Personal

Personal protection measures should be considered, including wearing light-colored clothing, tucking pant legs into socks, judicious use of personal and/or clothing repellents, frequent self-examinations, and the prompt removal of attached ticks. Wearing light-colored clothing simply makes it easier to see ticks. Tucking pant legs into socks and shirttails into pants forces ticks to crawl on the outside of clothing where they can be more easily seen and removed. Duct tape or lint rollers can be quite useful in removing ticks from clothing.

Appropriate dress can be augmented by the proper use of repellents. Read product labeling carefully before use. Personal repellents, particularly those containing the active ingredient DEET, may be applied to skin or clothing. Permethrin-based repellents have proven very effective, but should only be applied to clothing. A single treatment with permethrin-based repellent will remain effective for many days. Individuals who have frequent occupational or recreational exposure to ticks should consider wearing a dedicated pair of permethrin-treated coveralls or similar clothing each time they enter tick habitat.

After leaving tick habitat or certainly at the end of every day, individuals should examine themselves for ticks and properly remove them. Recent studies have shown that blacklegged ticks must be attached and feeding for at least 24 hours before Lyme disease spirochetes can be transmitted, and the risk of transmission increases proportionally over time. However, since other tickborne pathogens may be transmitted earlier in the feeding process, more
frequent inspections are recommended.