If you have ever suffered a tick bite, then you must be aware of how painful and irritating these bites can be. Ticks are small parasites that commonly attack furry pets such as dogs and cats. Despites ticks are mostly attacking pets, they also bite humans and can cause injurious harm to them. The worst thing about these blood-sucking parasites is that they spread diseases rapidly from pets to humans. Tick bites are known to cause Lyme disease; a condition that affects children and adults alike. Since tick bites have become prevalent in the recent past, it is advisable to prevent tick bites rather than cure them. Here are a few preventive measures to take against these parasites:
Conduct Daily Tick Checks
The best and easiest way of preventing tick bites and consequently preventing tick-borne diseases is undertaking daily tick checks on all your family members including pets. Ticks are mostly commonly beginning the end of spring all through to summer. Due to this, you should pay close attention to your pets including their housing facilities to ensure that they are tick-free. Ticks take about 24 hours to transmit Lyme disease and other diseases. Therefore, by checking ticks daily, it becomes easy to prevent any possible transmission of tick-borne diseases.
Treat Your Pets
Pets if not properly taken care of and treated can bring these parasites into the home. As such, you should treat your pets using the recommended tick treatments to lower the likelihood of tick attack on your pets. You can consider treating the pets once in every month, but if the pets meet other pets often, you can treat them at least twice every monthly. Ideally, you should use a treatment schedule that does not give ticks any chance to attack your pets.
Treat Your Skin When Going for a Hiking
If you are into hiking in the woods, then it is necessary to treat your skin using tick repellants. These repellants help in keeping ticks away from you such that you do not suffer any bites while in the woods. It is worth noting that tick bites can occur within split seconds even without you noticing that you have been bitten. There are several commercial tick repellants that you can consider buying or even use natural repellants such as oils of citronella, geranium, clove, cedar, and rosemary.
Treat Your Clothes and Shoes
Ticks can also hide in clothes and shoes especially if the conditions in the shoes and clothes are perfect for their habitation. Due to this, you need to treat your clothes using pesticides such as permethrin. This is especially if you live in tick-prone areas where tick infestations and bites are common. The best thing about these pesticides is that they not only repel ticks but also kill them instantly upon contact. This, in turn, makes it possible to provide yourself with the best protection from tick bites.
To prevent tick infestation in your house, you should put a the 3-foot boundary between the woods and your yard. This ensures that the likelihood of the ticks gaining access to the house is greatly eliminated. With the right preventive measures against ticks, it is possible to guarantee complete prevention from probable tick bites.