Tick Prevention, Precautions and Removal

The best way to avoid ticks is to avoid tick-infested areas 🙂 however, since a lot of us love the outdoors it would be best to educate ourselves on how to avoid and prevent coming in contact with them. Ticks are usually worse in spring and early summer so be sure to take precautions to protect yourself, your family and your pets.

Ticks that cause Lyme disease live in moist, humid and/or shaded environments, near wooded and overgrown grassy areas, so it is important when outdoors to avoid these areas as much as possible.

Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Stay in the middle of trails and when possible avoid tall grassy areas.

• Always wear long pants and long sleeve shirts.

• Always tuck your pants in so that you don’t have the little critters crawling up your leg.

• Wearing light colour clothing helps with easier spotting of ticks.

• When heading out in the woods ALWAYS spray insect repellant on skin and clothing especially in areas with openings such as ankles, wrists, neck and waist.

After being outdoors always check your clothing and body for ticks especially in the areas listed below:

• Under the arms

• In and around the ears

• Inside the belly button

• Back of the knees

• In and around all head and body hair

• Between the legs

• Around the waist

The Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation says insect repellent with up to 20% icaridin is safe and suggests purchasing the Woods Brand Icaridin Repellent from Canadian Tire.

When outdoors its also a good idea to carry a Tick Removal Kit in your First Aid Kit. You can order one directly from the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation website for 19.95 🙂

As there are numerous home made remedies on the internet and not always correct it is best to get your information from reliable source such as the. Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation website.

Here is a great video on tick removal from Dr. KATERYN ROCHON