Prevent Tick Bites in Summer 2023!
Summer is the best time of year to go hiking outdoors, have a cook-out in the park, and hit the trails for your run. But while soaking up the great outdoors will get you moving and boost your mood, it still comes with its fair share of risks—like sunburns, heat stroke, and too many common house bugs to count. One of the most concerning bugs you may encounter while enjoying the outdoors is the tick. With tick season upon us, it is important to take precautions to protect yourself from tick bites this year.
Ticks are small, spider-like insects that feed on the blood of mammals, birds, and reptiles. They are found all over the United States, but are most common in wooded, brushy, and grassy areas. According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the number of tick-borne disease cases from disease causing tick bites in the U.S. has more than doubled in the last 13 years! Ticks have a complex life cycle that includes three stages: the larval stage, the nymphal stage, and the adult stage. The larvae are tiny and have six legs, while the nymphs and adults have eight legs. The larvae and nymphs are most active in the spring and summer, while adult ticks are most active in the fall. Larva are not born infected and ticks only become infected after feeding on an infected host.
The best way to prevent tick bites is to avoid tick-infested areas. If you love to go hiking, trail running, biking, camping, spend lots of time in your garden, or take your dog on a daily walk through the park, there’s a good chance you could be exposed to ticks. Be wary of wood piles, leaf litter, rock walls, and beach grass, too - these are tick minefields. If you do find yourself in tick-infested areas, it is important to take extra precautions to protect yourself from tick bites.
One of the most effective ways to prevent tick bites is to use a tick repellent. Many people are concerned with putting synthetic chemicals on their skin and also want a repellent that they are comfortable using on their children and toddlers and so prefer to use a natural tick repellent instead. Nantucket Spider Extra Strength Tick Repellent is the best-selling natural solution for repelling ticks! It is water-based, non-greasy, made from effective ingredients - organic essential oils and natural vanillin to slow evaporation. It is topped with a fine mist sprayer for ease of application and it can be applied to socks, shoes, hair and clothing as well as to skin. It is the best value for a high-end natural product. It is safe to use on adults and is the best tick repellent for children. Not only is it effective in repelling ticks, but it is also easy to use and has a pleasant scent. It is also been independently tested and proven to be effective at repelling 92% of Deer ticks. (To help protect your dog, use Nantucket Spider Repellent for Dogs).
Applying tick repellent properly will go a long way to helping to prevent tick bites. It is most important to apply repellent to legs, socks and shoes. While adult ticks can be found in waist-high brush, larva and nymphs are nearly always found on the ground and in low brush. They typically attach to the legs and feet of hosts and crawl upwards until they find a warm, moist place to hide, which is why ticks are often found in armpits, on backs or in hair and behind ears – Ticks cannot jump and do not normally fall from trees or land on heads and shoulders and spraying the upper body with a repellent will do little to prevent tick bites.
After spending time out of doors, it is important to do a full tick check for any ticks that may have attached during the time outdoors. A warm shower will help rinse off any ticks that have not yet attached and putting your clothing in a dryer on low heat for 20 minutes will dehydrate and kill any ticks on your clothing. Remember that ticks can come inside on pets fur so it is a good idea to keep pets off household furniture and beds so you don’t get a tick from your dog or cat.
Don’t forget to pick up a fresh bottle of Nantucket Spider Extra Strength Tick repellent to help launch you on an outdoor and adventure-filled season!
Note on Regulation of Natural Tick Repellents by the Environmental Protection Agency
The Environmental Protection Agency exempts natural tick repellents, such as Nantucket Spider’s Extra Strength Tick Repellent from federal registration. These natural repellents are considered by the EPA to be “minimum risk” unlike synthetic repellents including DEET, IR3535, Picaridin, Oil of lemon eucalyptus, Para-menthane-diol, and 2-undecanone. One of the conditions of regulation as a Minimum risk Pesticide is that, although, as in the case of Nantucket Spider’s Extra Strength tick repellent, a repellent may have been tested in a lab for efficacy and for its ability to repel ticks and prevent tick bites, minimum risk pesticides may make no claims of disease prevention, including tick borne diseases such as Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, alpha-gal allergy, anaplasmosis, ehrlichiosis, babesiosis or red meat allergy. Accordingly, please note that Nantucket Spider makes no claims of disease prevention or treatment.