By Gina Pannunzio

It’s that time of year where many people and their pets are out and about exploring all the trails and green spaces across Windsor Essex. We hope that if you go, you enjoy the experience and practice some tick safety while out exploring. Being tick smart is all about being prepared. Here are several things you can do to be tick smart and keep your loved ones, including pets safe.

  • Wear light coloured clothing
  • Consider wearing long sleeves
  • Tuck your pants into your socks
  • Use bug spray, and spray head to shoes
  • Stay on the trail or paths. Avoid walking through areas that have tall brush or grass, or that are undesignated trails.
  • Bring a lint roller with you for post walk removal of ticks
  • When you get home, do a thorough tick check. You should check your neck, hair line, behind your ears, between your toes, and in your armpits.
  • If there are ticks in the area you were walking, consider putting the clothes you wore in the dryer for ten minutes.

Some Tick Facts

Ticks are small arachnids, a relative to the spider and are a crawling, non-flying insect. They are external parasites that live by feeding on the blood of mammals, birds and sometimes reptiles and amphibians. They vary in size and colour. Ticks are very small (1 to 5 mm) when unfed and female ticks get larger and change colour when feeding. Ticks pass through three life stages including larva, nymph and adult. Nymph ticks are most likely to spread Lyme disease because this stage is common during summer months. Their small body size makes it difficult to feel or detect until engorged, meaning the body expands due to blood meal. Ticks in Windsor-Essex are most active between April and November. Nymphs are active in the late spring and early summer while the adults are active in the fall.

Other Helpful Resources

Female Black-legged Tick (Ixodes scapularis). The black-legged tick, or deer tick, is less common in Essex County, but are at risk of carrying Lyme Disease
Photo by Jeremy Bensette
Female Dog Tick (Dermacentor variabilis). The dog tick, or wood tick, does not carry Lyme disease.
Photo by Jeremy Bensette