Prevention.
It mostly works.

Ticks crawl up from the ground looking for skin. Dress so they show up while they’re still on fabric, and so the climb to skin is as long as possible.

• Wear light colours. A nymph is dark, the size of a poppy seed, and lost on dark fabric. On a tan or beige pant leg, the same nymph looks like a moving comma.
• Long sleeves, long pants, tucked in. Trouser cuffs into socks, shirt into trousers. The extra inch of fabric is the difference between a tick on your sock and a tick in your armpit.
• Closed-toe shoes. Sandals and flip-flops are the easiest possible entry to skin. Gaiters help in really brushy terrain.
• Skip the bug net for ticks. Head nets work against mosquitoes and black flies, not ticks. Ticks climb from the ground, not the air.

Health Canada’s preferred repellent for ticks is Icaridin (sold as picaridin in the US). It works against ticks, mosquitoes and biting flies, feels better on skin than DEET, doesn’t damage plastics or synthetic fabrics, and is approved for children from 6 months at the right concentration.

The most effective fabric treatment for ticks is permethrin, a synthetic version of a chrysanthemum insecticide that kills ticks on contact when they walk on treated clothing. In the United States it’s sold in spray bottles for do-it-yourself treatment. In Canada it’s more complicated.

Health Canada has not approved any consumer permethrin spray for sale in Canada. You can’t buy Sawyer or Repel bottles at Canadian Tire, MEC or anywhere else. Commercial import is blocked, though individuals sometimes pick up a bottle at the border for personal use.

2 legal options in Canada;

For most Canadians the practical answer is Icaridin on skin, treated socks on feet. That covers the 2 surfaces ticks touch: the lower legs where they climb on, and any exposed skin. If you cross the US border regularly and want to treat your own hiking clothes, a bottle of Sawyer Permethrin Premium is legal to bring back for personal use. Just don’t expect to find it locally.

Most people picture ticks in deep forest. They concentrate in the messy edges where one habitat meets another.

Ticks need humidity to survive. The driest, sunniest places are the safest. The dampest, shadiest leaf litter is where they collect.

The most effective prevention step is the body check after. A blacklegged tick has to be attached for roughly 24 hours before it can transmit Lyme. A check in the first hour and another the next morning catches almost every one.

1. 1
   Clothes go in the dryer first.If they’re dry, tumble dry on high heat for 10 minutes. If they’re damp or wet, run a full drying cycle on high heat (40-60 minutes). Wet fabric holds humidity and a short cycle won’t kill ticks. Heat kills them. Washing alone often doesn’t.
2. 2
   Shower within 2 hours. Showering soon after exposure measurably reduces Lyme risk. Crawling ticks wash off, and attached ones get easier to spot.
3. 3
   Full body check, twice.Once after the shower, once the next morning in good light. Use a mirror or a partner for the spots you can’t see. Pay extra attention to behind the ears, scalp, neck, armpits, navel, waistband, behind the knees and the groin. Nymphs like warm, hidden, slightly damp spots.
4. 4
   Check the dog. Run a flat hand slowly through fur in the same spots: ears, between toes, armpits, groin, base of the tail. Engorged ticks on dogs feel like small grapes.

• In the field - how ticks find you and what to do mid-outing.
• Tick identification - the 4 Canadian species and which carry what.
• For pet owners - dog-specific checks and products.