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Cycling for Beginners

Tick Checks After a Trail Ride: What CDC Recommends

By Cycle99 Editorial Team ⏱ 6 min read 📂 Cycling for Beginners

Shower within two hours of coming indoors, check your whole body with a mirror, and go through your clothing, pack and any dog that rode along. That is the after-outdoors routine from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and it suits a trail ride. If a rash or fever appears in the weeks that follow, see a doctor and mention the bite.

This is general guidance from US federal agencies (CDC and EPA), not a diagnosis. Your local health department can say which tickborne illnesses matter where you ride.

Why a trail ride counts

CDC describes tick habitat as grass, brush and woodland, plus animals, which covers much of the ground a mountain bike route, gravel loop or bikepacking trip crosses. Exposure is possible in any month, according to CDC, though ticks are most active in the warmer months, April through September. CDC also notes that many people pick them up in their own yard or neighborhood, so the check is not only for backcountry days.

The post-ride routine, in order

  1. Check clothing, pack and pets. A tick carried indoors on clothing or a pet can attach to a person after you are home, so the check covers your gear as well as you. CDC names coats and daypacks specifically, so treat a hydration pack the same way.
  2. Run the kit through the dryer. For dry clothes, CDC calls for 10 minutes on high heat. Sweaty riding kit counts as damp, and damp clothes may need longer. If something has to be washed first, use hot water: cold or medium settings will not kill ticks.
  3. Shower within two hours. CDC reports that showering has been shown to lower the risk of Lyme disease and may lower the risk of other tickborne diseases (illnesses spread through tick bites). It may also rinse away ticks that have not attached yet.
  4. Do a full-body check. CDC recommends one whenever you return from ground that might harbor ticks, your own yard included. A mirror, hand-held or full-length, lets you inspect the parts of your body you cannot see directly. CDC lists these spots:
  • Under the arms
  • In and around the ears
  • Inside the belly button
  • Back of the knees
  • In and around the hair
  • Between the legs
  • Around the waist

Run your fingers through your hair once the helmet is off, and let the mirror cover the backs of your knees. CDC says to check a child’s body too, so if kids ride with you (see cycling with kids), build it into the end-of-ride routine.

If you find a tick attached

Remove it yourself right away. CDC advises against waiting for a clinic visit to have it done, because the delay could raise your risk of disease.

  1. Use clean fine-tipped tweezers and pinch the tick as low as possible, right at the skin line. Regular tweezers or bare fingers are the fallback if you have no fine-tipped pair.
  2. Pull straight out with “steady, even pressure,” as CDC puts it. Twisting or jerking can break the mouthparts off in the skin. If they stay behind and will not come out easily with tweezers, leave them alone.
  3. A live tick can go into a sealed container, be wrapped tightly in tape, be flushed down the toilet or be dropped in alcohol. Never squash it between your fingers.
  4. Disinfect the bite and your hands afterward. Soap and water works, as do rubbing alcohol and hand sanitizer.
  5. Look yourself over for more, since an attached tick may not be alone.

What not to do

  • Skip home tricks such as petroleum jelly, heat or nail polish to make a tick let go. CDC says these substances “may agitate the tick and force infected fluid from the tick into the skin.”
  • Do not count on testing the tick. In CDC’s view, a lab result is no basis for treatment decisions, and a negative result can falsely reassure you. If you become ill, treatment should not wait on test results.

What to watch for in the weeks after

CDC’s short version: a rash or fever within several days to weeks of removing a tick means seeing your doctor. CDC’s tick-bite page gives the window two ways (“several days to weeks” in its key points, “several weeks” in its follow-up section), and its Lyme disease page puts early signs at 3 to 30 days after a bite and later signs at days to months.

What you notice Timing CDC gives What CDC says
Rash or fever after removing a tick Within several days to weeks See your doctor.
A rash starting at the bite site (erythema migrans, the Lyme disease rash) Begins 3 to 30 days after the bite, about 7 days on average Spreads outward over several days, sometimes to 30 cm (12 inches) or more across; can feel warm, though itching or pain is rare; may not show the classic bull’s-eye pattern.
Fever, chills, headache, fatigue, muscle and joint aches or swollen lymph nodes Early signs, 3 to 30 days after the bite These can occur without any rash. CDC advises medical attention if you notice them and were bitten by a tick recently.
A small bump or redness right at the bite that looks like a mosquito bite Appears immediately Common irritation that CDC says clears up within 1 to 2 days and does not signal Lyme disease.

By CDC’s figures, approximately 70 to 80 percent of infected people get the rash, and the other early symptoms can appear without it, so do not wait for a rash before getting checked. A very similar-looking rash also comes with Southern Tick-associated Rash Illness (STARI), which CDC says is not Lyme disease: one more reason to let a clinician look rather than judging by appearance.

CDC suggests telling the clinician three things: that you were bitten, when, and where you most likely picked up the tick. A phone note with the date and trail name, made when you find the tick, covers all three. For anything severe or worrying, do not wait for a timetable: contact a health professional.

Before the next ride: bring home fewer ticks

CDC calls reducing exposure the best defense against tickborne diseases. Add these to your pre-ride checklist next to the bike checks.

  • Ride the center of the trail. CDC advises steering clear of brushy areas with tall grass and leaf litter and keeping to the middle of the trail. On narrow singletrack you will still brush plants, so this lowers contact rather than ending it.
  • Treat clothing and gear with permethrin, or buy it pretreated. CDC specifies products containing 0.5% permethrin and says the protection lasts through several washings. Follow the product label for what it may be used on and how.
  • Use an EPA-registered repellent. CDC lists DEET, picaridin, IR3535, oil of lemon eucalyptus (OLE), para-menthane-diol (PMD) and 2-undecanone as the active ingredients to look for, plus an EPA registration number on the label. If you wear sunscreen, put it on before the repellent. CDC says OLE and PMD products should not be used on children younger than 3.

EPA’s repellent search tool starts by asking whether you need protection from mosquitoes, ticks or both, and EPA says to pick a protection time that fits your activity, which matters on a multi-hour ride. EPA also states that its database was last updated in June 2019, so confirm the registration number on whatever you buy.

Sources

Last reviewed: October 2026.

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