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Tick removal

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I've never removed a tick properly, only in a panic. Hastily brushing them off is no way to deal with them if they've started feeding with mouth parts inserted into your skin. Thankfully I haven't encountered that yet, so I browsed through the tick treatment section of a local outdoor store, in preparation for another summer season of paddling...and ticks.
Here's what I bought. https://www.mec.ca/en/product/5050-423/Tick-Remover-Card

I found a curious method too. Not sure I would trust it.
https://www.mec.ca/en/product/5029-474/Rid-A-Tick-Removal-System

What do you use? Have you had any experience with ticks and their safe removal?
 
Between me and my dog I probably pull off 50 ticks per year that have already latched on. There have been years where that number is much higher. It's not uncommon to remove 75 non-latched ticks in the course of a day from myself and Sadie when walking in tall grass during tick season; which I now try to avoid. These are wood ticks, which are larger than the "up north" deer ticks that are more likely to carry Lyme's disease.

It's not a big deal. Just grab the little bugger and give a slow and steady pull until it comes off. Or, when you need to be more discreet (like finding one buried into your head while in a fancy restaurant) you can just put your finger nail at the tick/skin junction and give a slow scrape to pop it off. Makes it look like you're just scratching an itch. Most restaurants have dark floors so the tick won't be apparent when you drop it on the floor; which cuts down on the shrieking from other customers and any associated embarrassment.

Never had one break off nor have I ever heard of anyone who has had the mouth/head break off. I've probably only ever removed a dozen latched deer ticks but I've never heard of anyone having them break off either. I can't help but think all these fancy methods of tick removal are just a way to sell an idea/product and to play on people's fears.

Alan
 
Just wait if they are halfway engorged. Or scrape em off if they haven't started to inflate
Leeches yep you can get an infection from breakin off the head.
Had a dog many years. I didn't know what a tick looked like and I got an education at the vet for $35
Dog never went back to vet but had several hundred ticks over the years
 
I use a match, light it, blow it out and touch the tick or like Alan just pull them out. Never had one break off either. Rarely see deer ticks, most all I encounter are wood ticks.
 
Just wait if they are halfway engorged.

The only thing different about removing an engorged tick is that they look and feel disgusting with that sickly whitish/purplish body and those little legs uselessly flailing around. They also have a tendency to explode in the process, which is kinda gross. The enjoyable part of the process is throwing them at a rock and watching them 'pop'.

Alan
 
I don't know how long it takes for one to get engorged, but the longer they are in you the more chance to transmit desease. From what I've read if you get them off within 24 hrs. you are OK. The important thing is not to squeeze them and push fluids into your body.
 
Tick Key

http://www.tickkey.com/

works very well on dogs and people.

Do not burn them, smear with petroleum jelly or anything else to try to suffocate them. They may regurgitate their stomach contents back into the wound, increasing the chance of you getting Lyme disease.

Selena has a fossilised tick head in her leg, the remains of one that was pulled off without removing the head.

We get squillions of ticks round here. Hiking in the Tall Grass Prairie we have had numbers in the hundreds on several occasions on our dog and crawling us with dozens attached. We now use Bravecto on our dog. One "pill" at the beginning of summer and no more engorged ticks crawling on the living room carpet.
 
BV, the tick key works fine. However you can take a pull tab from your favorite refreshing beverage and with a couple of quick tweeks make your own tick key. As such, my buddy, Oley, considers the discovery of a tick a good reason for enjoying a cold beer! Doc.
 
BV, the tick key works fine. However you can take a pull tab from your favorite refreshing beverage and with a couple of quick tweeks make your own tick key. As such, my buddy, Oley, considers the discovery of a tick a good reason for enjoying a cold beer! Doc.
Yeah, but by the 10th tick you won't be able to see straight enough to remove the tick, although by then you probably won't care anyway!
 
I would have figured you guys in Iowa had lone star ticks like down here. The ones with the yellow spot on their back.

I just pull them with my fingers and I think sometimes regardless of how careful you are they leave a little something behind. I got pretty sick a couple times and my immune system was on overdrive. The spots where I've had ticks reddened back up more than a year later.
 
Geeze I hate ticks. Fortunately they dont seem to like me either. Karin on the other hand gets the odd one. I am rather adept at pulling them out so that is the process. Tweezers are my weapon of choice. Just for luck I usually use an alchohol wipe on the bite mark and some polysporin with a bandaid.
She did get a deer tick that was latched on for 2-3 days before she found it and that occasioned an immediate trip to the doctor for meds. No after effects that we noticed.

I tend to stay out of the long grass in summer and where we go paddling is mostly rock so not too many ticks there.

Christy
 
I would have figured you guys in Iowa had lone star ticks like down here. The ones with the yellow spot on their back.

I just pull them with my fingers and I think sometimes regardless of how careful you are they leave a little something behind. I got pretty sick a couple times and my immune system was on overdrive. The spots where I've had ticks reddened back up more than a year later.

I pulled one of those off myself a few years ago. All the range maps show they aren't this far north. Some counties in Iowa have recorded them but not ours. I asked my veterinarian and he said he'd never heard of one around here but that with the way people travel anymore, especially with their dogs, that any tick can show up anywhere.

When you pull a wood tick, even if they've only been embedded a short amount of time, they always pull a chunk of skin away with them. Makes it pretty obvious nothing is left.

Alan
 
Last spring, while touring Scotland, I picked up a tick, probably when strolling through the Culloden battleground. I noticed it a couple of days in the shower in my armpit. Felt like a BB under the skin. I pulled on it and most came out, but not all. So I dressed and had my wife look at it with my adult son. All we had for tools was an old pair of tweezers in my kit bag. My 14yr old granddaughter would have no part of it. As my 14yr old boy scout grandson said he knew how to be a nurse, and held a flashlight. the 12yr old sad, "he grandma, what's your password?" and proceeded to bring up instructions on youtube on how to remove a tick. So they dug around for an hour and a half on me, the darn piece left just would not come out, no matter how hard it was gripped. Finally what looked like a leg released. Later, at home under a microscope it was an ugly barbed thing. Luckily I suffered no permanent effects after a couple weeks of healing.
 
I hate the dang things. In fact there is snow on the ground and last night I pulled one off the dog. We see more deer ticks than dog ticks and lately this past summer I pulled two lone star ticks off me. We can pick them up right in the back yard and we live in town! The last time I went in the woods around here about 15 minutes in I looked down and my son and I were covered with them. He picked 60 little nymphs off his legs and there were close to 40 on me. I can't wait to get out of here so I can enjoy the woods again. Needless to say we have several different kinds of pullers.
Jim
 
One of my favorite places to day hike is almost unusable during the summer months due to the ticks. This summer I'm going to dedicate a pair of pants for hiking and spray them with permethrin. It kills on contact, it's actually one of the treatments for dogs. It's long lasting and safe for humans once it's dry. I buy the concentrate from the garden store and dilute it down appropriately.
 
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never tried it on a tick, but leaches let go right away when you put deet on them-suppose ticks would do the same?
Turtle
 
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