I do all the things that skimask describes and I've never had any ESD and lockup propblems either.

One additional thing I do is put a DS1233 reset generator chip on the MCLR pin. This assures a proper reset and restart if any spikes do occur. I've been doing it as standard operation procedure for years without problem.

Note: you will also need to insert two diodes, in an 'AND' fconfiguration, between the MCLR pin and the reset generator and MCLR line so that the bootload reset cycle won't invoke an unitended 350mS delay from the reset generator.

I can post a schematic if you would like to see what I'm referring to.