Ticks: What Really Protects You Now

Symbolic image: tick · public domain

⏱ 50 sec read · First published: 12 April 2025 · Updated: 3 July 2026. New in this version: updated STIKO guidance on TBE vaccination and new risk areas.

Ticks transmit TBE and Lyme disease. Three things measurably lower your risk – and none of them costs much.

First: wear long clothing and sturdy shoes in tall grass, then check your body afterwards – ticks often wander for hours before biting.

Second: remove any tick you find immediately and slowly with fine tweezers. The sooner, the lower the Lyme disease risk.

Third: in TBE risk areas a vaccination protects you – ask your doctor whether your home or holiday destination is one of them. There is no vaccine against Lyme disease; here, quick removal is what counts.

Sounds like a small-town topic, but it's global: warmer winters keep ticks active in more and more regions and for longer – an example of how climate change reaches all the way into your garden.

Guide standard: only evidence-based recommendations. Based on public information from the RKI and STIKO. Not a substitute for medical advice.

Photo: Mikron86, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons