Will ticks die in the wash?

You have just gone on a nice hike through the Pennsylvania wilderness, or maybe you have spent some time working in your yard and you want to get rid of any ticks. The first thing you want to is throw your clothing in the washer, right? Unfortunately, it is not the thing to do. The water in your washer is not hot enough to kill the pesky ticks and the detergent cannot do it either. Ticks can easily survive a tumble through the spin cycle.

Instead of throwing your clothing inside of the washer, you need to try another method. The first thing to do is use your dryer. That’s right, your dryer! You cannot wash them to death, but you can certainly bake ticks until they die. In order to effectively kill ticks, simply put your clothing in the the dryer for about 15 minutes. If you have an electric dryer you might want to increase the time to 20 minutes. Once the dryer is done with your clothing, you can then throw them in the washing machine. The reason the dryer is so effective is because ticks need moisture to survive. The hot dry environment of a dryer sucks the moisture right out of their little arachnid bodies and leaves them dead. If you want to cleanse your clothing from ticks, make certain you use the opposite approach to washing your clothes. Put them in the dryer first, because ticks won’t die in the wash.