Ticks

Sawyer’s permethrin goes on clothing, boots and gear, never skin. For skin, there is 20% picaridin as a Sawyer pump or an OFF! aerosol. Two pairs of fine-point tweezers grip an attached tick close to the skin, and Thermacell’s tick tubes and Ortho’s granular lawn product are for yards beside woods.

Preventing Bites

CDC states that tick exposure can occur year-round, but that ticks are most active during the warmer months of April to September. Its advice divides into what goes on clothing, what goes on skin, and what to do when you come back indoors.

On clothing: one concentration, named twice

The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station gives the concentration: “Products for consumer application to clothing contain 0.5% permethrin”, and explains the mechanism — permethrin “works primarily by killing ticks on contact with the treated clothes and can provide high levels of protection against ticks (and mosquitoes).” The same source notes that “Permethrin has low mammalian toxicity, is poorly absorbed through the skin, and is rapidly neutralized by the body. Skin reactions are uncommon.”

On skin: an ingredient list and a number to look for

The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station names the repellent active ingredients one by one. Of the commonest it states that “The primary active ingredient in most insect/tick repellents today is DEET (N,N-diethyl-3-methylbenzamide or N,Ndiethyl-m-toluamide)”, and it treats picaridin, IR3535 and oil of lemon eucalyptus as separate entries, noting of the last that it is “p-menthane-3,8diol” and that “This compound occurs naturally in the oil of the lemon eucalyptus plant and the synthesized oil is the sole active ingredient in some newer products.” (the spelling “N,Ndiethyl” and the closed-up “p-menthane-3,8diol” are the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station’s own and are not corrected here)

CDC states that a reader should use repellents registered with the Environmental Protection Agency, and that an EPA registration number on the label means the company provided the EPA with technical information on the product’s effectiveness. It attaches two conditions in its own guidance: to follow the product instructions, and not to use products containing oil of lemon eucalyptus or para-menthane-diol on children under three years old. (CDC’s pages could not be retrieved when this page was last checked, so what it says is reported here in our own words rather than quoted)

The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station adds a figure about DEET specifically, and it points the opposite way from most packaging. Having noted that DEET products “range in concentration from 4% to 100%” and that “Higher concentrations up can provide longer protection”, it states: “However, a concentration greater than 30% doesn’t provide extra protection.” That statement is about DEET. It is not extended here to picaridin or to any other ingredient, because the source did not extend it.

The same source is candid about what a repellent does and does not do: “DEET will repel ticks and decrease the chances of tick bite, but depending upon the concentration, it may not provide total protection and can vary between tick species.” It adds the placement advice that follows from how ticks climb: “When applying a repellent against ticks, particular attention should be given to the shoe tops, socks, and lower portion of pants.”

When you come back indoors

On the dryer, two sources give two different times and this page gives both rather than picking one. Cornell University Integrated Pest Management states that “you’re safest if you put your clothes in a clothes dryer and run on high heat for 20 minutes”, and gives the mechanism: “The tumbling action of the dryer and the high heat kill ticks and similar critters.” The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station puts it differently and longer: “Many ticks can survive a warm or hot water wash, but cannot withstand 1 hour in a hot dryer.” Twenty minutes and one hour are not the same instruction. Neither source is preferred here and neither figure is averaged with the other. CDC also publishes a figure for this step. It is not carried, because its pages could not be retrieved to check it.

• The Yale School of Public Health studied which precautions actually work in a domestic setting, tracking 716 people across 24 Connecticut towns, and found that “body checks within 36 hours of being outdoors and showers within two hours are particularly effective in terms of prevention”. It puts a figure on the shower: “People who bathed soon after spending time outside can reduce their risk by as much as 58 percent.” and on the check: “They found that people who routinely did body checks after being outdoors were up to 45 percent less likely to contract the disease.” (both figures are the Yale Emerging Infections Program’s own study result, not a figure Yale attributes to anyone else)
• Cornell University Integrated Pest Management on the check itself: “However, a detailed, daily tick check, or an examination of your whole body, can help you detect a tick that somehow got past other efforts.” It adds that “A daily tick check is your best defense against long-term tick attachment.”
• CDC also lists the places on the body worth checking — under the arms, in and around the ears, inside the belly button, behind the knees, in and around the hair, between the legs and around the waist. That list is reported here in our own words rather than quoted, because CDC’s pages could not be retrieved to check it.

The Yard

If the bites came from long grass but nothing was ever attached, the animal may not be a tick. Our chiggers page covers the other mite acquired the same way in the same vegetation, which leaves an intensely itchy welt and no embedded animal to remove. The yard work below reduces both.

