the center can help you avoid ticks that are waiting to jump onto the nearest host.

Know that the simple and courteous act of stepping off the trail to let someone pass can increase your risk of a tick encounter.

preventing tick bites
Image: CDC

Do a thorough tick check

It’s important to do a thorough tick check on yourself, your kids, and your pets after being in a tick habitat, especially in areas where your clothing binds against your skin, such as your underarms.

Perform tick checks from the ground up.  Here’s where to check for ticks:

  • Between toes
  • Behind knees
  • In the groin area
  • Around waistline
  • In the belly button
  • Inside elbow joints and armpits
  • In and around the ear
  • Around the hairline
  • On the scalp

Remove your clothes after being in a tick habitat and put them in the dryer

Ten minutes of high heat will kill off any ticks stuck on your clothing.

It’s a simple trick that can help remove ticks that may be hiding.

There’s also a website, ticksafety.com, to check for additional information.

And these additional tips from the New York State Dept. of Health. 


ecoXplorer Evelyn Kanter on Dune 45 NamibiaecoXplorer Evelyn Kanter is a journalist with 20+ years of experience as a newspaper and magazine writer, radio & TV news producer & reporter, and author of guidebooks and smartphone apps – all focusing on travel, automotive, the environment and your rights as a consumer.

ecoXplorer Evelyn Kanter currently serves as President of the International Motor Press Assn. (IMPA), a former Board Member of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW) and a current member of the North American Travel Journalists Assn. (NATJA).

Contact me at evelyn@ecoxplorer.com.

Copyright (C) Evelyn Kanter

 

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Filed Under: Adventure Travel, Family Travel, How To, National Parks, Safety and Health Tagged With: bedbugs, hiking, National Park Service, ticks

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Evelyn Kanter is the Past President of the International Motor Press Assn. (IMPA), a past Board Member of a prestigious professional group for travel journalists, and a member of several other top international organizations of journalists.

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