If you want to avoid ticks in the woods, wear long clothing or use a scientifically-proven repellent like DEET,  IR3535 , or picaridin. Forget products claiming they are 'green' or have citronella, there is a reason that people who buy alternatives to DEET are over-represented in getting lyme disease. Alternatives don't work and, if you are in the northeast, 50% of adult ticks will carry Lyme disease bacteria so you are flipping a coin by avoiding science.

It's January so people may be planning trips for this spring, summer, and fall, when blacklegged ticks(also called deer ticks) are prevalent.  A new study finds that 50% of adult deer ticks carry the Borrelia burgdorferi bacteria that causes Lyme disease while up to 25% of the younger ticks have it.

Lyme disease is a temporary condition that can lead to rash, fever, chills, fatigue, muscle or joint aches, and even swollen lymph nodes. It is named such because it was first classified as a distinct problem in Lyme, Connecticut in 1975. Birds, chipmunks, mice, squirrels, and other small animals carry the bacteria in their blood. Ticks are not born with it, they acquire it when they feed on an infected host and then potentially spread it to humans through bites - which makes repellent like DEET important.


Blacklegged tick density in the Northeast. Credit: Lucas Price, Joseph Savage, and Jonathan Winter

The new meta-analysis used data collected in Maine starting in 1989 with other northeast states (excluding Massachusetts and Rhode Island - insufficient data) starting in the mid- 2000s. They found that there are not more deer ticks, despite anecdotal claims, there were more than estimated that carry the Lyme disease bacteria.

You want to use DEET or another repellent shown to work because ticks must be attached to a person for around 24 hours to transmit the bacteria. Don't settle for visual inspection, nymph ticks are less likely to carry it but they are also only the size of a poppy seed, so are more difficult to spot. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also recommend what hunters have long said; if you were in a forest without repellent, use full-body tick checks, especially during the late spring and in the fall, when ticks are most likely to feed.