Fight the Bite: Hiking Safely in the Woods

- Ticks and mosquitoes are two important vectors of disease-causing pathogens in Pennsylvania, and chances are you've come across both while out hiking.

To prevent tick and mosquito bites, you can take measures to protect yourself, your family, and your pets.

First, you can provide a physical barrier between you and the tick or mosquito in the form of clothing.

You should choose light colored long pants and shirts with long sleeves to prevent direct contact with a tick or mosquito when hiking.

Sports clothing or outdoor specific clothing is especially useful in the warmer months.

You can also tuck your pants into your socks and your shirt into your pants to prevent ticks from crawling underneath your clothes.

Clothing treated with permethrin has been shown to be highly effective at preventing tick and mosquito bites.

Treated clothes can be purchased or you can treat them yourself.

You can use the Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, registered repellents with active ingredients such as DEET, picaridin, IR3535, or oil of lemon eucalyptus to prevent ticks and mosquitoes from finding or biting you.

Keep the lasting power of the repellent in mind.

This will affect how often you need to reapply your repellent while hiking.

The EPA has a tool that can be used to find the repellent that fits you and your lifestyle.

Another way to avoid ticks and mosquitoes while hiking is to put distance between you and the potential tick or mosquito habitats.

The best way to avoid tick habitats is to stay close to the center of the hiking trail where ticks are less likely to be.

Going further away from the center of the trail will increase your chances of tick encounter by over 200%.

Avoid tall grass and uncleared areas of the forest floor.

Keeping your pets on a leash will also reduce their risk of encountering ticks.

You can avoid mosquitoes by staying away from standing water with decomposing organic material, like swamps.

Avoid hiking between dusk and dawn since this is when mosquitoes tend to be the most active.

Once you're done with your hike, you can take further precautions to prevent tick bites.

When you get home, take a shower, and put your hiking clothes into the dryer for 10 to 15 minutes on high heat.

This will dry out and kill ticks.

A tick check is a great way to spot ticks on your body.

Inspect warm and protected areas around your body where ticks are likely to be found, including your hairline and hair, behind your ears and neck, armpits, belly button, or waist, between your legs, behind your knees, and between your toes.

A great time to conduct a tick check is during a shower.

You can get a tick shower hanger from Penn State Extension to remind yourself to conduct a tick check while in the shower.

For pets that go on hikes with you, broad spectrum treatments can be used to prevent ticks and mosquitoes from biting your pet.

To prevent heartworm, which is transmitted by mosquitoes, use a heartworm preventative.

Consult your veterinarian for the most appropriate treatments for your pet, and remember to follow all label instructions when applying products or medications.

Regular tick checks on your pets are also important to prevent tick bites.

High risk areas include behind the neck, under the collar, inside the ears, near the eyelids, under the front and back legs, between the toes, the groin, and around the tail.

Don't let ticks and mosquitoes prevent you from exploring outdoors.

With a little prevention and knowledge, you can still enjoy the beauty nature has to offer.