5 Effective Steps to Prevent Lyme Disease While Outdoors

Summer’s here and that means longer days and better weather for outdoorsy play, and hiking is just one of the many activities that draws people out to enjoy all that nature has to offer. However, if one of your fears is that your dog or child will pick up a tick, you’re not alone — but you don’t have to let that stop you from enjoying the outdoors.

If you’ve been hiking as long as I have, you’ve most likely encountered a tick. I remember the first time my childhood dog came home from one of our hikes with a tick and my parents had to show me how to remove it. Luckily, I’ve learned tips on how to prevent ticks (and Lyme disease) since then!

Tick bites can carry extremely serious and lead to potentially deadly diseases like Lyme disease, which is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected ticks. The worst part is that ticks could be anywhere from your backyard to the backcountry. There are more than 200,000 cases per year in the United States and the disease is caused by the bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi. Typical symptoms include fever, headache, fatigue and a skin rash. Lyme disease can later potentially lead to arthritis and neurological or cardiac disorder.

So, how do you protect yourself from getting ticks? Here are five ways you can help prevent bringing a tick or two home from the trail.

Read the full article by Lexie Gritlefeld on Hike It Baby's website here.