However, most of the time, keeping ticks at bay is the best way to prevent the disease. Here are a few ways you can lessen your chances of attracting a tick bite:
- Take all precautions to ward off ticks in brushy areas and forests in the late spring and summertime when ticks are most active. Ticks climb on to people and animals mostly from the ground -- they do not jump and they do not fall out of trees, although they can attach to you if you brush against them (they can sense heat and carbon dioxide). So wear proper clothing and footwear treated with permethrin, and spray on insect repellent such as DEET, paying special attention to the ankles. Taping pant legs to socks or boots may be effective in preventing ticks from crawling up your leg. The effectiveness of the good mosquito repellent, Picaridin,
- After being outside, do a thorough body examination paying special attention to hairy areas where ticks may be hiding. Remove ticks properly.
- De-tick livestock and also don't forget to de-tick pets like dogs and cats that may bring ticks into your house.
- Keep ticks away from your house and yard. A combination of landscaping, rodent and deer control can control ticks without using acaricides, or insecticides that kill ticks. Keeping brush down around the house may help and some people claim that fowl, like chickens, eat enough ticks to make a difference in the tick amounts around the yard. See this article about natural insect control around the home.
- Ticks may be controlled on mice and other rodents by providing them with nesting material in the form of cotton balls laced with an acaricide, a type of insecticide that kills ticks. The product is called DAMMINIX and de-ticks mice in their nests without harming them. De-ticking rodents can reduce the number of ticks around the house up to 50 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control. The Lyme Disease Association of Southern Pennsylvania states that a study on Long Island, New York, USA showed a 90 percent reduction of deer ticks year after year with the use of DAMMINIX tubes. The active ingredient of DAMMINIX is permethrin, a pyrethroid insecticide also used to treat mosquito nets and clothing and footwear for insect control.
- In general, it is not recommended to spray acaricides on your property since these chemicals kill beneficial insects as well. However, if you do have a tick infestation already in your house, consider using acaricides to rid your house of ticks. Contact your local pest control company for more information because the timing and location of application and reapplication is very important for acaricides to be an effective way to control ticks. Some acaricides are: DURSBAN (chlorpyrifos), DIAZINON (spectracide), SEVIN (carbaryl), and TEMPO (cyfluthrin), the latter is used only by professional pesticide applicators.
For more information on Lyme disease see:
- Lyme disease profile
- Lyme disease symptoms
- Lyme disease diagnosis
- Lyme disease prevention with antibiotics
- Lyme disease treatment
- [link urlhttp://infectiousdiseases.about.com/od/1birdflu/qt/Lyme_post.htm]Post Lyme disease syndrome definition[/link]
Chin, J. (2000.) Control of communicable diseases manual. Washington D.C.: American Public Health Association.
Centers for Disease Control. Division of Vector Borne Infectious Diseases. Lyme Disease. Learn About Lyme Disease.
Wormser, G. P. (2006). The clinical assessment, treatment, and prevention of Lyme disease, human granulocytic anaplasmosis, and babesiosis: clinical practice guidelines by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 43, Retrieved April 15, 2007.
Waldvogel, Michael, Apperson, Charles. North Carolina Entomology Extension. Insect Notes
Centers for Disease Control. National Ag Safety Database, NASD, Protect Yourself from Ticks and Lyme Disease.
Lyme Disease Association of Southern Pennsylvania. Protecting Yourself. Preventing Lyme Disease.