Tick Bite Prevention – Dressing the Part – Rubber Boot Myth

adult blacklegged tick female clinging to a short plant with its two front legs outstretched

When you see someone putting on his Big Boots, you can be pretty sure that an Adventure is going to happen. – A. A. Milne

Last week I wrote a blog post on Tick Bite Prevention – Dressing the Part discussing why we make the recommendations we do. Today I want to address one commonly touted strategy to keep ticks off people – the rubber boot. There are a couple of issues with this prevention technique, but there are workarounds.

still photo of video with a glass vial with black cap with 10 poppyseed sized ticks crawling in it
Click on the photo to see a video of ticks crawling in a glass vial.

Ticks can crawl up smooth surfaces with ease.

Tick legs are made for crawling and clinging. If they can climb up and down glass, they can certainly crawl up rubber boots. You can still wear them, of course, but tuck those pants into your socks so any ticks that crawl down the inside of the boot don’t end up on the inside of your pant leg. (Bonus: it makes it easier to put on your boots if your pants are tucked in.) For extra protection, apply tape to seal the top of the boot to your pants to keep ticks from crawling down in the first place.

Or check out how one of my tick collecting colleagues, Dr. Holly Tuten with the Illinois Natural History Survey Medical Entomology Program (and has the great Twitter handle @VectorCollector), uses tape. She applies double-sided carpet tape, so upward climbing ticks get stuck. Check out her video.

I imagine the tape is also great at collecting dirt, pollen, seeds, twigs, leaves, small dogs, whatever, so stock up. You’re going to need to change the double-sided tape often.

Post update: Dr. Tuten shared with me that she will “apply new tape over old tape until it’s thick enough to peel off as one ticky/sticky/dirty layered strip” which is much easier than trying to peel off a single layer.

Rubber boots cannot be treated with permethrin

photo of person wearing black rubber boots and dark gray pants with beige sock top covering the top of the boot and the pants up to the knee
A pair of socks with the feet cut off provide a homemade gaiter to seal off the boot. Treat the socks with permethrin to create a barrier between your lower legs and your nearest skin.

No waterproof material can be treated with permethrin and that includes Gore-tex footwear, fishing waders, waterproofed leather boots, rain coats and pants, and, of course, rubber boots. Permethrin formulated to adhere to cloth is unable to adhere to material designed to repel liquids.

The solution? Sacrifice a pair of large socks and cut off the feet to form a tube (or maybe you still have a pair of legwarmers hiding somewhere). A day or two before you need them, treat them with permethrin. Before putting on your boots, slide each sock over your pants up to your knee. When your boots are on, slide the bottom of the sock over the top of the boot. This will both seal the top of the boot, preventing ticks from crawling inside, and, if treated, provide a permethrin barrier between the boot and any exposed skin on your upper body.

To sum up, rubber boots themselves won’t keep ticks off you. But with a few modifications, you can wear your Big Boots and protect yourself from ticks on your next Adventure.

For more recommendations on preventing tick bites, visit www.DontGetTickedNY.org.