The Illinois Department of Public Health is reminding the public to take precautions against tick bites to prevent contracting diseases that they may carry such as Lyme Disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Tularemia, Ehrlichiosis, and Babesiosis.  

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You should check yourself often, along with your pets, and help children check themselves after spending time where ticks live such as wooded areas, tall grass, and brush.  Removing ticks within a 24 hour period greatly reduces the risk of transmission.

Learn about tick removal and symptom awareness, by visiting this story at www.taylorvilledailynews.com. You can also walk in the center of trails, wear light-colored clothing, tuck long pants into socks/boots. You can also apply an EPA-registered insect repellent that contains at least 20% DEET. Conduct full-body tick checks on family members by looking on underarms, ears, belly buttons, behind knees, between legs, the waist, hair, and scalp. 

Other tips include putting your clothes in the dryer for ten minutes on high or one hour for damp clothes to kill ticks, bathe or shower within two hours after coming indoors and if you find a tick on yourself, you should keep the tick for species identification.  You can do that by placing the tick in rubbing alcohol in a sealed bag and bring it to your local healthcare provider. If you do become ill, please contact your doctor as several tick-borne illnesses can be life-threatening if left alone. For more information click here.