The Best Tick Repellents of 2026

If you’ve spent more than half a minute in the woods in warmer weather, you are well aware that ticks suck. These multi-legged parasitic arachnids literally suck the blood of their chosen hosts, leaving behind itchy bites and sometimes dangerous diseases such as Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, anaplasmosis, and alpha-gal syndrome (AGS), which can trigger an allergy to red meat. Ticks also figuratively suck because they’re just plain gross.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, avoiding wooded and bushy areas is the best way to prevent tick bites. Unfortunately, this isn’t feasible for sportsmen and women since those areas are the exact places game animals call home. If you want to avoid creepy-crawly ticks and still enjoy the great outdoors, you’ll need to use an effective tick repellent.

Continue reading to learn more about the best tick repellents, written by Alice Jones Webb.