Clothing Tips To Avoid Ticks On Your Next Hike
By Amanda Finn
VACATIONS
Wearing tick repellent and long-sleeved clothing are classic anti-tick tips, but if you want a simpler way to deter them, consider the colors you wear while hiking.
A small study from the Scandinavian Journal of Infectious Diseases found that people wearing light clothing attracted, on average, 20.8 more ticks than those wearing dark clothing.
However, white clothing can also serve a practical purpose. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recommends wearing light clothing so you can see ticks more easily.
Whether or not ticks are impacted by color, there is a tried and true method to repel ticks: permethrin-treated clothing, which has been used to repel the bugs since 1990.
Per research by the EPA, wearing permethrin-treated clothing is unlikely to cause harm to wearers, but it can prevent both tick and mosquito bites.