Understanding Your Personal Risk

Learn how tick-borne disease risk varies by location and find resources to assess the specific threats in your region. This section covers geographic patterns of tick species and diseases, plus how to access local surveillance data for your area.

In this section

  • Tick Risk by Geography: How to Read the Map You Actually Live On — A practical guide to how tick-borne disease risk varies across the United States and worldwide — which ticks live where, which diseases concentrate in which regions, and where to look for local-to-you data (CDC surveillance maps, state health departments, county-level reporting).

  • Repellents — product selection and application strategy for on-body tick protection; this article covers geographic and activity-based risk assessment — understanding what ticks are present in your area and context before choosing protection measures

  • Tick Checks — how to perform a tick check and what to do if you find a tick; this article covers the upstream question of what your risk level is and where to find local data before that check is needed

  • Property and Yard Treatment — (Section 4 hub) covers your property and yard layout as part of your risk environment (habitat zones, host-attracting features, integrated yard-level prevention); this article covers the personal-risk dimension (geography, activity, season, infection rates) and treats yard environment only as one input to overall risk, deferring to S4 for property-level diagnosis and intervention

  • Tick Borne Disease Dogs — (Section 5.1 hub) covers tick-borne disease in dogs including how dog seroprevalence functions as a local environmental risk signal for the household; this article covers the human-side risk-assessment framework, naming dog seroprevalence as one of several signals to triangulate local risk

    Not medical advice. See a healthcare provider for medical decisions. Medical Disclaimer