Key strategies for preventing tick bites are divided into three levels: personal protection, environmental management, and pet protection.

Personal protection: When engaging in outdoor activities (especially when entering areas with tall grass, shrubs, and woods), wear long sleeves and long pants and tuck pant legs into socks — creating a physical barrier to prevent ticks from reaching the skin.

Wear light-colored clothing to make it easier to spot crawling ticks.

Apply an EPA-approved repellent containing DEET (20–30% concentration) or Picaridin on exposed skin.

Use a permethrin-based treatment spray on clothing and gear — permethrin has a potent contact-killing effect on ticks and can remain effective on clothing through several wash cycles.

Perform a full-body tick check immediately after outdoor activities — focus on: scalp and hair, behind the ears, armpits, waist, belly button, groin, and behind the knees.

Ticks prefer warm, moist skin folds.

Shower within 2 hours of returning home — this can wash off any unattached ticks.

Place outdoor clothes in a dryer on high heat for 10–20 minutes — the heat kills any ticks on the clothing.

Environmental management: Keep lawns mowed short (below 8 cm), remove leaf litter and brush/weeds, and create a wood chip or gravel barrier (at least 90 cm wide) between lawns and wooded areas to reduce tick migration into activity areas.

Pet protection: Administer a veterinarian-recommended tick preventive to dogs and cats monthly.