· While you’re out ·

In the field.

Most of what people think they know about ticks is wrong. They don’t jump, fly or drop from trees. Knowing how a tick finds you changes how you avoid one while you’re still in the woods.

How they find you

Questing: the tick's only move.

Ticks don’t hunt. They climb a blade of grass, a low branch or a leaf-litter stem (usually 30 to 90 cm off the ground) and wait with their front legs out. This is called questing. When a host brushes past, the tick latches on by the feet, then crawls upward looking for thin skin in a hidden spot.

Common myths

What ticks don't do.

They don’t jump or fly.No tick species has wings, and they can’t jump even a millimetre.
They don’t drop from trees. Adult ticks rarely climb higher than knee-height. The leaves on your head came from a tree; the tick on your scalp climbed there from your sock.
They don’t bite right away. Once on your skin, a tick often wanders for an hour or more before settling in to feed. The sooner you check, the more likely you find one still moving.

If you spot one

Crawling vs attached.

What you do depends on whether the tick has bitten down yet.

Still crawling

Brush, flick, kill.

Pick it off with a glove or a piece of tape, drop it into a sealed container or a fold of packing tape, and keep moving. A crawling tick hasn’t fed and almost certainly hasn’t transmitted anything. Don’t squish it bare-handed. Even unfed ticks can carry pathogens on their mouthparts.

Attached

Remove on the spot.

Don’t finish the hike with a tick still attached. The 24-hour transmission clock for Lyme starts the moment it bites. If you have fine-tipped tweezers in your kit, remove it now. If not, get back to anywhere with tweezers. The full steps are on the removal page.

Carry a kit

What to bring.

A minimum field kit: fine-tipped tweezers (or a TickEase or Tick Twister), an index card, a strip of clear packing tape and a ziplock bag. Fits in a hip pocket. The card and tape matter as much as the tweezers, because a dated tick on a card helps a doctor for the next 30 days.

The hidden vector

Dogs bring ticks inside.

A dog that ran through tall grass walks into the house with passengers. Most of them drop off over the next several hours and look for the nearest warm body, which is often you, 2 days later, in your own bed.

Check the dog before they come inside. A flat hand through fur catches engorged ticks (they feel like small grapes) and a fine comb catches unfed ones.
Check the ears (inside and out), between toes, armpits, groin and the base of the tail. Ticks like the same hidden spots on dogs as on people.
If your dog isn’t on a tick-prevention product, ask your vet about Bravecto, NexGard, Simparica or a Seresto collar. Months of coverage all but removes the problem.
Cats matter less (they groom constantly and most outdoor cats remove ticks themselves), but check them anyway after rural roaming.

See the pet-owners page for the full product rundown.

The moment you're home

A two-hour window.

The full post-outing routine is on the prevention page. Clothes go in the dryer on high heat (10 minutes if dry, a full cycle if damp), then a shower within 2 hours of getting back, then a careful full-body check in good light. Check twice, once after the shower and again the next morning when nymphs have had time to move.

Why the dryer first

Heat kills, water doesn't.

Ticks are hard to drown. Many survive a full wash cycle. Hot, dry air kills them reliably: 10 minutes on high heat for dry clothes, a full drying cycle (40-60 minutes) for damp ones. Put clothes in the dryer before washing, not after.

Prevention - clothing, repellents and permethrin.
How to safely remove a tick - the 4 steps to do right and the 5 things never to try.
After removal - the 30-day symptom watch.
For my kid - the child tick-check and what to tell the school.

Last reviewed May 29, 2026

General information only, not medical advice. In an emergency, call 911. Read the full disclaimer.