A hike brings the chance of exposure to deer ticks which carry Lyme disease. Deer ticks hide in shady, moist ground litter and also cling to tall grass, brush, shrubs, and low tree branches. People and animals acquire ticks only by direct contact. When hiking, follow these precautions to prevent exposure:

• Wear light-colored clothing so you can more easily see ticks.
• Wear long sleeves buttoned at the wrist and long pants tucked into socks. Take a hat to protect your head.
• Walk in the center of trails to avoid brushing up against dense vegetation where ticks hide. Avoid sitting directly on the ground, use a blanket or towel.
• Do a tick check every few hours or more often if in heavily infested areas. Visually check clothing and exposed skin. At the end of the day, do a final, full-body tick check.
• Use an insect repellant containing DEET. Lightly spray clothing, especially children's, and avoid direct contact with skin.
• Remove ticks as soon as you detect them. Do not touch them directly, use a tweezers or tissue and do not crush the insect until it is separated from the skin and placed in a disposable container.

Tick Alert!

What does a bumper crop of acorns have to do with the deer tick population? According to researchers at the Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, New York, plenty. Researchers at the institute have discovered that a large acorn crop correlates to an increased deer tick density. It seems the acorn crop attracts a large number of white-tailed deer, the feeding and mating grounds of adult deer ticks, and mice, which carry the Lyme disease bacterium and serve as hosts for young deer ticks, and thus leads to an increase in the tick population. The cycle takes two years.

Many oak forests in the eastern United States experienced bumper acorn crops in 1998, meaning the tick population in these forests may be especially bad this year.

Originally published in the 2000 May/June of Camping Magazine.