Lyme Awareness Month: Practical Tick Prevention for an Unusually Active Season

Contributor: Justin Bennett
justin@healthyfit.info

This May, the CDC is reporting that weekly ER visits for tick bites are the highest they've been for this time of year since 2017, across most U.S. regions. For Lyme Awareness Month, that's a prompt to get specific. Not a reason to panic, but a solid reason to check that your prevention habits are actually dialed in before the season peaks.

Why This Season Is Running Hot

The CDC estimates that around 476,000 Americans receive treatment for Lyme disease each year. That baseline number is large on its own. What makes spring 2026 notable is that tick bite ER visits are tracking at April rates not seen in nearly a decade, with tick activity already running well ahead of the prior year.

Tick season peaks April through September. The busiest exposure window lines up almost perfectly with hiking, yard work, sports, camping — the outdoor activities most people are just starting to ramp up. None of this calls for staying inside. It does call for being intentional about what you do before, during, and after time outdoors.

The Colorado Nuance: Honest, Not Alarming

Colorado residents get a genuine piece of good news: the blacklegged tick, which is the primary vector for Lyme disease in the eastern and upper-Midwest U.S., does not currently inhabit Colorado. Colorado State University Extension confirms that there has never been a confirmed case of Lyme disease acquired from a tick bite in the state. The seven Coloradans diagnosed with Lyme between 2007 and 2017 all contracted it from out-of-state exposure.

That protection is real, and it's specific to one disease.

Colorado already has tick-borne illness worth taking seriously. The Rocky Mountain wood tick, which CSU identifies as the most common tick to bite humans and dogs in the state, is a vector for Colorado tick fever (roughly 200 reported cases annually, likely undercounted), Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and tularemia. UCHealth notes that around 30 tick species are active in Colorado at elevations up to 10,000 feet.

The range picture is also shifting. A study by CSU researchers, funded by the Bay Area Lyme Foundation, found that American dog tick populations have expanded into 16 Colorado counties where the CDC had no prior documentation, and Rocky Mountain wood ticks are now documented in 38 of 64 counties, five more than previously recorded. Neither species carries Lyme, but both carry diseases worth avoiding.

Two things worth sitting with: Colorado's protection from Lyme is genuine. And if you travel to New England, the mid-Atlantic, or the Great Lakes region, you're stepping into endemic territory. Tick awareness travels with you.

Personal Prevention When You're Outside

Layering your protection gives you the best coverage: repellent on skin, treatment on clothing, and a thorough check afterward.

Repellents that are actually effective:

The CDC recommends EPA-registered repellents containing any of these active ingredients:

• DEET

• Picaridin

• IR3535

• Oil of lemon eucalyptus (OLE) or para-menthane-diol (PMD)

• 2-undecanone

These vary in feel and duration. Picaridin tends to be less irritating to skin and odorless; OLE and PMD are plant-derived. Any of them applied to exposed skin gives you meaningful protection. Apply before you go out, not when you're already in the brush.

On your clothing:

Treat outer layers — socks, pants legs, shirt cuffs — with 0.5% permethrin. Permethrin works differently from repellents: it kills ticks on contact and stays effective through multiple wash cycles. You can buy pre-treated clothing if you'd rather not apply it yourself. Light-colored clothing is worth the small aesthetic sacrifice; it makes ticks visible before they find skin.

After you're back inside, the three steps that matter:

1. Tumble dry clothes on high heat for at least 10 minutes before washing. Heat kills ticks that the wash cycle may miss.

2. Shower within two hours. This measurably reduces your risk of Lyme transmission by washing off unattached ticks.

3. Do a full-body check. Pay close attention to underarms, behind the knees, the groin area, the hairline, behind the ears, and the belly button. Use a mirror for hard-to-see spots or ask someone to check your back and scalp.

Ticks typically need 36–48 hours of attachment to transmit Lyme. Finding and removing them quickly is your most effective line of defense.

Worth noticing: two of those three steps depend on home appliances most people don't think about until they fail. The hot-heat dryer cycle and the hot shower are both quietly part of your tick-prevention setup during peak season. A dryer that won't get hot or a water heater on the way out at the wrong moment costs you a layer of defense at exactly the wrong time of year. A service plan that covers home systems and appliances is one practical way to keep those routines intact, so prevention work doesn't have to pause while you wait on a repair quote.

