Being prepared for Tick season
- Melisha Meredith
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
With tick-borne diseases at an all time high, it is important to know:
How to prevent tick bites
How to remove a tick if you get bit
What to do after a bite
How to get your tick tested for disease
Prevention is ideal, right? If we can prevent being bitten, that's the best case scenario. And as you might guess - I want to do that as naturally as possible! Thankfully, that's not so hard these days with companies making healthier options.
FYI: I did a podcast episode on this topic and shared a bit more about my son's journey with Lyme's Disease. Go here to listen in!
3 Tips for Prevention:
Light and Long: Wear long-sleeved, light colored clothing if you are out in tall grass or the woods. Long socks, long pants and long sleeve shirts give the ticks less of an opportunity to attach. And the light colored clothing will make it easier to see any ticks that might be crawling on you.
Repel: Use natural, essential-oil based repellant sprays or balms. There are some oils that ticks hate! Here are a few of my favorite brands to purchase. You can also DIY a spray.
Naturally Northwoods ($15-25 for 8 oz.)
Primally Pure Nature Spray ($34 for 4 oz.) - my link will get you $10 off $50
Earthley Bug Shield ($20 for 8 oz.)
Safe Backyard: If you have a backyard with long grass, that is close to a treeline or is wooded, I would do a few things to prevent ticks in your backyard.
Get chickens or guineas! One chicken can eat 80-100 ticks per day!
Use Cedarcide chips around the perimeter of the yard or around play areas.
Use Wondercide spray in areas that you use often.
Do a Full-Body Check:
Every time you come in from a tick-likely area, do a full body check.
Teach everyone in the family how to look for the dark brown ticks. They can be as small as a poppy seed and be mistaken for a freckle.
You will often feel them before you see them. So, using your hands and eyes,
1. Feel all over your head, through your hair on your scalp.
2. Check your hairline including the nape of your neck.
3. Look and feel behind the ears.
4. Check armpits and elbows, up and down the arms.
5. Check the torso including inside the belly button.
6. Look around the waistline where your pants were sitting and in all the creases of the pelvis area.
7. Check behind the knees and all around the ankles.
8. Search the top and bottom of feet and in between toes.
Use a mirror or a family member to check areas on the back of your body that you can't see yourself.
Change clothes and put clothes in the washer asap, or at least place in the dryer on high heat for 10-15 minutes to kill the ticks.
If anyone has any itchy spot over the next couple days, check to see if you missed a tick.
How to Safely Remove a Tick:
Use tweezers or a tick removal tool, like a "tick key" to pull in a straight, upward, steady motion with a goal of getting the entire body of the tick removed.
Take a picture of the tick and put the tick in a container or sealed bag for identification and testing purposes.
What to do After a Bite*:
Use a "bug bite thing" to suction the bite.
Apply a drawing clay, such as bentonite clay, over the tick bite area. Follow use instructions.
Watch the area for a rash, swelling, etc.
Start taking Vitamin C and Astragalus right away*, I would take this every day for several months - depending on testing of the tick. This is to boost your immune system and give your body a chance to fight off any possible disease the tick may be carrying.
If you do have ongoing signs and symptoms of a tick-borne disease, at that point I would personally find a functional medicine doctor to work with that has experience helping people with tick borne diseases. If it goes unattended and unmanaged, some of these diseases can wreck havoc on you for the rest of your life.
How to Test Your Tick for Disease:
There's a chance that the tick you get bitten by does not carry any disease! To know for sure if it does or not, you can send the tick off to be tested. If you don't do this, you'll need to watch and monitor for any signs of disease. If you do send it off, and it is positive, there's still a chance you will not get it, continue to watch and monitor. If you get it back and it's negative, you could stop taking the Vitamin C and Astragalus.
Here are some options for sending it off to get tested:
$40 https://www.ticknology.org/order-test
(Prices as of 5-6-2026)
Wishing you abundant health, Melisha
*Reminder The content in the Daily Wellness Podcast and on this webpage is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your doctor or qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have heard on the podcast or on my website.
**Some links, not all, are affiliate links in which I will receive some sort of comensation if you use the link to purchase. If you choose to use one of my affiliate links, thank you for helping. me be able to continue to produce lots of free content like this post!
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