Check your entire body within two hours of coming inside. Pay close attention to warm, hidden areas like the hairline, behind the ears, under the arms, around the waist, and behind the knees. Don’t skip this because it’s the #1 thing you can do to prevent tick-borne disease.
You've come back from a hike, a day at the lake, or even just an afternoon in the yard. You didn't feel anything bite you. That doesn't mean a tick isn't already attached. Tick bites are painless, so you won't know one is there unless you look.
Start with your clothing when you check for ticks. Before you walk through the house, check your clothes for crawling ticks. Light-colored clothing makes them easier to spot, and as a bonus, is less attractive to mosquitoes. Tossing your clothes in a dryer on high heat for 10 minutes will kill any ticks that hitched a ride, even if the clothes are dry. Washing alone won’t do it reliably because ticks can survive a wash cycle.
Then check your body. Use a mirror or ask someone to help with the areas you can't see easily. Ticks tend to seek out warm, concealed spots. The most commonly missed areas are the scalp and hairline, behind and inside the ears, the back of the neck, the armpits, along the waistband, the groin, and behind the knees.
On kids, check extra carefully around the hairline, ears, and along the sock line. Kids tend to move through low vegetation, which makes them more susceptible to tiny nymphal ticks, about the size of a poppy seed and the top vectors of Lyme disease.
If you find a tick, use fine-tipped tweezers to grasp it as close to the skin as possible and pull straight up with steady, even pressure. Resist the urge to twist or jerk, then clean the bite with soap and water and/or rubbing alcohol.
If you'd like to reduce the tick population on your Southwest Michigan property so there are fewer to check for in the first place, Mosquito Squad of Southwest Michigan can help. Mosquito Squad targets tick habitat with treatments that reduce populations by up to 90%, with technician visits every 21 days through the active season.
