Wear dark clothes to avoid ticks?
From a report by CBS’ Dr. Holly Phillips yesterday, she reminds us that Lyme disease can be just as easily picked up in ones own backyard.
In the piece, a Dr. Zivin-Tutella mentions something that I have not heard before and have not yet confirmed:
Wearing light colored clothing lures ticks to you.
“They’re attracted to the light color. That’s why, typically, we tell people to wear darker colors and long-sleeve pants and shirts,” Dr. Zivin-Tutela said.
In the past, instructions to protect oneself included wearing light colored clothes so that the ticks were easier to spot.
It just goes to show that the information we are being fed from experts across the globe are consistently inconsistent. The most prudent means of protecting oneself is by being overly cautious and assume the worst.
For the CBS article: http://wcbstv.com/local/lyme.disease.deer.2.1764690.html
I have given this a lot of thought. The idea that ticks are not attracted to dark colors is ridiculous. Maybe those that believe this came to this conclusion because they can not see the ticks against dark colors and then surmise that there aren’t any.
Ticks instinctively latch on to anything that brushes up against them, irrespective of the material’s color.
You can run your own test by dragging pieces of different colored cloth on the ground and counting the tick difference between the colors. I believe that you will find little difference.
Rob
Are brown colored deer not atractive to ticks?
i thought ticks can crawl and maybe also jump a foot or maybe even more and because of that people that are near may be affected. people with light or dark colors may be more. I know that white cloth does have some attractiveness for some creatures like fleece and mosquitoes. If your area has mosquitoes, look up during the day and evening on the white ceiling and white walls, and you may find some. Fleece are the same, attach a white bed spread to the ceiling over the bed of a person and if that person has fleece, then overnight some fleece will travel to that white bed spread. take that bed spreading down and examine it really slow and really closely. My guess it has to do with them getting rest or/laying eggs, beeding, looking for a mate, whatever else, i dont know. Kind of strange though. but maybe same for ticks.
Although several types of arachnids can jump quite a distance, ticks are not one of them. They do drop onto animals and people so it is wise to be cautious around trees and bushes.