Tick season has arrived within the South. The right way to keep away from bites and what to be careful for

It is tick season within the South, so you might need to be looking out.

Although folks can encounter ticks all year long, the tiny critters are extra lively from April to September. For instance, in North Carolina, tick bites grow to be extra seemingly beginning within the late spring, Wake County mentioned on its web site.

Well being specialists say it is essential to keep away from publicity to ticks as a result of they’ll carry ailments that pose critical dangers to people.

Listed here are suggestions for staying protected and warning indicators to look at for.

How are you going to keep away from bites?

Of the tick species that chew people, 4 are discovered all through the Southeast, together with in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. A fifth species lives alongside the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico, McClatchy Information reported.

“Ticks reside in grassy, brushy, or wooded areas, and even on animals,” the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention mentioned on its web site. “Spending time exterior strolling your canine, tenting, gardening, or looking might deliver you in shut contact with ticks.”

However if you wish to delight in warm-weather actions, listed here are steps the CDC and the N.C. Cooperative Extension say you may take to attempt staying out of hurt’s means:

• Stroll in the course of paths and keep away from areas with excessive grasses or heavy leaf cowl.
• Use merchandise which have permethrin in your garments. The U.S. Environmental Safety Company has an internet software that allows you to seek for repellents.
• Put on light-colored garments in layers and tuck your pants into your socks when attainable.
• Slide a white material over vegetation to examine for ticks earlier than selecting a tenting spot.

What in the event you’re uncovered?

Whenever you come house from a spot the place ticks might reside, specialists suggest having a shower. You additionally may need to study your physique and garments for the seed-sized creatures.

“Take away the connected tick as quickly as you discover it,” the CDC mentioned on its web site. “Grasp the tick with tweezers, as near the pores and skin as attainable, and pull it straight out.”

It is also really helpful to look at for indicators that one thing may very well be fallacious, together with rashes, fever and flu-like signs. Lyme illness, the commonest illness of its sort in the US, “isn’t life-threatening” however ready to get handled can result in extra critical penalties, in accordance with well being officers.

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