Onondaga County Health Department is nationally accredited and meets rigorous public health standards necessary to best serve the needs of our community.
Follow the label directions. Do not spray repellent in enclosed areas.
Put a small amount of repellent on your hands and apply it to your child. Do not let children touch repellents. Repellents containing DEET should not be used on children under two months old.
Use insect repellent containing a 20-30% concentration of DEET on clothes and on bare skin. Use just enough repellent to cover exposed skin.
Do NOT use repellents containing permethrin directly on your skin.
Do NOT spray repellent directly on your face, especially near the eyes or mouth. Apply a small amount of repellent near the ears. Do NOT use repellent on cuts, wounds, or on irritated skin.
Wash your treated skin with soap and water after returning indoors. If you have a reaction to a repellent, wash the treated skin with soap and water right away and call your doctor.
There's an app for that!
Available for Apple and Android devices, this app helps identify ticks and lists prevention tips and tick disease signs and symptoms. Download it today!
Check for ticks:
Do a full body tick check on yourself, your children, and your pets after being outdoors.
Check your body for ticks especially your scalp, neck, armpits, groin, and ankles.
Look carefully when checking for ticks because they can be a small as a poppy seed!
Take pointed tweezers to the tick’s head or mouth, where it enters the skin.
Pull the tick firmly up, in a steady motion, away from the skin.
Clean the bite with soap and water, rubbing alcohol, or hydrogen peroxide.
Keep a record of the date, time, and where you were bitten.
Get rid of the tick by placing it in a container of rubbing alcohol.
Call your healthcare provider:
If a tick has been attached to your skin for more than 36 hours, or
If you had a tick bite and develop symptoms.
Symptoms can include a skin rash known as “bull's-eye rash", commonly seen on thighs, groin, trunk, and armpits. It appears from 3-30 days with an average of 7 days. Other symptoms may include fever, fatigue, chills, headache, muscle and joint aches, and swollen lymph nodes.
Serious long-term complications can range from arthritis to facial palsy, headache, meningitis, neuropathy, impaired memory, and heart rhythm irregularities.