Lyme + Hunter Safety
Hunting is an activity that puts you at a high risk of encountering ticks. We want to be sure you’re properly protected so that you can enjoy your time outdoors. Below, you will find several steps to take to be safe while enjoying what you love to do in the woods.
5 Ways to Protect Yourself When Hunting
Tick protection is very important when you’re heading out into the woods, and it’s equally as important when you bring your harvest back home. Ticks are spreading rapidly in Illinois. The picture on the left is a bag of ticks ILA’s executive director pulled off of her family’s harvest. Here are five ways to protect yourself.
1. Treat Clothing and Gear with Permethrin.
Treat all your hunting clothes, hat, socks, boots, and any gear you take with you with permethrin. Permethrin is not a repellant; it actually kills ticks. It causes a tick that comes in contact with treated clothes “hot feet,” and they will die. Once your gear is treated, it’s good for several washes. Be sure to treat the inside and outside of your garments.
*Use caution when spraying permethrin around cats. It can cause neurologically harmful symptoms to cats when wet.
** Spray treatment outside and hang to dry.
***Always read and follow product instructions.
Here is a great how-to video by Sawyer Products:
2. Pre-Treat a Bed Sheet With Permethrin.
A word of caution: When you bring your harvest back to your shed or garage to hang it, be aware that when the blood cools off, the ticks that are attached will drop and begin looking for a new host. Proper precautions need to be made.
Take an old bed sheet and pre-treat it with permethrin. Have this ready before harvest season even begins, you can use the same sheet year after year. When you bring a harvest back to hang, lay that pre-treated sheet under it just to be sure anything that drops off will die.
3. Run a Lint Roller Over Your Clothes.
After you come in from your hunt, use a masking tape lint roller over your clothes. Ticks can be tiny, and a masking tape lint roller helps to pick up those hard-to-see ones.
4. Place Your Clothes in the Dryer on High Heat.
Take your clothes straight to the dryer. Set your dryer to the hottest setting and run it for at least 20 minutes. Research shows that putting your clothing straight in the dryer will kill any ticks that you may have missed with the lint roller.
5. Take a Shower.
Shower immediately. Check everywhere. Every fold, crease, even between your toes. Use a mirror to check your backside if needed. Research from the Yale School of Public Health shows taking a shower alone can reduce your risk as much as 58%. Read the Yale article here.
If you do find a tick attached or begin having symptoms, please see our Tick information tab for further information. Most importantly, do not throw any ticks away! Tick Information