How to Avoid Ticks While Backpacking and Camping

How to Avoid Ticks While Backpacking and Camping

Ticks are pretty much everywhere. They hide out in tall grass, bushes, brush, and forests. You might even find them in your garden, backyard, or climbing around on your fences or exterior walls. These nasty little critters are all over, just waiting for someone to brush past them so they can cling on and snag a meal. When you’re in the woods, ticks are everywhere. So how can you avoid ticks while backpacking and camping?

You can typically avoid ticks by staying away from wooded areas or dense vegetation. However, when you are backpacking you’re in the depths of their favorite hiding places.  Below we’ll go over how to limit your vulnerability to ticks and what to do if you get in contact with one.

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How to Repell Ticks While Backpacking

Permethrin

There is an insecticide called permethrin that can be applied to clothing and gear to repel ticks. The spray is applied to clothing, backpacks, tents, and even boots to keep ticks and other insects off.

You can either buy pre-treated gear or purchase a spray and do it yourself. Factory treated clothing will be more effective for longer. Some brands boasting up to 70 washes of protection. Doing it yourself may last only a few weeks, but you can always re-treat your gear before each trip.

Here is a link to our choice for permethrin spray.

If you choose the DIY route, be sure to pay extra attention to the bottom of your pant legs, your socks, and the edges of your clothing where ticks like to sneak in. Even if it’s warm, be sure to bring along a pair of pants to protect your legs if the ticks are bad.

Insect Repellant

Bug spray is a long-trusted tool for protecting outdoor-lovers from all types of annoying insects. You should always have a can or bottle for trips…it can be painful to be caught without it.

Before your trip, make sure you have a can of dependable insect repellant. Find ones that contain DEET, picaridin, IR3535, or PMD, all of which are ingredients recommended by the CDC and approved by the EPA.  Brands such as OFF! Deep Woods or Repel Sportsmen Max are good choices to consider.

Even if you treated your clothing with Permethrin, use a bug spray for your skin. This will protect the areas of your body not covered in clothing.

How To Avoid Ticks While Backpacking and Camping

Though it is hard to avoid ticks completely when you are backpacking or camping, you can limit your exposure. Try to walk in the center of the trail where you are less likely to brush up against grass, branches and shrubs.

At your campsite, try to stay in a relatively clear area with minimal vegetation. A flat area that is mainly dirt or rock is better than a site with a lot of long grass and trees in it. Use camp chairs or hammocks rather than sitting on stumps, which may be crawling with ticks.

It can be difficult to follow these recommendations at the end of a backpacking day when you are tired and just want to relax at your campsite. That is certainly understandable. If that is the case, just make sure to check yourself for ticks before going to bed.

Checking For Ticks

At the end of each day, be sure to thoroughly check yourself, your buddies, and your dog for ticks. Take your time when doing so, because they can be really small – as small as a pinhead.

Check over your skin for elevated dark brown or black spots, paying extra attention to joint or crease areas of the body such as armpits. Ticks like to crawl up into these warm, dark places so you often find them hiding out here. Run your hands through your hair and feel around your scalp for any small lumps. Your hair – and your pet’s hair – are a great place for them to hide, so take extra care in checking here.

Sweet Spots for Ticks:

• Armpits
• Around the Ears
• Back of Knees
• Groin and Upper Thigh
• In the Hair

Do these checks before going to bed each night and try not to venture into any vegetation afterward. You want to be sure you catch them before you go to sleep at night so they don’t have hours of opportunity to latch on to you.

Brush off your clothing and gear as well. Ticks might be hanging on to your hat, backpack, or boots, just waiting to crawl onto you when they get the chance. If your clothing or backpack is black or brown, it’ll be more challenging to spot them.

Removing Ticks

So you found a tick on you. Now what?

Even if you follow all our tips on how to avoid ticks while backpacking and camping to a T, it’s possible you will still find one of these suckers on you.

