You’re about to hike in the woods or do some yard work and you know you could reduce your odds of getting bit by a deer tick by simply wearing long pants and tucking them into your socks.

But you also realize there’s a 100-percent chance you’ll be drenched in sweat AND look like a total dork.

So what are comfort-loving and fashionable outdoors types supposed to do to protect themselves and their families from Lyme disease?

Wear fun, cool clothing that repels ticks, says Rhode Island’s leading expert on ticks and Lyme disease. These days, Thomas Mather, director of the Center for Vector-Borne Disease at the University of Rhode Island, is downplaying traditional tips for fighting ticks in favor of solutions people won’t just ignore.

Now, with the increasing awareness of Permethrin — and the greater availability of clothing treated with the tick repellent — Mather is changing his strategy.

“I have yet to see more than a handful of people ever tuck their pants into their socks … They are not willing to look like clowns … And they are not willing to wear their pants in the summertime. Instead they are willing to risk that they may encounter ticks,” Mather says.

As for checking yourself for ticks, another conventional tip, “most people can’t see them anyway because they are the size of poppy seeds,” he says.

While not abandoning these suggestions, Mather is nevertheless focusing his efforts on practical tips to prevent Lyme disease. It’s made him think less like a scientist and more like a consumer.

“I’m an entomologist, but I’ve become a big fan of social marketing. One of the things I learned in social marketing is the marketer has to make whatever they are trying to do easy, fun and popular,” he says.

So last fall, he flew to North Carolina to meet with top executives of Insect Shield, which makes apparel treated with odorless, invisible Permethrin. While the company’s clothing had previously been marketed primarily as way to ward off mosquitoes, says Mather, studies conducted in 2008 by his center showed that Permethrin — and not DEET — is remarkably effective at repelling ticks. It’s also proven to be safe, he said, after being used in military uniforms for nearly 20 years and in medicine for head lice.

When a tick contacted Permethrin-treated clothing, it dropped off in as little as 10 seconds and eventually died, Mather says. People with treated clothing were three times less likely to be bitten by a tick than those wearing normal clothing and those wearing treated shoes and socks were 71 times less likely to be bitten when ticks crawled onto their shoes.

Even without long pants, the combination of treated socks, shoes, shorts and short-sleeves shirts is effective because ticks typically come in contact with these garments while on the way to such favorite feasting places as groins and armpits.

Mather says he urged Insect Shield officials to publicize that the clothes repel ticks and to market the garments to children. The company, which makes clothing for L.L. Bean, REI and other outdoor retailers, quickly decided to market its own line of apparel and to target kids going to camp this summer. Camps were encouraged to advertise the clothing on their Web sites in return for a contribution of 10 percent of the sales proceeds.

For parents, says Mather, the treated clothing offers “peace of mind. They are anxious their kids are going to get sick.”

Permethrin-treated clothing remains effective for 70 washings, many times longer than when you use a spray can and apply it yourself. Shoes, however, are not sold pre-treated and must still be sprayed. Mather says he has been in touch with area golf clubs and asked them to spray golfers’ shoes when they are turned in for cleaning and polishing.

Mather hopes Permethrin clothing one day becomes as popular and accepted as the form-fitting swim shirts popularized by surfers and now commonly worn by children at pools and beaches.

On Friday night, that point will be driven home when the center hosts its annual Tick Gala at the Roger William Park Botanical Center. The evening will include a fashion show called the “Tick Repellent You’ll Love to Wear.”

“People might criticize us for trying to turn Lyme disease into something fun,” Mather says, but “my main goal is to prevent people from suffering. You’re pretty much not going to get the attention of too many people from a slow funeral procession all of the time.”

Mather says another highly effective way to prevent contact with ticks is hiring a professional pest-control company to spray the perimeter of your suburban or rural property, where ticks thrive in tall grass, shrubs and leaf piles.

“If I could get 80 percent of Rhode Island to [wear Permethrin clothing and spray property perimeters] we would save tons of money on tick-borne diseases and tons of tick-bite suffering in Rhode Island,” says Mather, who estimates the illnesses cost the state about $30 million a year.Tackling ticks

To prevent tick-borne diseases:

•Inspect yourself and family members once a day for ticks.

•Use tweezers to remove any ticks you may find.

•When working outdoors, wear clothing treated with tick repellent or spray a repellent on your clothing.

•Hiring a pest-control company to spray the perimeter of your yard in May and June.

For further information, go to the University of Rhode Island’s Center for Vector-Borne Disease at www.tickencounter.org

rsalit@projo.com