Protect Yourself from Tick Bites

Friday, July 29, 2016

Be sure to protect yourself from tick bites while you spend time outdoors this summer. Bites from infected blacklegged ticks can lead to lyme disease, which can cause arthritis, neurological problems, numbness, and paralysis.

To prevent yourself from tick bites, you can:

  • Wear closed-toe shoes, long-sleeved shirts and pants.
  • Pull your socks over your pant legs to prevent ticks from crawling up.
  • Wear light colours to spot ticks easily.
  • Use insect repellent that contains DEET or Icaridin on clothing and skin.
  • Shower within 2 hours of being outdoors in order to remove ticks.
  • Check your body daily for ticks.
  • Dry your clothes for 60 minutes on high heat before washing them to kill any ticks that are hard to see.

You can refer to the Ontario Lyme Disease Map to know which areas in the province have an estimated risk of ticks.

News Archive