Washing clothes alone does not reliably kill ticks. Most ticks survive cold and warm water cycles, even with detergent. The dryer is what actually kills them: six minutes on high heat is enough to kill all ticks on dry clothing. If you’re coming in from a hike or yard work and want to make sure no ticks survive on your clothes, the dryer matters far more than the washer.
Why Ticks Survive the Washing Machine
Ticks are remarkably tough when submerged in water. Some species can survive hours of immersion in fresh water, and a typical wash cycle isn’t long enough or hot enough to kill them. USDA researchers tested multiple water temperatures and detergent combinations and found that the majority of lone star ticks survived every combination with no obvious side effects. Most blacklegged ticks (the species that carries Lyme disease) also lived through cold and warm water settings.
Hot water did better. When one detergent was used on the hot water setting, only 25 percent of blacklegged ticks survived. But that still leaves a quarter of them alive, and researchers noted that ticks can also shelter in the folds and crevices of a typical load of laundry, potentially avoiding the worst of it. Cold and medium temperature water will not kill ticks at all.
The Dryer Is What Actually Works
High heat, not water, is the reliable tick killer. A study published in the Journal of Medical Entomology found that all adult and nymphal blacklegged ticks died when placed directly in the dryer with dry towels and dried for just 4 minutes on high heat. The researchers recommended a minimum of 6 minutes to build in a safety margin.
This is a striking difference from washing. If you wash clothes first and then dry them on high heat (which reaches roughly 130 to 185°F depending on your machine), it takes much longer to kill all ticks: about 50 to 55 minutes. That’s because wet fabric takes time to heat up. Starting with dry clothes and going straight to the dryer eliminates that delay.
The CDC recommends tumble drying clothes on high heat for 10 minutes to kill ticks on dry clothing. If your clothes are damp, you’ll need additional time. If you need to wash them first, use hot water, not cold or warm.
The Best Order of Operations
The most effective approach might seem counterintuitive: dry first, then wash. If your clothes aren’t visibly dirty or sweaty, toss them straight into the dryer on high heat for at least 6 minutes (10 minutes for extra safety) before you even think about washing. This kills every tick quickly because the dry heat reaches lethal temperatures almost immediately.
If your clothes need washing, use the hottest water the fabric can handle, then follow up with a full high-heat dry cycle. The combination of hot water washing plus high-heat drying works, but it takes significantly longer to reach full tick mortality compared to drying alone. Cold water followed by a high-heat dry cycle also works, but the drying phase needs to run for close to an hour to compensate for the residual moisture.
What About Delicate Fabrics?
This is where things get tricky. Clothing that can’t tolerate high heat, like wool, silk, or certain synthetics, doesn’t have a well-studied alternative for killing ticks through laundry. The research consistently points to high heat as the only reliable method. If you’re wearing delicate fabrics outdoors in tick-prone areas, your best bet is thorough visual inspection before bringing them inside. Light-colored clothing makes ticks easier to spot. Nymphal ticks (the immature stage most likely to transmit disease) are roughly the size of a poppy seed, so inspection needs to be careful and deliberate.
For regular outdoor clothing, choosing fabrics that can handle high dryer heat simplifies tick removal considerably.
Permethrin-Treated Clothing as a First Line
One way to reduce the number of live ticks making it onto your clothes in the first place is to wear permethrin-treated clothing. In field studies, nearly all ticks (97.6%) found attached to people wearing untreated clothing were still alive at the time of removal. On people wearing permethrin-treated outfits, only 22.6% of attached ticks were alive. The rest were dead within about 2.5 hours of contact. This doesn’t replace the dryer step, but it means fewer live ticks surviving long enough to potentially transfer to your skin during the time between coming indoors and doing laundry.
A Quick Summary of What Kills Ticks
- Cold or warm water wash: Does not kill most ticks
- Hot water wash: Kills some ticks, but not all
- Detergent: No significant effect on tick survival
- Dryer on high heat, dry clothes: Kills all ticks in about 6 minutes
- Dryer on high heat, damp clothes: Kills all ticks, but takes up to 55 minutes
The short version: don’t count on your washing machine. The dryer on high heat is what makes your clothes tick-free, and it works fastest when you skip the wash and dry first.