Wear long sleeves light in color cloths and sneakers type of shoes
Wear bug repellent
Check your skin for ticks once back home
If you go and hang out in the woods you may encounter a bunch of diverse creatures beside humans. Especially bugs and plants. Some bugs, such as mosquitoes, may want to bite you if they get a chance. Mosquitoes love especially one’s feet. Some plants, such as poison ivy, contain some skin-irritant substances.
Some seeds are really good at sticking at you so that you can carry them elsewhere and .
So guess what, the ideal clothing to limit the risks of getting bitten or being in contact with bad substances is to wear:
Ample long sleeves light in color cloths and sneakers and hiking shoes.
Light in colors cloths are good because you can spot crawling ticks way more easily than if you wear a dark pants. You’ll also spy mosquitoes better.
You just saw a tick crawling on your cloth, now what?
Ticks like to crawl upward until they find a nice moist spot where they can start to feed. You may feel them crawling, but not biting since they put some anesthetic substance when biting because they don’t want to be removed. Mosquitoes do the same thing. But the anesthesia doesn’t last very long and you’ll usually feel them in the next 6 hours.
If you see them crawling, it’s really not a big deal, you can take it off by hand, and kill it by crushing it between 2 stones. You may not be able to just crush them between your finger and nail because they are very flat and sturdy so put it on a flat surface a go ahead with a nice rock.
If the tick is already attached to you
No worries, you’ll have to remove it vertically with a small clamp. After removal I like to put some anti-bacterial cream on the bite.
According to the CDC if you remove a tick within 36 hours of biting, chances of getting sick are very low.
So when you come back from the woods, it’s a good practice to check yourself and have somebody check your blind spots (neck and behind the ears).
Can they go in your hair?
It can happen but it’s rare. They prefer to stay right at the border between the hair and the neck.
To learn more, you can check out my video on ticks and poison ivy.
I write this article because going in the woods makes us so much good and is such a joy.
Fear should not overcome our desire to hang out there.
Being exposed to ticks and eventually Lyme disease can be very scary to some of us.
Wearing the right outfit is a first step to limit the risk.
What about repellent?
Wearing repellent is also a really good step to also limit the risk. There are a bunch of repellents out there.
Be aware that repellent combined with sunscreen maybe less efficient than a repellent only product.
What I like with long sleeves cloth is that I can apply repellent on my cloth instead of on my skin.
Stick with sneakers
Beside the fact that exposed feet are a treat for mosquitoes and a good landing area for ticks, there will be rocks and tree roots exposed along the trails. They can be a tripping hazard and you are definitely better protected with full foot covering shoes.