Safe Ways to Rid Ticks from Yourself
and Your Pets

 There are plenty of good reasons to rid ticks from your home, your pets and yourself. Ticks are not just an annoyance. They can transmit a number of various dangerous diseases through their bite, including Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever. 

It's also important to remember that you can get rid of a tick by simply picking it off your skin or off your pet. But if you don't remove the tick the right way, you may not have gotten rid of the danger of disease. See our article on safe tick removal for details.

Meanwhile let's talk about ways to get rid of ticks before they have a chance to bite either you or your furry friends.

The first step is to learn how to avoid contact with ticks. Their natural habitat is grassy and wooded areas, where they're likely to find warm blooded animals they can feast on. Since you're a warm blooded animal, this could mean you.

Ticks latch on to animals and people who brush against them, or drop on them from bushes and tall grass. Ticks do not jump or fly. You are most likely to get a tick on you by, literally, bumping into one.

You can reduce your chances of having a tick grab onto you in several ways.

The first is to dress for protection. If you're going to visit areas where ticks live, cover your skin with clothing as much as you can. Light colored clothing seems to be less attractive to ticks, and you can also reduce your risks by wearing long sleeves, long pants, and by tucking your pants into your socks.

Of course, if it's 90 degrees, you're not likely to do any of those things. A tick repellent is your next best bet. Use an insect repellent that includes something called DEET. Follow the instructions carefully, and be aware that DEET doesn't stay on your skin long and must be reapplied regularly to be effective. See our article on tick repellents.

Ticks seem to love dogs and cats because they can bury themselves in fur while "digging in" for a meal. So if you let your pet outdoors, consider putting a tick collar on them, or treating them with a tick repellent. Talk to your vet about which products are likely to work best.

Frequently bathing your pet or using a tick shampoo or tick dip can also help.

Even though you've protected yourself, your kids and your pets with repellent, it's still smart to check for ticks frequently, and to safely remove any you find. Not all tick bites result in disease - in fact, most don't. But why take a chance?

Rid ticks from your environment

If you have a yard, you can reduce the risk of tick bites by keeping vegetation to well trimmed. Ticks are more likely to hide in tall grass and bushes where they are more likely to come in contact with animals. You don't find them often in short grasses and dirt.

Pesticides offer some protection, but they tend to degrade quickly in sunlight. Furthermore, ticks and other insects have become adept at finding areas where pesticides don't penetrate, like the underside of leaves. To get at all the ticks, you sometimes have to saturate the area - which creates the possibility of a whole other set of problems, especially in a yard where pets roam and children lay.

Keep your yard free of debris and clutter that's likely to attract rodents, which in turn attract ticks. Remove any nesting material left by rodents.

Also remove abandoned bird's nests. These are likely to attract ticks.

Protect your home from ticks by making sure any holes or possible entry points are sealed, including cracks and crevices.

It's probably not possible to rid tick dangers completely from your life. But by following the guidelines listed above, you can certainly reduce the risk of contracting a serious and potentially deadly tick-borne disease.