>>2438683Don't wear camo
Check eachother clothes during the hike, especially after places I know ticks like
Don't go into tall dry grass and near waterways without reason
If we find one tick we assume there is more
After hike first thing we do is get backpacks on the balcony, then go into a room with light colored floor without any dots, undress on it being careful clothes don't touch carpet, furniture etc.
We check eachother, then ourselves, then eachother again. Hair, back of the head, neck, armpits, under the belts, back of the knee joint is where those fuckers go if given a chance. They tend to choose back or side of the body
Then we check the clothing, both sides few times. Pants are a menace, they love to hide under or inside pockets, in every fold near the belt from the inside etc.
Sometimes fukcers crawl out of clothing and you can see them on the floor.
All the free ticks go into bottle full of rubbing alcohol to die there
Then all the clothes are hung on the balcony for a day just to make sure
We bring backpacks and do them on the light colored floor next, just the outside. The backpacks come back on the balcony
Then we check the boots (at hikes you can find ticks on footwear, not so much back at home)
After everything is checked we take showers... then check ourselves naked again
It was harder when the dog was still alive because they keep crawling out of him for hours to come
We keep an eye for ticks for few days
If we had tick embedded into our skin and had to pull it out we poured rubbing alcohol on the puncture and, this is most important, the tick goes into separate bottle with air in it. We put label with date on it. In case you develop any sympthoms you take the tick still alive to ER and they check what diseased it carried
Needles to say we stopped going bushwhacking after our dog died and only use suburban forest paths most of the year