There is one measured figure here that is worth more than any general advice. The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station reports: “On lawns, most deer ticks (82%) have been recovered within 9 feet of the lawn edge, especially areas adjacent to woods, stonewalls, or ornamental plantings.” The same source adds that “Fewer ticks are found in the sunny, manicured areas of the lawn,” and that ticks “may also be found in groundcover such as Pachysandra.”

That is why the sources concentrate the work on a border rather than on the whole lawn. CDC gives a specification for that border, a three-foot width of wood chips or gravel between lawn and woodland, and lists alongside it removing leaf litter, clearing tall grasses and brush at the edge of the lawn, mowing frequently, stacking wood neatly in a dry area to discourage rodents, keeping play equipment and patios away from yard edges and trees, and removing old furniture or trash that gives ticks somewhere to hide. (CDC’s pages could not be retrieved when this page was last checked, so its specification and its list are reported here in our own words rather than quoted)

The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station describes the same idea as building a border deliberately: “A dry wood chip, tree bark, mulch, or gravel barrier between woods and lawn can reduce tick migration into the lawn.” It adds that “The removal of leaf litter at the lawn perimeter also can help reduce the number of I. scapularis nymphs on the lawn,” and lists “Move play sets away from the woodland edge” among its landscape modifications. It also notes that “Wildflower meadows, herbal gardens, etc. have very few ticks and may be an acceptable alternative to grass in some areas.”

If One Is Already Attached

The procedure below is the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Tick Lab’s, in full and in its own words. It is reproduced complete rather than assembled, and nothing from any other publisher has been added to it or spliced into it. The two instructions that follow it come from a different source and are set out separately for that reason.

University of Maine Cooperative Extension on the timing: “If you find a tick on your body, your children, or your pets it is important to remove it immediately.”

1. “There are several tick removal devices on the market, but a plain set of fine-tipped tweezers will work.”
2. “Use the tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the skin’s surface as possible.”
3. “Pull upward with steady, even pressure.”
4. “Don’t twist or jerk the tick; this can cause the mouth-parts to break off and remain in the skin. If this happens, remove the mouth-parts with tweezers.”
5. “After removing the tick, thoroughly clean the bite area, your hands, and the tweezers with rubbing alcohol, an iodine scrub, or soap and water.”

On having a removed tick tested, Cornell University Integrated Pest Management sets out its position and says whose it is: “Though tick testing services are available from some organizations, we follow the CDC recommendation of not having the tick tested for disease diagnosis.” The reasons it prints are CDC’s, and Cornell introduces them as such, with the words “From the CDC website”: “Laboratories that conduct tick testing are not required to have the high standards of quality control used by clinical diagnostic laboratories.” “Positive results showing that the tick contains a disease-causing organism do not necessarily mean that you have been infected.” “Negative results can lead to false assurance.” “If you do become ill, you should not wait for tick testing results before beginning appropriate treatment.” Those four sentences are quoted directly from Cornell’s page. Cornell says they came from CDC, and that is stated here rather than hidden. This page does not cite CDC directly for them, because CDC’s pages could not be retrieved.

University of Maine Cooperative Extension gives the follow-up: “If you experience a rash, headaches, fever, or flu-like symptoms after a recent tick bite, see a physician right away.”

Which Tick, and What It Carries

CDC publishes range and transmitted pathogens species by species. It also publishes a caution that has to travel with the table, and this page states it first rather than last.

CDC states that a tick species being found in a region of the United States does not necessarily mean it transmits a particular disease there, because transmission is influenced by several factors beyond the tick simply being present. (CDC’s pages could not be retrieved when this page was last checked, so everything attributed to CDC below is reported in our own words rather than quoted)

Which stage bites matters as much as which species. CDC states that for the blacklegged tick the stages most likely to bite people are nymphs and adult females, and that although the greatest risk falls in spring, summer and autumn, adults may search for a host whenever winter temperatures rise above freezing. It describes the lone star tick as a very aggressive tick that bites humans; says that for the American dog tick adult females are the ones most likely to bite; and says that dogs are the primary host of the brown dog tick at every life stage, though it may also bite people and other mammals.

CDC also notes one bite reaction that is not an infection: it states that lone star tick saliva can be irritating, and that redness and discomfort at the bite site do not necessarily indicate an infection.

There is an eighth species CDC lists whose status is openly unresolved. Of the Asian longhorned tick, which it records as reported in the United States for the first time in 2017, CDC states that the tick appears to be less attracted to humans than native species, and that it is not yet known if or how often these ticks can pass pathogens to people and make them ill. It notes a laboratory finding that the tick can carry the bacteria causing Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and states immediately afterwards that those bacteria have not yet been found in these ticks in nature and that research is ongoing. This page leaves that unresolved because the source does.

