Tick Prevention 101

For Humans

**scroll down for Pets

Personal Protection

  • Wear long-sleeved shirts and long pants when outdoors
  • Tuck pants into socks and shirts into pants
  • Wear light-colored clothing to spot ticks easily
  • Use EPA-registered insect repellents containing DEET, picaridin, IR3535, oil of lemon eucalyptus, para-menthane-diol, or 2-undecanone
  • Treat clothing and gear with products containing 0.5% permethrin

Enviromental Protection

  • Avoid wooded and brushy areas with high grass and leaf litter
  • Walk in the center of trails
  • Conduct a full-body tick check after being outdoors
  • Shower within two hours of coming indoors
  • Put clothes in the dryer on high heat for 10 minutes to kill ticks

Yard Maintenance

  • Keep grass mowed short
  • Remove leaf litter and clear tall grasses and brush around homes and edges of lawns
  • Stack wood neatly in a dry area away from the house
  • Create a 3-foot wide barrier of wood chips or gravel between lawns and wooded areas
  • Keep playground equipment, decks, and patios away from yard edges and trees

For Our Pets

Preventative Treatments

  • Use veterinarian-approved tick preventatives (collars, spot-on treatments, or oral medications)
  • Apply treatments consistently as directed
  • Consult your vet for the best option for your pet

Enviromental Control

  • Keep pets out of wooded areas and tall grasses
  • Create a tick-safe zone in your yard by keeping grass short and removing leaf litter
  • Use pet-safe landscaping techniques to reduce tick habitats

Regular Checks & Grooming

  • Check your pets for ticks daily, especially after they've been outdoors
  • Groom pets regularly and use a fine-toothed comb to detect ticks
  • Pay special attention to areas around the ears, eyes, under the collar, under front legs, between back legs, and between toes

Additional Resources

Learn proper tick removal techniques. 

Identify differnt tick species. 

Understand tick-borne diseases & symptoms.

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