You can have anything you want in life if you dress for it. —Edith Head
I don’t know about you, but what I want in life is to go outdoors and enjoy beautiful weather without contracting a life-changing illness. And, thank goodness, it IS possible.
In the long list of items you can do to protect yourself from ticks, dressing the part is usually high up on the list. It’s also one of the first ones to be ignored. “It’s too hot for long pants” is a common theme.
People are notoriously bad at discerning how dangerous a situation really is. “I’m going to die of heat stroke” will always trump “I’m going to get babesiosis” because feeling hot is more immediate than the possibility of getting sick a few weeks from now. Now, if you felt ticks crawling up you, you might feel a more immediate need to keep those critters off your skin. But ticks are notoriously sneaky with their small bodies, stealth method of walking on their toes, and ability to inject pain killers and antihistamines.
So rather than just tell you to wear close toed shoes, long pants tucked into socks, and a long-sleeved shirt tucked into pants, let’s explore the goal of the recommendation.
First things first, ticks typically hunt by questing, holding onto vegetation with their back legs and their front legs out front waiting for a host to pass by so they grab on. Once on the host, the tick travels up, looking for a dark, moist area to embed and feed for up to seven days.
When we are out and about, most ticks are going to grab onto us at feet, ankle, or shin height and crawl up. On a bare or sandal-clad foot, the tick might decide between the toes is the perfect dark, moist spot. Or it might keep going. If we are wearing socks, the tick might stop at the top of the sock. Or not. If we are wearing loose pants, capris, or shorts, there is nothing that will stop the tick from crawling under the fabric and maybe stopping behind the knee, or at the underwear line, or it might keep going. Long pants tucked into socks exclude ticks from reaching skin. From the waist down is a good portion of your body’s real estate. And includes some of the more complicated areas of the body, needing a more focused approach to your tick check.
If your shirt isn’t tucked in, the tick now has access to your belly and can choose to stay at the waist line, check out the belly button, end up under breasts (Women, your bra strap is an important area to incorporate into your daily tick check) or underarm area, or head higher to the hairline or ears. Or it might stop anywhere any between.
So wearing clothing that exclude ticks from reaching skin from your toes to your neck is the goal. Really light knit fabrics will work. They make mosquito netting clothes you can wear over shorts and a t-shirt. What ideas can you come up with?
Want more information? Check out this video – Don’t give ticks a chance. Tuck in your shirt and pants!
And, just saying, if you are really in danger of heat stroke, you shouldn’t be outside anyway.
For more tips on protecting yourself from ticks, visit the Don’t Get Ticked NY webpage.
