How to prevent tick bites
How to prevent tick bites
The guidance for avoiding tick bites is straightforward and centres around avoiding and identifying ticks. You can advise customers of the following:
- Avoid high risk areas such as long grass and stick to paths where possible. – This reduces the chance of encountering ticks.
- Wear protective clothing such as closed shoes, long-sleeved tops and trousers. They can improve the protection from the trousers by tucking them into their socks. – This reduces the chance of a tick reaching the skin.
- Wear light coloured clothing to make ticks easier to spot. Clothes should be shaken or brushed before entering homes to make sure no ticks are accidentally brought inside.
- Use insect repellents containing DEET on exposed skin. DEET is safe for adults and children above 2 months and can also be used during pregnancy and breast feeding. DEET should be applied after sunscreen, and it should be noted that DEET reduces the SPF of sunscreen so higher factors (30-50 SPF) should be used. (Malaria, prophylaxis | Treatment summaries | BNF | NICE) – This helps prevent ticks from crawling on skin.
- Check skin for ticks. On children care should be taken to check the head, scalp and neck especially. Pets should also be checked. – This ensures ticks can be removed before they bite or quickly soon after. Checking pets removes a source of ticks in the home as well as preventing tick-borne disease in pets.
You can signpost customers to information to help them identify what ticks look like and get further information. Some examples are below:
Lyme disease - NHS (guidance on prevention towards the bottom)