Pre-treated clothes can repel ticks

Experts at the University of Rhode Island say it’s shaping up to be a banner year for ticks, which transmit—among other diseases—Lyme disease.

What can we do to protect ourselves?

In the past, the focus has been on tick checks and making sure we take precautions in our yards. But this year, experts at URI are taking a different approach.

Adult-stage blacklegged or deer ticks are out now.  Their bite can pack a punch.

“One out of two of them are infected.  Later this month and throughout the summer, the little tiny poppy seed-size nymphs will be out, and about one out of five is infected with the Lyme disease agent. So, your odds aren’t very good you’re not going to be bitten by an infected tick at some point in any given summer,“ URI tick researcher Tom Mather said.

But Mather said the problem is that ticks have a painless bite.

Because they’re so small, we don’t always see them even when we’re looking for them. So, some of the research is focusing on an anti-tick vaccine.

“Maybe you would get signaled that as soon as the tick is biting you, you would start to itch shortly thereafter,“ Mather said.

Related Links:
Insect Shield Repellent
CDC: Stop Ticks
URI: Tick Encounter Resource Center

Until that happens, the experts at URI are pushing a tick repellent they hope you’ll love to wear. 

Permethrin is the secret weapon in the repellent, and some clothes even come pre-treated and remain effective through 70 washings.  Or you can treat the clothing and shoes yourself.

The push is to get people to wear it.

“The first place of contact is going be your feet. So, you can treat your shoes. You can treat your socks. It takes no more than about 20 seconds of exposure to a treated fabric for these ticks to drop off and then die,“ Mather said.

In a demonstration, a tick fell off a pair of treated slacks in seconds. In about an hour, it will be dead. All a tick needs to do is to come in to contact with permethrin and its minutes are numbered.

So, why the change in focus from tick checks to treated clothing?

“We’ve done focus groups with families and moms. Despite the fact that it’s out there, it’s the simplest and easiest and very effective public health strategy for protecting against tick-borne diseases—prompt removal of attached ticks—people don’t always do it as regularly as they might be exposed to ticks,“ Mather said.

Mather said he has no financial interest in Insect Shield, the company that sells clothing pre-treated with the tick repellent. He said he endorses it because he says it works.