How Ticks Find You

CDC describes the mechanism, and the first thing it rules out is the thing people assume: it states that ticks cannot fly or jump.

CDC states that ticks find their hosts by detecting breath and body odors, or by sensing body heat, moisture and vibration, that some species can even recognize a shadow, and that ticks choose where to wait by identifying well-used paths. They then wait on the tips of grasses and shrubs in a position CDC calls questing.

While questing, CDC states, a tick holds onto leaves and grass with its third and fourth pairs of legs and holds the first pair outstretched, ready to climb onto a host that brushes the spot where it is waiting.

Once attached, CDC states that ticks secrete small amounts of saliva with anesthetic properties so that the animal or person cannot feel that the tick has attached, and that many species also secrete a cement-like substance holding them firmly in place during the meal. That is why a tick check is a check rather than something you notice.

On the life cycle, University of Maine Cooperative Extension states that the blacklegged tick “is a three-host tick, meaning it utilizes a different host at each of its three active life stages (larva, nymph, and adult),” and that “It undergoes a two-year life cycle, beginning during the spring when an adult female lays several thousand eggs in the leaf litter.” It gives the seasonality as: “Adult blacklegged ticks are found from early spring to late fall with two peaks, one in April or May and another in late October. Nymph numbers peak in June and early July.”

Size is the reason the nymph matters. The same source states that “Deer tick nymphs are very small, about the size of a poppy seed” and that “Adult females are typically less than 1/8 inch in length.” The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station connects that to risk: “Most people acquire Lyme disease from the nymphal stage of the ‘deer’ tick, which is active during late spring and summer.” The stage that transmits most is the stage hardest to see.

On where they are, University of Maine Cooperative Extension states that blacklegged ticks “are commonly encountered in mixed forests and along the woodland edges of fields and suburban landscapes” — which is the same edge the nine-foot figure above describes.

The Diseases

CDC lists the tickborne diseases in the United States as: alpha-gal syndrome, anaplasmosis, babesiosis, Bourbon virus, Colorado tick fever, ehrlichiosis, hard tick relapsing fever, Heartland virus, Lyme disease, Powassan virus, Rickettsia parkeri rickettsiosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, soft tick relapsing fever, STARI, tularemia and 364D rickettsiosis.

CDC warns that many tickborne diseases have similar signs and symptoms, and names aches and pains among them — headache, fatigue and muscle aches, with joint pain also possible in Lyme disease. It states that Lyme disease, Southern tick-associated rash illness, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, ehrlichiosis and tularemia can each cause distinctive rashes.

The University of Wisconsin–Madison gives the symptom list a reader can act on, with a window and an instruction attached: “Watch for symptoms for 30 days and call your healthcare provider if you get any of the following symptoms after a tick bite: Rash Fever Fatigue Headache Muscle pain Joint swelling and pain”

On tick paralysis, CDC states that it is thought to be caused by a toxin in the saliva of an attached tick, and that patients typically regain movement within 24 hours of the tick being removed.

Alpha-gal syndrome is the one that surprises people, because it is an allergy rather than an infection. CDC describes it as a serious and potentially life-threatening allergy and tickborne disease, and explains that alpha-gal is a molecule, galactose-α-1,3-galactose, made naturally in the bodies of most mammals but not in people and also found in the saliva of some ticks. It states that a tick bite can transfer alpha-gal from that saliva into a person’s blood, and that symptoms follow when the person eats red meat or is exposed to other products made from mammals.

On which tick and how common, CDC associates the syndrome in the United States primarily with the bite of a lone star tick and less commonly with a blacklegged or western blacklegged tick. On numbers it is careful: it records more than 110,000 suspected cases identified between 2010 and 2022, states that the condition is not nationally notifiable to it, and says the true number is unknown though as many as 450,000 people may be affected.

On who develops it, the reassurance comes from a source this page can open. Cara Martone, a doctoral student in the Department of Infectious Disease and Global Health at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University, working with Professor Sam Telford III, answers it directly in a Tufts University question-and-answer piece: “Will everyone bitten by a lone star tick end up with AGS? No.” “Only some people who are bitten by lone star ticks develop antibodies against alpha-gal.” “And, a proportion of those people have detectable antibodies specific for alpha-gal without any symptoms, which is a very interesting piece of the puzzle.” (those are the researchers’ words in a Tufts interview, not an institutional fact sheet, and they are attributed to the speakers for that reason)

Treating the Yard

With that established: the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station states that “Acaricides (pesticides or insecticides that kill ticks) may be applied to lawns and woodland edges to kill ticks around the home”, that “Both liquid and granular formulations have been reported effective against I. scapularis,” and that “A sufficient spray volume and pressure for thorough coverage and penetration of the vegetation and leaf litter is needed. Wooded areas adjacent to the home should be treated for maximum effectiveness.”

