10 Smart Ways to Prevent Tick Bites Naturally

Ticks don’t ‘jump’ into action as fleas do, but crawl in search of a blood meal. They carry a nasty bite, which could cause allergic reactions in some individuals. In addition, some ticks transmit debilitating diseases.

If you are someone who loves outdoor time with family, it is important to avoid getting chewed on by ticks.

In this article, I share with you 10 things you can do to prevent tick bites naturally.

How to Avoid Tick Bites Naturally

There are many reasonable, effective things you can do to prevent tick bites naturally. While you protect yourself, consideration should be given to your environment and even pets you interact with. This is because ticks can latch on to you while you walk about in your yard or get cozy with your animals.

Hence, instead of writing a one-sided article about how to avoid tick bites naturally, you’re given tips to minimize tick population in your yard. This is especially if you live in infested areas.

1. Use Natural Tick Repellents

Using a repellent to prevent tick bites naturally doesn’t always have to be your first line of defense. But if you must venture into tick-infested zones, a natural tick repellent allows you to travel in comfort. Plus, it doesn’t hurt to use one.

A tick experiences 3 active stages. During all phases, blood meals are required to foster proper development. This means that a larva, nymph, and adult tick must feed at least once to advance from one stage to the next.

When you pass through areas heavily infested with ticks unprotected, you will pick up a tick or two. Applying a natural repellent directly to the skin and clothing keeps them at bay.

2. Make Your Own Insect Repellent

It only takes a few ingredients to make your own tick repellent to prevent tick bites naturally, unless you want to get fancy.

Many essential oils contain powerful chemicals that occur naturally in plants. Some of these chemicals are repulsive to ticks.

According to a study, plant chemicals founds in clove bud, citronella, and thyme essential oils are offensive to ticks. Garlic essential oil is also a great deterrent, but it will likely send your friends and relatives running, too.

To make your own tick repellent, combine an essential oil with tick-repellent properties and dilute with a carrier oil to avoid skin irritation.

No worries. If you don’t know how to make your own tick repellent, we will soon have an e-book showing how it’s done. 

3. Wear Protective Clothing

Another effective way to prevent tick bites naturally is to suit up with the right gears. You don’t go to war unprepared, so why should you trek in tick-invaded zones inappropriately dressed?

Dress for the occasion. You may not like the idea of wearing long jeans and shirt on hot days. But its either that or being eaten alive. And, if you do get in contact with the wrong tick, you might just take back home a disease.

Cover your extremities with long clothing and tuck the end of your jeans in socks. Your shirt should be tucked into your pants.

Avoid wearing dark clothing. If ticks latch onto you, it will be difficult to spot them. Light-colored clothing makes them easier to identify.

4. Avoid Tick-Infested Areas

The best way to prevent tick bites naturally is to avoid them like the plague. If you don’t have to traverse areas with tall grass and brush, don’t.

However, if you’re someone who enjoys activities such as camping and hiking, this might not be possible. In this case, you should be armed with an effective, natural tick repellent, and appropriate clothing.

Also, try sticking to clear, uncluttered trails as much as you possibly can.

5. Ditch Those Flip-Flops  

While you need to wear appropriate clothing to avoid tick bites, you also need the right shoes for maximum protection.

As cute as those sandals are, they won’t protect you from being bitten. Try wearing shoes that cover the entire feet.

6. Groom Your Yard

The infamous deer tick, that transmits Lyme Disease, loves to hide in shaded, cool, and moist areas. When you practice regular landscape grooming, you remove conditions that could influence their thriving numbers.

Your lawn should be properly mowed (3 inches or lower is ideal). Fallen leaves should be gathered and removed to keep humidity under control, and prevent ticks from accessing shaded areas.

Leaves can always be added to compost bins. Mulches should be divided in small groups to avoid having an entire area saturated with vegetable or grass debris.

Another way to make your home inhabitable for ticks is to make room for more sunlight. Prune, cut, and trim trees to keep foliage under control. This minimizes how many shaded areas ticks have to hide.

Proper fencing should be installed, as this keeps out deer. Deer are notorious hosts of the deer tick. Once deer start visiting your home, it’s not uncommon for them to leave deer ticks behind.

7. Inspect Your Pets

Your furry friends are not immune to tick bites. The lone star tick, for example, sees your dog as a perfect host. If they are free-roaming dogs, they will pick up ticks.

Before you start cuddling with your cute pets, inspect them. If they’ve spent hours rolling on the lawn, examine them before accepting them inside.

Although infrequent, ticks can be transferred from your pets to you. If a tick feeding on a dog becomes detached before completing its meal, it can attach itself to your skin. To avoid getting bitten, inspect and remove ticks found on your pet. A natural tick repellent for dogs is also a superb way to keep those ticks off.

8. Let Those Guinea Hens Run Wild

If you commonly get ticks from simply walking around in your yard, that’s a huge problem. To prevent tick bites naturally this way will be difficult. Most lawns need to be treated with a yard spray if heavily infested by ticks. However, you’re looking for a natural solution.

Get some guinea hens and let them loose. They love snacking on ticks.

Another option is to use chickens, but these scavengers are destructive. Not only will they eat ticks, but you’re sure to find a few plants uprooted if you’re a gardener.  

As free-range animals, guinea hens will scout out and eat ticks. Since they will be keeping the tick population down in your yard, ticks will have fewer opportunities to bite you.

You don’t want to invest in guinea hens? Not a problem. Let’s consider another way to deal with lawn tick infestations.

9. Use a Fungus

Use fungus to kill ticks? It sounds absurd, I know. But it is possible to kill ticks using a fungus called Metarhizium.

Research shows that Metarhizium kills ticks from the inside. This is a natural predator of ticks that occurs naturally in some soils. Researchers and scientists intend to encourage or increase Metarhizium in soils as a biological weapon against ticks.

So, how does this fungus work? Once spores of the fungus come in contact with ticks, it latches on to its skin and grows from there. After penetrating its cuticle, it enters its body and germinates further.

During this phase, it creates substances that are poisonous to the tick. As it keeps growing inside, eventually the tick is taken over. The fungus then breaks forth to produce more spores and continue spreading to other ticks.

With this biological weapon acting unseen, you will have fewer ticks to contend with. This means you’re less likely to be bitten.

Metarhizium can be sourced online.

10. Choose the Time of Day Wisely

Another way to prevent tick bites naturally is to choose when you spend time outdoors. This is especially the case if you live in tick-infested areas.

Limit outdoor activities to the hottest and driest parts of a day. You probably won’t do this, and that is understandable. No one wants to bake in the sun and be miserable.

If you can’t go outside when it is the warmest, ensure to suit up with a natural tick repellent. Also, wear clothing that will prevent ticks from biting into your skin.  

Do you now feel motivated in your battle against ticks?

You can be successful.

By heeding the suggestions in this article, you and your family will be protected from disease-transmitting, blood-sucking ticks.

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