Where ticks bite humans

Most common spots

1. Behind the knees
2. Groin and waistband line
3. Armpits
4. Scalp and hairline
5. Behind and inside the ears
6. Belly button and under the breasts

Children are bitten on the head and neck far more often than adults. Check hair and behind the ears carefully.

Why ticks choose these spots

A tick does not jump or fly onto you. It climbs onto grass, low vegetation or leaf litter and waits with its front legs outstretched, a behaviour often called “questing”. When something brushes past, it grabs on and starts climbing, almost always upward from wherever it first attached to clothing or skin.

Once on the body, a tick tends to keep moving until it finds skin that suits it: warm, thin, and reasonably sheltered from being brushed off. That is why the list above skews towards folds and creases rather than open, exposed skin like the forearm or shin: those areas are easier for a tick to be knocked off before it has a chance to settle and bite. A tick can also take some time wandering before it actually attaches, which is part of why a shower and a change of clothes soon after being outdoors can remove ticks that have not yet bitten.

Adults versus children

Height and hair make a real difference to where a tick ends up. On an adult, a tick climbing upward from the lower leg often stops around the knee, waistband or armpit before it reaches the head. On a small child, the distance from the ground to the scalp is much shorter, so ticks are found on the head, neck and behind the ears far more often than on adults. This is also an area that is easy to miss during a quick check, since it is covered by hair and not somewhere people habitually inspect.

Check within two hours

• Use a mirror, or ask someone. Most of these spots are hard to see yourself.
• Run your hands over your scalp. Feel for a bump the size of a poppy seed.
• Check clothing and gear. A tumble dryer on high heat kills ticks on clothes.

A shower helps wash off ticks that have not yet attached.

A full-body routine

Checking only the obvious places (arms, legs, the back of the neck) misses most of the spots where ticks actually end up. A more thorough check works from the ground up and pays particular attention to the areas in the list above:

• Legs and behind the knees, including the crease itself, not just the front of the leg.
• Groin, waistband line and belly button, working a finger gently along the elastic line of underwear.
• Underarms and under the breasts, where skin folds against skin.
• Scalp, hairline and behind the ears, parting hair in sections rather than just looking at the surface.
• Back and shoulders, using a mirror or asking someone else to look, since this area is hard to see on yourself.

Feeling for a bump is often more reliable than looking, especially for a nymph small enough to be missed by eye. See how big are ticks for what size to expect at each stage.

Checking someone else

Because so many common attachment sites are hard to see on your own body, checking children, partners or anyone who has been outdoors together is worth doing as a pair. Pay the same attention to hairlines and skin folds on someone else as you would on yourself, and do it as soon as reasonably possible after coming inside rather than waiting until bedtime.

TickSentry’s guided tick checker walks through these areas one at a time, so nothing gets skipped in a hurry. If you do find something attached, how to remove a tick covers the method, and tick bite symptoms covers what to watch for afterwards.