Protect yourself and your animals from mosquito and tick bites

A number of steps can help prevent mosquito bites in domestic animals:

• Try to reduce the number of mosquitoes around your home and around your animals by reading the section Reduce the number of mosquitoes around your home.
• Whenever possible, keep animals indoors when mosquitoes are active, such as at sunrise and sunset.
• Install mosquito screens in your home, stable or farm building.
• Consult your veterinarian for advice on how to use insect repellent or insecticide on your animals.
• Promote good air circulation in farm buildings.

Reducing the number of mosquitoes around your home is a good way to protect yourself from mosquito bites and mosquito‑borne diseases. To reduce the number of mosquitoes around your home, you can take a few simple steps.

Steps

Stagnant water, i.e., water that does not flow or move, is an ideal breeding ground for mosquitoes that may carry diseases. To reduce the number of mosquitoes, remove stagnant water and keep your surroundings clean:

• Remove water and dispose of any items water can accumulate in, such as buckets, barrels, plates under flower pots, vases, old tires and garbage.
• Clean the gutters on your house.
• Cover your garbage cans.
• Maintain your pool. When the filtration system works properly, the moving water prevents mosquitoes from breeding in the pool. Remove any water that collects on your pool cover too.
• Install a mosquito screen on your rainwater tanks.
• Change the water in your animals’ drinking troughs regularly.
• Put fish that eat mosquito larvae in your ornamental ponds.

Larvicide application

No larvicide spraying is carried out by the Gouvernement du Québec to control mosquitoes that carry WNV. This decision is based on the fact that there is no formal evidence that the use of larvicides alone is effective in preventing human WNV infections. Applying personal measures to protect yourself against mosquito bites is the best way to protect yourself.

Some municipalities spray larvicides to improve their citizens’ quality of life by reducing the populations of certain biting insects. However, their main goal is not to prevent the transmission of WNV.

The best way to protect yourself from tick‑borne diseases is to avoid getting bitten during outdoor activities such as gardening, hiking in the forest, playing golf, hunting, fishing or camping.

Ticks do not jump, fly or drop from a height (for example, from a branch). They can, however, attach themselves to you or your pet when you come in contact with plants in a garden, landscaping, the forest, wooded areas, tall grasses and parks.

To avoid tick bites during outdoor activities:

• Wear long, light‑coloured clothes, closed shoes and cover up as much as possible (for example, by tucking the bottom of your pants into your socks and your top into your pants).
• Use mosquito repellent with DEET or icaridin. Follow the instructions for using mosquito repellent.
• Preferably walk on open trails.

When you return from an outdoor activity, to spot a tick:

• Examine your entire body.
• Take a bath or shower as soon as possible, ideally within two hours of the outdoor activity, to check for ticks. This will also remove ticks that are not firmly attached to the skin. Use bath time to examine the children too.
• Get another person to help you or use a mirror to examine less visible parts, such as the back.
• Examine your equipment (backpack, coat, etc.). This precaution is to avoid bringing a tick into your home, where it could bite someone or a pet.
• Remove ticks from your clothes by putting them in the dryer on high heat for 10 minutes. If the clothes are too dirty to be put in the dryer directly, wash them in the machine in hot water, ideally for at least 40 minutes. Then put them in the dryer on high heat for at least 60 minutes. The clothes must be completely dry.

If you spot a tick, remove it by following the steps on the Removing a tick if bitten page.

The main domestic animals affected by Lyme disease are dogs, horses, donkeys and mules.

There are several measures that can help prevent tick bites in domestic animals:

• Consult your veterinarian for advice on the products you can use to protect your animals.
• When on an outing with your animal, walk in the middle of the trails.
• Within two hours of an outdoor activity, use a brush to check if there are any ticks on your animal.
  • For your dog or cat: carefully examine around the eyes and ears, the neck and under the collar, between the toes, the groin and the armpits.
  • For your horse: examine the chest, mane, tail, ears, abdomen and inside of the flanks.
• If your animal is kept outside, make sure you inspect it at least once a day.
• If you spot a tick on your animal, remove it by following the steps on the Removing a tick if bitten page.

Reducing the number of ticks around your home is a good way to protect yourself from tick bites and tick‑borne diseases.

To reduce the number of ticks around your home, you can take a few simple steps:

• Cut tall grass and undergrowth around your home and mow your lawn regularly.
• Remove dead leaves, undergrowth and weeds from your lawn, around woodpiles, the shed and near children’s play areas.
• Make woodchip or gravel paths between wooded areas, lawns, patios and play areas. Paths should be at least three metres wide.
• Position play areas away from trees and in a sunny area.
• Stack wood carefully in a dry, sheltered place. This can keep rodents, which often carry ticks, away. Get rid of old furniture and accessories in your yard.