How To Remove a Tick: Everything You Need To Know
Ah, beautiful summer. You bring us warm weather, longer days, beautiful flowers and…..ticks. With summer, officially comes bug season as well. And while some bugs are just plain, annoying some may be quite dangerous. Ticks fall into the latter category. It’s a common occurrence for a tick to latch on to you, your dog or your kids. But don’t panic! All you need to know is how to properly remove it. Just make sure you handle the situation as soon as possible. Here is how to remove a tick safely.
With summer, officially comes bug season as well
How To Remove a Tick?
Ticks and mosquitoes alike can carry plenty of diseases. Ticks specifically carry Lyme disease. While there are plenty of things to prevent getting a tick, such as planting tick-repelling plants, spraying with chemical repellents, avoiding ares which might be untreated and tucking your pants into your socks, it still happens. It’s important to remember to stay calm and not try to yank it out. So, today we’ll show you how to remove a tick quickly and safely.
Ticks specifically carry Lyme disease
Prepare Your Materials
Before you dive in trying to get the tick out, it’s important you have the right tools. So, get some pointy tweezers. Not the squared-off ones, but really pointy ones. You will also need some rubbing alcohol.
Get some pointy tweezers
Method
- The first step is to clean your tweezers. Use some hot water and soap to disinfect them.
- Then take the rubbing alcohol and clean the skin around it.
- Take your tweezers. Slide the tweezers between the ticks mouth and your skin. Hold them sideways.
- Gently pull the tick straight up and away from your skin. Use a nice, steady pressure. Make sure to not squish the tick.
- Keep in mind this may take a couple of tries, just make sure to follow the previous instructions.
- Once you have removed the tick, clean your hands and then treat the area with some rubbing alcohol or water and soap.
Infographic on how to remove a tick
What Do You Do If You Pull a Tick Out and The Head Stays In?
Sometimes it happens that the ticks head stays inside your skin. This may be caused by incorrect removal, or it was just a really tough tick. Don’t worry and stay calm. If this happens all you need to do is repeat the process mentioned above slowly and carefully. Make sure to not dig around in your skin, as this will spread bacteria. If you cannot do this by yourself, it’s best to go to a doctor to help you as soon as possible.
Make sure to not dig around in your skin
What To Do with The Tick Afterwards?
Okay, so you removed the tick successfully. Yay! But now what do you do with it? Well there are a couple of options. You can send in the tick for testing to see if it was carrying a disease. Or you can drown it inside a soap water and rubbing alcohol mixture. You can also flush it down the toilet, or just wrap it in some tape and throw it away.
You can also flush it down the toilet
How NOT To Remove a Tick?
Now that we showed you the correct method to removing a tick, here are some things you should never do when removing a tick.
- Don’t use petroleum jelly, gasoline, or lidocaine to remove a tick. While jelly may be great for sunburns, you should not use it on ticks. This will only make it burrow in deeper.
- It’s also not a great idea to use a hot match as well. It has the same negative effect as the previous methods.
Don’t use petroleum jelly
When To Call a Doctor?
Keep track of yourself and if any of these symptoms start to occur, it’s time to go to the doctors.
- The tick has stayed for more than 24 hours in the skin.
- There is discharge: green or white.
- You are experiencing joint pain and swelling.
- You feel tired.
- Your lymph nodes are swollen.
- Migraines.
Keep track of yourself
This was how to remove a tick and everything you need to know. We hope you found this article helpful. We hope you don’t have any run-ins with ticks this summer, but even if you do, now you are prepared.
We hope you don’t have any run-ins with ticks this summer
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