Hunters Vs. Ticks: Safety Tips to Prevent Lyme Disease

• Preventing Lyme Disease After a Bite
• Symptoms and Treatment of Infection
• How to Tick-Proof Your Yard
• How to Remove a Biting Tick
• How to Protect Your Dog from Ticks

Lyme disease can only be contracted from the bite of a deer tick, which usually takes 24 to 48 hours to transmit the disease to a human, says epidemiologist Sam Telford. (That's why it's so important to check for ticks whenever you've been out in their habitat, and remove any embedded ticks as soon as possible.)

Hunters, however, can become infected much more rapidly by ticks that have already been feeding on a deer when it is killed, Telford continues: "You no longer have a grace period."

After a hunter has harvested a deer and hung it up, "ticks will leave the carcass as it's cooling off and those ticks will accumulate under the deer and they're ready to go," Telford says. "They're waiting for you to come by. They'll reattach."

And when that happens, the ticks can transmit Lyme disease "within a matter of hours," warns Telford, who advises hanging deer over a tarp that's been saturated with Raid.

Hunter and environmental ranger Curtis Chandler advises a change of clothes before coming inside after hunting, "so you're not carrying ticks into your home." Chandler stores his hunting garb in an airtight container.

Other tips for hunters, from the experts in the video produced by Martha's Vineyard Productions:

• use an insect repellant
• coat shoes and socks with permethrin
• do tick checks
• if you have an unexplained fever, see a physician

The Tick Borne Illness Prevention Program has a comprehensive website with questions and answers and a series of informational videos on preventing TBI, shorthand for tick-borne illnesses including Lyme disease, babesiosis and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.