Lyme disease is a serious infection. It is spread by a bite from a deer tick.
Although not all ticks carry the disease, it is important to avoid ticks.
Keep ticks away...
• Mow your lawn often and remove brush from your property.
• Keep the ground under your bird feeder clean.
• Stack wood neatly and in dry areas.
• Keep playground toys, decks, and patios should be away from wooded areas.
Keep deer away...
• Do not feed deer on your property.
• Make a barrier to keep deer from going into your yard.
• Check with a garden center to learn which plants may help keep deer away. Keep ticks off...
• Stay out of wooded areas with high grass and leaf litter.
• Use insect repellent containing DEET or Permethrin when outdoors (follow product instructions).
• Wear long pants, long sleeves, and socks when outdoors. After coming indoors, bathe or shower and wash and dry clothes using high heat to kill any ticks that may be on your clothing.
• Do daily full-body tick checks after being outdoors. Young ticks can be smaller than a pencil point, so check your body thoroughly.
• Removing ticks from your skin within 24 hours will prevent Lyme disease.
Call your doctor if...
• A tick embedded in your skin is engorged with blood;
• A tick has been embedded in your skin for 2-3 days;
• You find more than one tick embedded in your skin; or
• A "bull's-eye" rash shows up at the site of a tick bite.
For more information: www.cdc.gov/lyme/ |
