Hygiene and Preventing Ticks

It's summertime, which means outdoor play, hiking, gardening — and tick bites. The creepy crawlies tend to latch on during the summer months and these arachnids are ubiquitous throughout the U.S. People can take steps to avoid the nasty critters, beyond the old-standby advice to cover up and avoid tall grass, experts say. Here are hygiene tips to prevent these ticks:

1. Cover up

Covering up can prevent ticks from latching on, said Holly Donohoe, a researcher at the University of Florida who studies the health risks of travel and sports.

"Tucking pants into socks is a totally nerdy-looking thing, but in this case it can save you the suffering from a tick-borne disease later on," Donohoe said.

Of course, that advice may be hard to follow during peak tick season, Stafford said.

"In the summer months nobody is going to do that, it's too hot. I don't. I'll be protected from ticks but keel over from heat stroke," he said. Other prevention measures may be more useful when the mercury rises.

2. Lighten up

The clothes people wear should also be light, said Kathryn Berger, a disease ecologist at the University of Calgary in Canada.

"Nymphal ticks are about the size of a poppy seed, so if you wear lighter-colored clothing like light socks, lighter-colored pants, you're going to have an easier time identifying them."

3. Quick dry clothing

Because ticks are so vulnerable to drying out, the hitchhiking parasites can be killed by giving clothing a quick whirl in the dryer on high heat for five minutes, Mather said.

Ticks can survive the wash, and people who have to both wash and dry their clothes may just toss their clothing into a pile for later. It's better to do a quick dry cycle immediately than to let the tick linger, he said.

4. Shower and inspect

After high-risk activities, people should immediately take their clothes off and do a tick inspection and shower. People who are in the habit of showering immediately after outdoor activities are less likely to get Lyme disease, perhaps because they can catch any biting ticks before they've transmitted the disease, Stafford said.

After biting, ticks can take several hours to transmit Lyme disease, said Laura Kramer, the director of the Arbovirus Laboratory at the New York State Department of Health's Wadsworth Center.

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