• Wear light-colored clothing
• Wear long sleeves and long pants tucked into socks when going into wooded or grassy areas.
• Use insecticide containing DEET.
• Caution: Do not spray directly on young childrens skin. Spray on clothing
• Bathe or shower when you return home.
• Check youself and your children carefully every night.
• Put clothing including jackets and coats in clothes dryer for thirty minutes to kill ticks.
• Use sprays and dips containing permethrins and pyrethrins on dogs, cats and horses to kill deer ticks.
• Use prescription strength tick collars obtained from a veterinarian on your pet

If bitten by a tick:
1. Use fine-point tweezers to grasp the tick at the place of attachment, as close to the skin as possible.
2. Gently pull the tick straight out.
3. Place the tick in a small vial.
4. Have the tick identified/tested by a lab, your local health department or veterinarian.
5. Wash your hands, disinfect the tweezer, and the bite site.
6. Call your doctor to determine if treatment is warranted.

Caution: Children should be taught to seek adult help for tick removal.

• If you must remove the tick with your fingers, use a tissue to avoid contact with infected tick fluids.
• Do not prick, crush or burn the tick as it may release infected fluids.
• Do not try to smother the tick with petroleum jelly, nail polish etc., the tick has enough oxygen to complete feeding.

Now - please answer these last few questions so that we can see if we have made an educational contribution to our community! Thanks!!