When spending time outdoors in heavily wooded areas, it is important to wear closed toed shoes and bright colors to protect yourself from ticks. Ticks are not insects, they are arachnids and are therefore more closely related to spiders. Ticks can not fly or jump, but they are excellent climbers. They usually wait for their host in tall grasses and shrubs. Usually, if you find a tick on your head, it crawled up their from your leg, torso, or arm. They feed on the blood of mammals and birds that they attach themselves to.
If you wear brightly colored clothing, you can more easily find a tick that has climbed on top of you. It is important to remove a tick as soon as you find it because they are notorious for spreading serious diseases including, but not limited to, lyme disease, rocky mountain spotted fever, and colorado tick fever. If you find a tick on your skin you can burn it off by bringing a lighter as close to its body as possible to make it uncomfortable or you can use a pair of fine-tipped tweezers and pull upward with an even, steady pressure.