Tick Safety
Ticks are out there, and they are a potential disease risk, but that doesn't mean that you can't enjoy being outside and exploring Earth's amazing biodiversity. As with most things, a better understanding of the organisms involved, their ecology, and behaving appropriately can go a long way to mitigating risks. Here are a few basic rules that we use when we are out studying ticks or anything else.
Rule #1: Know your ticks.
Depending on where you are in the temperate regions of the world, there are likely a few medically important tick species living there. Learn their names and habitat preferences. Learn about their life cycles and when different life stages are present in the environment. For example, here in Ohio, adult Blacklegged Ticks are questing from October through April, nymphs are questing from May into August, larvae are questing from July into September (Figure 1). Knowing that nymphs pose the greatest Lyme Disease transmission risk, it is important during their activity period to understand their behavior and habitat preferences and alter your behavior appropriately. For learning about ticks, we find that the University of Rhode Island's TickEncounter website extremely useful.
Figure 1. The three life stages of the Blacklegged Tick. Note the difference in size between the adults (active during the fall and winter) and the nymphs (active in spring and summer). Both of these life stages have the potential to transmit the pathogen that causes Lyme Disease (and possibly 4 or 5 other pathogens).
Rule #2: Dress appropriately.
Ticks quest from vegetation as low as the leaf litter covering the forest floor and as high as maybe 1 m (~3 feet). They don't rain down on you from the treetops, but they do climb upward from somewhere between 0 and 3 feet off the ground. Knowing this, your goal is to dress in a way that prevents ticks from getting to exposed skin for as long as possible. Tuck your pantlegs into tall socks or boots, and tuck your shirt into your pants. You will notice that we are usually wearing white coveralls for studying ticks (Figure 2). The coveralls limit points of entry for ticks and the white color makes them relatively easy to find. We also treat our field clothing and coveralls with permethrin spray, which is an extremely effective tick repellent. Adding sprays containing DEET to your skin is also helpful, although we caution against using DEET on your hands if you are doing fieldwork that involves handling fish or amphibians.
Figure 2. Note this student is wearing coveralls treated with permethrin and has pantlegs tucked into tall socks (also treated with permethrin). We take extra precautions when sampling ticks, but the idea is the same regardless of what we are studying: keeping the upward moving ticks away from our bodies with long pants tucked into socks or boots and shirts tucked into pants.
Rule #3: Laundry and a shower when you get home.
When you've been out in potential tick habitat, always finish your day by tossing your field clothing into the drier on high for 10 minutes or so (which should kill any hitchhiking ticks) and take a good shower. The shower allows you an opportunity to check for ticks and to wash any off that may be looking for a good feeding site.
Hunters! We know the temptation to keep your hunting clothing outside and unwashed during the season, but ticks can sit on your clothing for weeks waiting for your warm body to come back. Throw your stuff in a drier on high for 10 minutes and then put it back outside to air out.
