As the weather gets warmer The Lasalle County Health Department says to keep an eye out for ticks.
The department is recognizing May as Lyme Disease Awareness Month and ticks are the carriers of the disease.
The department also says the risk of exposure to ticks is greater when in heavily wooded areas and in edge areas between lawns and woods.
Some simple tricks to avoid tick exposure include wearing light-colored clothing; apply bug spray with 20% DEET and walking in the center of trails and avoiding wooded and bushy areas with high grass and leaf litters.
If you find a tick the health department says don’t panic and use a fine-tipped tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the skins surface as possible and pull upward with steady even pressure to remove it.