Your Yard Is the First Line of Defense

If you spend time in your own outdoor space — gardening, playing with kids, walking dogs — the yard itself is worth direct investment. Ticks favor moist, shady areas and don't travel far on their own; they pick up hosts at vegetation edges.

Landscape modifications that meaningfully reduce tick habitat:

1. Mow regularly and keep grass short, especially near outdoor living areas

2. Rake and remove leaf litter, since ticks overwinter in leaf piles and move out in spring

3. Clear brush and weeds from the yard's perimeter

4. Remove or replace Japanese barberry and pachysandra; Harvard's tick prevention research identifies both as ground covers that shelter tick populations in high densities

5. Create a 3-foot-wide barrier of wood chips, gravel, or mulch at the edge between lawn and wooded or brushy areas; this creates a drier, less hospitable crossing zone for ticks

6. Stack firewood neatly in a dry, sunny spot, away from the house

7. Consider deer fencing if your area has significant deer activity; deer are primary hosts for several adult tick species

Position play equipment, sandboxes, and garden seating away from wooded edges and stone walls, which retain moisture and shelter ticks even when the rest of your yard is well-maintained.

If You Find a Tick on Yourself or a Family Member

Remove it promptly. The sooner the better, and technique matters.

How to do it right:

1. Use fine-tipped tweezers. Grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible.

2. Pull upward with steady, even pressure. No twisting, no jerking.

3. Clean the bite area and your hands with rubbing alcohol or soap and water.

4. Place the tick in a sealed bag or container. If symptoms develop, having the tick for identification can help your doctor.

Skip the petroleum jelly, nail polish, and heat methods. They don't work and can increase the risk of the tick releasing fluids into the bite.

What to watch for in the weeks that follow:

The erythema migrans rash — the expanding rash associated with Lyme — appears in over 70% of people with Lyme disease and typically shows up 3 to 30 days after the bite. It doesn't always look like the classic bull's-eye; an oval or circular red rash expanding gradually across several inches is also diagnostic. Early Lyme can also present without a rash, showing up as fever, chills, fatigue, headache, and muscle or joint aches in the days to weeks after a bite.

If any of those symptoms appear after outdoor time in tick habitat, call your doctor rather than waiting to see what develops. Earlier treatment is more effective. If you or someone in your life is already navigating a tick-borne illness diagnosis, there's a companion piece worth reading on rebuilding after that experience.

Supporting Your Body's Resilience This Season

No supplement prevents tick exposure, and this section isn't going to suggest otherwise. What's worth saying is that the foundational practices supporting immune function genuinely matter during a high-exposure season: consistent sleep, manageable stress, regular movement, and a diet that supports gut health. These work alongside prevention, not instead of it.

If you're interested in exploring the herbal and immune-support side of tick season preparation, our companion piece on herbal immune support during tick season goes further in that direction.

Short Q&A

My doctor mentioned single-dose doxycycline after a tick bite. Should I take it?

Prophylactic doxycycline is sometimes prescribed after a confirmed blacklegged tick bite in an endemic area, when the tick was attached for 36 hours or more. In Colorado, where the blacklegged tick is not established, that scenario doesn't typically apply. If you were recently traveling in a Lyme-endemic region and received a tick bite, it's worth discussing with your doctor promptly, since the window for prophylaxis is short.

What if I can't find the tick but I have symptoms?

Not everyone notices the bite, and the rash doesn't always appear where you'd think to look. If you develop the rash or flu-like symptoms after time in tick habitat, even without a confirmed bite, tell your doctor. Symptom onset is what guides evaluation, not whether you spotted the tick.

What about kids?

Apply DEET or picaridin to children over 2 months of age; avoid OLE and PMD for children under 3 years. Do a thorough tick check after outdoor time, particularly in the hairline, behind the ears, and in skin folds. Ticks on children are easy to miss if you're checking quickly.

What about dogs?

Dogs can carry ticks indoors without being bitten themselves. Ask your vet about tick-preventive treatments appropriate for your dog's size and health. Check them after every outing and do a sweep of the areas where they sleep and rest during peak season.