If it is simply crawling on you and is not yet attached, you can pluck it off your skin and kill it. See the following section for how to make sure that tick gets what’s coming for it.

When you find a tick that has already latched on, you need to be more careful. Use a pair of tweezers or a tick tool like this tick remover. Be sure to have one of these in your first aid kit.

Don’t try to remove it with your fingers. You’ll have a hard time grasping the head of the tick without squeezing the body if you use your fingers. Squeezing the body can cause the tick to spit up the nasty and dangerous bacteria it could be carrying. If you don’t have any of these tools handy, you can use dental floss like a lasso to grasp the head. 

1. Grasp the tick as close to the head as possible.
2. Pull upward using a slow and steady motion. Be sure not to twist or jerk the body when doing so.
3. Kill that dang thing.
4. Inspect the area for any mouthparts or head pieces that may be stuck in your skin. If there is any left, try to remove those as well.
5. Clean the area and monitor it for signs of infection or disease. ₁

Killing Ticks

There are a variety of ways to kill a tick, from heat to drowning.

While I typically err to the side of letting things that I see in the woods live, ticks are an exception. Any tick you come in contact with, you should try and kill it. They carry harmful diseases and if you let them roam anywhere near you, you are putting yourself and your friends at risk of getting ill.

Drowning Ticks

If you have rubbing alcohol in your first aid kit, you can drown the tick in it. Find some sort of surface that can hold some fluid and cover the insect completely with the alcohol. This will quickly kill the tick, but let it sit for a little bit.

Burning Ticks

If you’re near a bonfire or have a lighter handy, you can send a tick to it’s death with fire. This is a convenient and safe way to dispose of a tick. Unlike smashing it, you are not exposing yourself to any pathogens it is carrying when you burn it.

Suffocating Ticks

If you don’t have rubbing alcohol or fire, you can kill a tick by suffocating it. Put it in an airtight container and let it sit for a while, until it’s no longer moving. This isn’t an ideal method for backpacking because it is likely you won’t have a spare, air-tight jar with you on your trip. It is also unappealing to carry around a jar of half-dead ticks in your backpack. But if all else fails, it is an option.

Avoid Smashing Ticks

Do not use your hands or fingernails to crush a tick. If it is carrying pathogens, you will get them on your skin and potentially expose yourself to diseases. If you absolutely must crush it, use a rock and do it slowly, washing your hands thoroughly afterward.

After your trip, be sure to wash your clothes and sleeping bag in hot water to kill any ticks that are hiding away in your clothes. Cold or warm water is not going to do the job, it needs to be hot for them to die. If you don’t want to use hot water, you could also tumble dry on high heat for 10 minutes. Either way, the heat will make sure ticks are no longer hitching a ride. This is a key step in our unpacking checklist!

Signs of Tick-Borne Illness

If you get bit by a tick, it is important that you continuously evaluate your health and the wound for the coming days and weeks. If you notice a fever, chills, aches and pains in the weeks following your bite, speak with your doctor. These are common symptoms of tick-borne illness, though they may vary in severity and time of onset.

One of the most tell-tale signs of an illness such as Lyme Disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Southern Tick-Associated Rash Illness, and others are the rashes they may cause. These rashes often are circular and round, sometimes looking like a bulls-eye₂. If you notice any rashes such as these, see your doctor as soon as you can.

Some people are fortunate enough to have no long term side effects of the disease. Unfortunately, other people do experience lasting problems long after treatment. Things like aches, fatigue, heart issues, and cognitive impairment are all potential lasting symptoms of severe cases of Lyme disease₃. So it is important to take ticks seriously.

Conclusion

It can be hard to avoid ticks when you’re backpacking or camping. They’re everywhere, and though they don’t fly, they somehow manage find their way onto your body no matter how careful you are. Protecting yourself against them and knowing how to handle them can help you avoid the harm they may inflict. Keep these tips in mind on your next backpacking trip.

_{Cover photo by Erik Karits on Unsplash; In article photo by Erik Karits on Unsplash}