Los Ranchitos Improvement Association

Helpful Preventive Links from NextDoor: Ticks

TICKS: What You Need To Know*

Spring is the perfect time to enjoy outdoor activities such as hiking, camping, biking, or a picnic in the woods, however, it is also the time of year when ticks are abundant. District officials want to caution outdoor enthusiasts in Marin and Sonoma counties that the tiny juvenile ticks (called nymphs) are most active in the spring and early summer. Both nymphs and adult ticks can transmit the bacterium that causes Lyme disease, as well as other tick-borne diseases.

THE BEST DEFENSE AGAINST TICKS IS YOU. Personal protection measures taken before, during and after being outdoors can help to reduce your risk of tick bites and tick-borne diseases.

• Wear light-colored clothing with long sleeves and long pants when hiking, walking or working in areas where ticks may be present.

• Apply repellent containing DEET (at least 20% concentration) on exposed skin to repel ticks as well as mosquitoes.

• Tumble dry clothes in a dryer on high heat for 10 minutes to kill ticks after you come indoors.

• Showering after being in tick habitat helps to detect ticks. Continue to periodically check your body for several days after you have been in tick habitat

REMOVE TICKS CORRECTLY. It is extremely important to remove ticks correctly in order to reduce the likelihood of the transmission of a tick-borne disease. Removal techniques that cause trauma to a tick may increase your chances of becoming infected.

Do not squish, burn, smother or twist ticks. Ideally, use tweezers to grasp the head of the tick as close to the skin as possible, and pull straight out.

SEEK MEDICAL ATTENTION. Contact your physician if you become ill after a tick bite

For more information about ticks, specifically the western black-legged tick (vector of Lyme disease) visit http://msmosquito.com/Ixodes

Pictured above: Western black-legged tick | MSMVCD (Marin/Sonoma Mosquito & Vector Control)