Office of Communicable Diseases

Important steps to help avoid ticks are:

• To control rodents around your home to prevent contact with infected rodents.
• Wear light colored clothing, including long sleeve shirts and pants when outside. Light colored clothing will make ticks more easily seen on clothing before they have a change to attach to the skin.
• Tuck pants into socks and shirts into pants to cover skin as much as possible.
• Use tick repellents containing DEET before entering areas where ticks are potentially found. Repellents containing more than 30% DEET are unnecessary. Using repellent is especially important during the summer months when ticks are more active. NEVER USE REPELLENTS ON INFANTS AND AVOID GETTING IT INTO CHILDREN’S EYES.
• Persons should inspect their clothing and skin, as well as their children’s, following a possible tick exposure. Ticks often attach to exposed hairy regions of the body (e.g. head and neck), therefore special attention should be given to these areas when inspecting for ticks.
• Anyone spending a prolonged amount of time outdoors or in the woods should perform tick inspections at periodic intervals more frequently.
• If a tick is found on the body, prompt tick removal (Click here for tick removal instructions) is important.
• Pets should be inspected for ticks daily, and if a tick is found it should be removed promptly as well.