Table 1.

Characteristics of personal protection measures to prevent human tick encounters from resulting in bites or to shorten the duration a biting tick stays attached.

Type of action	Personal protection measure	Rationale(s) for use
Action taken while outdoors in tick habitat	Wear light-colored clothing	Creates contrast with dark-colored ticks, to facilitate spotting them crawling on clothing during a quick, cursory tick check
	Wear untreated clothing covering skin on feet, legs, torso, and arms (physical barrier)	Forces ticks that make first contact with untreated clothing to move a longer distance before reaching skin, thereby increasing the chance of ticks falling off clothing or being detected while crawling prior to reaching skin
	Apply repellent to skin/clothing (synthetic or natural product)	Prevents ticks that make contact with treated skin from continuing to crawl and reach a bite site on untreated skin; Prevents ticks that make contact with treated clothing from continuing to crawl to reach skin
	Wear permethrin-treated clothing (pre-impregnated or sprayed with permethrin)	Prevents ticks that make contact with treated clothing from continuing to crawl to reach skin
	Perform regular cursory checks for crawling ticks	Improves the likelihood of spotting ticks crawling on clothing or skin before they can bite
Action taken soon after coming back indoors	Perform a thorough check for crawling and attached ticks	Improves the likelihood of spotting ticks crawling on clothing or skin before they can bite; Facilitates prompt removal of attached ticks
	Change clothes and run the clothes worn outdoors in dryer on high heat	Prevents bites by ticks still remaining on outdoor clothing by changing clothes; Kills ticks by drying outdoor clothing at high heat; Improves the likelihood of spotting ticks that were crawling on skin under clothing or are biting
	Take a shower/bath	Improves the likelihood of spotting ticks that were crawling on skin under clothing or are biting; Potential for crawling ticks to be dislodged while showering/bathing
Action to shorten the duration of time before detected attached ticks are removed	Promptly remove detected attached ticks	Overall risk of pathogen transmission by attached infected ticks increases with duration of attachment
Action to disrupt feeding by attached ticks that go undetecteda	Receive anti-tick vaccine to disrupt tick feedinga	Overall risk of pathogen transmission by attached infected ticks increases with duration of attachment
	Apply acaricidal skin product to disrupt tick feedinga	Overall risk of pathogen transmission by attached infected ticks increases with duration of attachment
	Ingest oral acaricidal product to disrupt tick feedinga	Overall risk of pathogen transmission by attached infected ticks increases with duration of attachment

^aPotential future approach.