A thorough tick check takes about five minutes and is your single most effective defense against Lyme disease and other tickborne infections. Infected ticks generally need to be attached for more than 24 hours before they can transmit the bacteria that cause Lyme disease, so finding and removing them quickly can prevent infection entirely. Here’s how to do it right, from the moment you come inside to monitoring the bite site days later.
Know What You’re Looking For
Adult ticks are roughly the size of an apple seed, which makes them visible but easy to mistake for a small mole or speck of dirt. Nymphs, the juvenile stage responsible for most Lyme disease transmission, are about the size of a poppy seed. At that scale, a quick glance won’t cut it. You need to run your fingers slowly over your skin and feel for tiny bumps, not just look for them.
An embedded tick won’t move when you touch it. It feels like a small, firm raised spot attached to the skin. Unengorged ticks are flat and dark brown or black. Once they’ve been feeding for several hours, they swell and take on a grayish or greenish tint.
Start With Your Clothing
Before you even walk inside, look over your clothes for crawling ticks. Brush off anything you see. Ticks can cling to fabric for hours and eventually find their way to skin, so don’t toss your outdoor clothes into the hamper and forget about them.
If your clothes are dry, put them in the dryer on high heat for at least six minutes. Research on blacklegged ticks found that six minutes on high heat killed all adults and nymphs on dry clothing. If your clothes are damp or sweaty, you’ll need longer: about 60 minutes on high heat or 90 minutes on low. Cold or warm water in the washing machine will not kill ticks, so if you need to wash first, use hot water, then follow with a high-heat dryer cycle.
Do a Full Body Check
Ticks seek out warm, hidden areas where skin folds or hair gives them cover. A systematic check means working through every one of these spots rather than just scanning your arms and legs. Use a hand-held or full-length mirror for areas you can’t see directly, or ask someone to check your back and scalp.
Focus on these areas:
- Head and hair. Run your fingers slowly across your entire scalp. Ticks can burrow under hair and stay hidden for days.
- In and around the ears. Check behind the ears and along the folds where the ear meets the head.
- Under the arms. The armpit is warm and moist, exactly the environment ticks prefer.
- Around the waist and belly button. Waistbands trap ticks against skin. Look inside and around the belly button, which is easy to skip.
- Groin and between the legs. One of the most common attachment sites for ticks that have been crawling upward from the legs.
- Back of the knees. The crease behind each knee is a frequent hiding spot.
- Between the toes. Ticks can attach in the spaces between toes or near the soles of the feet.
- Back. You can’t feel all of your own back, so use a mirror or have a partner check.
Showering within two hours of coming indoors has been shown to reduce the risk of Lyme disease. The water can wash off ticks that haven’t embedded yet, and the shower gives you a natural second opportunity to feel your skin carefully. It’s not a substitute for a deliberate check, but it adds an extra layer of protection.
How to Check Children
Kids who’ve been playing in grass, leaf litter, or wooded areas need the same full-body inspection, with extra attention to the scalp and hairline. Children are less likely to notice a tick on their own and more likely to have been sitting or rolling on the ground, which means ticks can end up in unexpected places. Check the same spots listed above, and part the hair in sections to look at the scalp directly. Bath time is an ideal opportunity for a thorough check.
How to Check Your Dog
Dogs pick up ticks readily and can carry them into your home, so check your pet after every outing in areas with tall grass or brush. Run your hands slowly over the dog’s entire body, feeling for small bumps. Ticks on dogs tend to hide in seven key areas:
- Head and ears. Look on the outer ear and deep inside the ear canal.
- Eyelids. Ticks near the eyelids often go unnoticed because they blend with the skin.
- Under the collar. Remove the collar and feel around the entire neck.
- Armpits. Check high up where the front legs meet the body.
- Groin. Another warm, moist area ticks favor.
- Between the toes. Spread each toe and check between the pads.
- Under the tail. The underside of the tail near the base is a common spot.
If You Find an Embedded Tick
Use clean, fine-tipped tweezers. Grasp the tick as close to the skin’s surface as possible. Pull straight upward with steady, even pressure. Don’t twist, jerk, or squeeze the tick’s body. If you don’t have fine-tipped tweezers, regular tweezers or even your fingers will work as long as you grip the tick right at the skin surface. After removal, clean the bite area with rubbing alcohol or soap and water.
Don’t bother with folk remedies like nail polish, petroleum jelly, or a hot match. These don’t work and can actually cause the tick to regurgitate into the wound, increasing infection risk. The goal is to get the tick out quickly and cleanly.
If part of the tick’s mouthparts break off and remain in the skin, try to remove them with tweezers. If you can’t get them out easily, leave them alone and let the skin heal. The mouthparts alone can’t transmit disease.
What to Watch For After a Bite
A small red bump at the bite site is normal and usually fades within a day or two, similar to a mosquito bite. This is just skin irritation, not a sign of infection.
The symptom to watch for is an expanding rash that appears 3 to 30 days after the bite, with an average onset of about seven days. This rash, called erythema migrans, develops in roughly 70 to 80 percent of people infected with Lyme disease. It expands gradually over days and can reach 12 inches or more across. It sometimes develops a target or bull’s-eye pattern, but not always. The rash may feel warm to the touch but is rarely itchy or painful, which means it’s easy to miss if it’s on your back or another area you don’t see daily.
Even without a rash, early Lyme disease can cause fever, chills, headache, fatigue, muscle and joint aches, and swollen lymph nodes in the first 3 to 30 days. Left untreated, later symptoms can include severe headaches, neck stiffness, joint pain and swelling (especially in the knees), facial drooping, heart palpitations, and nerve pain with numbness or tingling in the hands and feet. These later symptoms can appear days to months after the bite.
Preventing Ticks Before They Reach You
Checking for ticks after you’ve been outside is essential, but reducing your exposure in the first place makes the job easier. Treat boots, pants, and outdoor gear with products containing 0.5% permethrin, which remains effective through several washings. On exposed skin, use an EPA-registered repellent containing DEET, picaridin, IR3535, or oil of lemon eucalyptus (not for children under 3). If you’re also wearing sunscreen, apply sunscreen first and repellent second.
In your own yard, you can reduce tick habitat by removing leaf litter, mowing frequently, clearing tall grass and brush near the lawn’s edge, and placing a 3-foot-wide barrier of wood chips or gravel between your lawn and any wooded areas. Stack firewood in dry areas to discourage the rodents that carry ticks, and keep playground equipment and outdoor furniture away from the tree line.