On timing it is specific: “The optimum time for an application to control the nymphal deer ticks would be mid-May to early June. A single application of most acaricides is sufficient for the summer tick season.”

Of the ingredients it lists as labeled for residential tick control, the ones it marks as available to homeowners are permethrin — “Some are concentrates and some are ready to spray products, mainly for homeowners” — cyfluthrin, of which “Some homeowner formulations available”, and bifenthrin, which it lists as “A pyrethroid insecticide” without a restriction note.

One more caution from the same source, which cuts against a whole shelf of products marketed as gentler. Of the FIFRA 25(b) minimum-risk botanicals — “cedar oil, geraniol, rosemary oil, peppermint oil, garlic oil, and cinnamon oil” — it states they “do not require registration with the EPA and therefore do not have an EPA review of efficacy data or label claims,” and that “Tests of products with these ingredients are limited”. That is the counterweight to CDC’s advice to look for an EPA registration number: a product can legitimately have none, and that also means nobody reviewed its claims.

Examples, by Sourced Ingredient

These are examples of the ingredient classes the sources name, grouped by what each is for. They are in no order of preference and none is called better than another, because no source consulted for this page compares any two named products.

The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station states the position plainly on the same fact sheet that lists product names: “Mention of a pesticide product does not constitute an endorsement by the CT Agricultural Experiment Station”, alongside “Information is intended as a guide and products are subject to change” and “Always read and follow U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved labels on a product container.” This page adopts the same posture. What is selected below is selected against a sourced ingredient or specification — 0.5% permethrin for clothing, an EPA-registered repellent active, fine-tipped tweezers — not against a brand.

Clothing treatment, at the concentration both sources name

The repellents below are named because each listing states one of the active ingredients the sources on this page name, at a stated concentration.

Skin repellents carrying an EPA-registered active

Picaridin is one of the six actives CDC names. Both examples below state 20% picaridin on their own listings. The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station’s 30% ceiling figure quoted earlier is about DEET and is not applied to these.

Fine-tipped tweezers, which is what the procedure specifies

University of Maine Cooperative Extension is direct about this category: “There are several tick removal devices on the market, but a plain set of fine-tipped tweezers will work.” That is the tool its procedure uses, and both examples below are ordinary fine-point tweezers.

Tick tubes, with what the evidence actually says

Yard granules

Only one of the granule products checked names ticks in its own product title, and that is the one listed here. The block at the top of the previous section applies to it in full.

Seven products appear above and there is no eighth. Two absences are deliberate. No DEET product is listed, even though DEET is the first active CDC names, because no DEET listing was confirmed available when the products on this page were checked on 23 August 2026 — rather than substitute something else into that slot, the slot is left empty. And no pet product is listed: the sources consulted describe veterinary tick products for animals, and this page has no basis for recommending a consumer one.

CDC notes that many people get ticks in their own yard or neighborhood. (CDC’s pages could not be retrieved when this page was last checked, so what it says is reported here in our own words rather than quoted)

Where This Applies

Tick risk is not uniform across the country and this page does not imply that it is. CDC places the blacklegged tick widely across the eastern United States and the western blacklegged tick along the Pacific coast, particularly northern California. It places most reported alpha-gal cases in southern, eastern and central states, which are the areas where most lone star ticks are found, and brown dog tick Rocky Mountain spotted fever in the southwestern United States and along the border with Mexico. The Rocky Mountain wood tick it places at elevations between 4,000 and 10,500 feet.

One scope note belongs with the yard material above. The Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station fact sheet is written for Connecticut — it opens “In Connecticut, the two most common ticks are the blacklegged tick… and the American dog tick” — so its landscape figures are Northeast data and are attributed to it rather than presented as national.

A region-specific treatment of the Northeast, of the lone star and alpha-gal belt, or of the Pacific coast would each need its own page and its own sources. None has been written yet, and this page does not pretend to be one.

Questions

Sources

Every factual statement on this page traces to one of the eight publications below: five from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one from the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, one from University of Maine Cooperative Extension, and one from the National Pesticide Information Center, a cooperative of Oregon State University and the US Environmental Protection Agency. Where a source qualified its own statement the qualification is kept, and where a source left a question open it is left open here. The product names above were read from each product’s own listing on 23 August 2026 and are recorded rather than assessed; the listings read were B001ANQVYU, B002CMQJYU, B0G5VN3GB3, B0F9VQ7J1Q, B00BAYWOFY, B07D2GGYPF and B082LJK8K7. Each is reachable from its own card above, where the disclosure sits directly beside the link, and they are named here rather than linked again so that every link to a product on this page carries its disclosure. Framing and ordering are our own judgment and are not a finding of any source.