Ticks, Kids, and Pets: Protecting the Whole Household

The kid who never sets foot off the mowed lawn can still come inside with a tick. So can the dog who only circled the yard. In Maine and New Hampshire, the woods don’t stay in the woods. They press against the edges of nearly every backyard, and ticks travel on whatever brushes past, which is why tick prevention works best as a household habit rather than a thing you do before a big hike.

Maine made that case in plain numbers. The state broke its tick-borne disease record in 2024, reporting about 3,218 Lyme disease cases (up from 2,943 the year before), 1,284 anaplasmosis cases (up from 777), and 310 babesiosis cases (up from 194), according to figures from the Maine CDC reported by WGME. Those are not hiker numbers. They are the numbers of people living ordinary lives near trees.

Why the whole household needs a plan, not just the hiker

Here’s the part people miss. Your dog can carry ticks from outside into the house, where they may later climb onto a person, so even a family that never leaves the patio has a way for ticks to get indoors. The CDC makes this point directly, and it’s the simplest argument for treating prevention as something the household does together.

Pets get sick from tick-borne diseases the same way people do, and the timing is sneaky. Signs may not show up for 7 to 21 days after a bite, sometimes longer. A tick you missed on the dog last Tuesday isn’t going to announce itself. That delay is exactly why the routine matters more than the catch on any single day.

There’s also the Maine-specific wrinkle that throws off everyone’s mental calendar. Deer ticks here can become active any time winter temperatures climb above freezing, the Maine CDC notes, so a 40-degree January thaw can wake them up. The household tick check is closer to a year-round habit than a July one.

The daily tick check, and where to actually look on kids

A good tick check is unglamorous and fast once it’s routine. The CDC recommends checking your body, your kids, and your pets after time outdoors, and it lists the spots where ticks like to tuck in: in and around the hair, in and around the ears, under the arms, inside the belly button, around the waist, between the legs, and behind the knees. On a squirming six-year-old, the backs of the knees and the hairline are the easy ones to skip.

One step does double duty. Showering within two hours of coming indoors has been shown to lower the risk of Lyme disease, the CDC says, and it gives you a natural moment to look a kid over while the dirt rinses off. Make it the last stop after outdoor play and you’ve folded the check into something that was happening anyway.

If you do find one attached, slow down and remove it properly rather than grabbing or twisting. Our guide on how to remove a tick safely walks through it step by step.

Kid-safe repellents: what the AAP and EPA actually say by age

Repellent rules change with a child’s age, and the guidance is more specific than most labels suggest.

For the youngest, skip the spray entirely. The American Academy of Pediatrics advises against using insect repellent on babies younger than two months. Instead, infants can be protected with clothing and mosquito netting draped over a carrier or stroller, which sidesteps the chemistry question altogether.

Once a child is past two months, the AAP frames it around the lowest effective concentration rather than a single magic number. Its guidance notes that 10 percent DEET protects for about two hours and 30 percent for about five hours, so the right pick depends on how long you’ll be out. The AAP also lists picaridin as an effective option for children. A short trip to the farmers market is a different calculation than a morning at a lake.

A few specifics worth pinning down:

• Oil of lemon eucalyptus (OLE) and its synthetic cousin para-menthane-diol (PMD) are off the table for children under three, per both the AAP and CDC.
• Apply it yourself. The AAP advises adults to spray repellent on their own hands first, then rub it on the child.
• Keep it to exposed skin and the outside of clothing, never underneath.
• Steer well clear of the eyes and mouth, and go light around the face.

For the deeper trade-offs between DEET, picaridin, and permethrin-treated clothing, see our rundown of tick repellents.

Protecting pets: vet-sourced prevention and routine checks

The dog is often the household’s busiest tick magnet, nose-down in exactly the leaf litter ticks prefer. The University of Maine Cooperative Extension Tick Lab in Orono tells Maine pet owners to do routine tick checks after pets have been outdoors, and it notes that dogs can pick up Lyme disease, ehrlichiosis, and anaplasmosis, among others.

Ticks hide on a dog in predictable places. The CDC points to in and around the ears, around the eyelids, under the collar, under the front legs, between the toes, between the back legs, and around the tail. Run your hands over those spots after a walk in tall grass and you’ll catch most of them.

On prevention products, the message from both the CDC and UMaine Extension is the same: talk to your veterinarian about what fits your dog. And one warning deserves its own sentence. Do not put tick products on a cat without asking your vet first, because cats are extremely sensitive to a long list of chemicals, including some that are perfectly safe for dogs. Cats don’t usually show Lyme symptoms, the Tick Lab notes, but they can still pick up other tick-borne illnesses, so they belong in the checking routine too.

How ticks ride indoors, and the laundry routine that stops them

Clothes are the other ride inside. A tick can sit on a pant leg through dinner. The CDC’s fix is almost too easy: tumble dry clothes on high heat for about 10 minutes to kill ticks on dry clothing after you come in. Dry heat does the work; a regular wash, especially in cool water, is far less reliable.

String the steps together and you have a homecoming sequence that takes the guesswork out of it. Clothes from the day’s adventure go straight into the dryer on high. Kids and adults head to the shower inside the two-hour window. The dog gets a once-over at the door. None of it is hard. The trick is doing it on the boring days, not just the woodsy ones.

Building a simple household habit in Maine and New Hampshire

The families who stay ahead of ticks aren’t the ones with the most gear. They’re the ones who turned three small actions into reflexes: check, shower, tumble dry. Layer in the yard work that makes your property less hospitable in the first place, covered in our guide to tick control through yard landscaping, and the household-wide approach starts to feel less like vigilance and more like routine.

Given how far the Maine season now stretches, a thaw in February can matter as much as a heat wave in July, the steady habit beats the occasional panic every time. Make the tick check as ordinary as wiping muddy paws, and the whole household, kids and dog included, gets the benefit.

Sources

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Preventing Tick Bites. 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/prevention/index.html
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Preventing Ticks on Pets. 2024. https://www.cdc.gov/ticks/prevention/preventing-ticks-on-pets.html
• American Academy of Pediatrics (HealthyChildren.org). How to Choose an Insect Repellent for Your Child. 2024. https://www.healthychildren.org/English/safety-prevention/at-play/Pages/Insect-Repellents.aspx
• University of Maine Cooperative Extension. Pet Protection – Cooperative Extension: Tick Lab. 2024. https://extension.umaine.edu/ticks/management/pet-protection/
• Maine Department of Health and Human Services / Maine CDC. Maine CDC Encourages Tick Bite Prevention This Fall. 2025. https://www.maine.gov/dhhs/news/maine-cdc-encourages-tick-bite-prevention-fall-fri-10172025-1200
• Maine CDC / Maine Tracking Network. Tickborne Diseases – Maine Tracking Network. 2025. https://data.mainepublichealth.gov/tracking/tickborne
• WGME (citing Maine CDC final figures). Maine broke its tick-borne disease record in 2024. 2025. https://wgme.com/news/local/maine-broke-its-tick-borne-disease-record-in-2024-lyme-disease-anaplasmosis-babesiosis-maine-climate-change-global-warning-rain-winter-spring-powassan

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Consult a qualified healthcare provider before making any health decisions.