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Don't just grab a tick with your fingers and yank. Use these tools and techniques

The post How to Remove a Tick appeared first on Outdoor Life.

                   

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If you find a tick buried in your skin after a long day outdoors, the natural reaction might be to panic and rip it out. Lyme disease, alpha gal, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, and other tick-borne illnesses are no joke. But knowing how to remove a tick quickly and safely can be the difference between a harmless bite and an infection.

First, grab whatever tick-removing tool you have on hand. That might be a pair of tweezers, a Tick Key, or something else. (We’ll get to other emergency tick tools in the roundup below.) Grab onto the tick as close to the skin as possible and pull straight up until it releases. Check the tick to see if its head is still attached to its body. Also look over the bite area with a flashlight to see if the head might still be burrowed in the skin. If that’s the case, try to remove the head with tweezers. If that doesn’t work, apply an antibiotic ointment or rubbing alcohol to disinfect the bite area. 

Use a Credit Card to Remove a Tick

If you’re in a pinch and don’t have access to tweezers or a Tick Key, there are a few substitutes that you’re likely to have in your pocket. First, you could slide the edge of a credit card, driver’s license, or other plastic card under the tick’s body to help lift it off the surface of your skin. Clamp your thumbnail down on top of the tick as close as you can get to the skin, like you would with tweezers. Pinch the tick between the card and your thumbnail and pull straight up. If you have access to a knife, cut a small V-notch in the edge of the card and use it the way you would a Tick Key. 

Use Thread or Floss to Remove a Tick

You can also use a piece of thread or floss. If you you have zero tools at your disposal and find a tick buried in you, rip a piece of thread from your clothing or use a few strands of hair. Loop the string around the tick’s head, right at the base where it’s embedded in the skin. Take one end of the string in each hand and pull, tightening the loop slowly until the tick pops out.  

What to Do After a Tick Bite

No matter how you remove the tick, watch the bite area closely in the days that follow. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention don’t reco*mend getting the tick tested for a few reasons. First, even if a tick is infected, it might not have passed anything to you. Second, if the tick isn’t infected, this could create a false sense of security that could cloud your judgment of any symptoms that a different tick bite might have caused. Lastly, if you did pick up an illness from the bite, symptoms will likely show before you get results back, anyway. The best thing to do is to be tick aware and monitor yourself for symptoms. —Katie Hill

Ticks and Diseases

Some of the most well known ticks in the United States are the Lone Star, American Dog, Blacklegged(Deer), Gulf Coast, Brown Dog, and Asian Longhorned. The latter was discovered in 2017, but so far has not been known to transmit diseases to humans. The other five can carry and transmit a variety of diseases from the aforementioned Lyme and RMSF to the Heartland virus, tularemia, anaplasmosis, Powassan, and rickettsiosis. The Blacklegged and Lone Star ticks can also cause, in rare cases, Alpha-Gal Syndrome, which produces an allergy to red meat in the infected host.

Ticks are tough critters, and cold weather doesn’t kill them until temperatures fall between 14 and -2 degrees. They are more inactive in winter but may find a host, such as a burrowing rat, or even larger ones like a moose or bear. But during the spring and summer, ticks are at their peak activity. Fire or controlled burns can be used to help control tick numbers, but that doesn’t mean they co*pletely disappear, which is why it’s important to know the best way to remove a tick and have a few options on hand if you do end up with one latched to your skin. 

How to Remove a Tick: Use These Tools

If you’re bitten by a tick, don’t use folklore or Granny’s Secret Tick Poultice to remove it. Instead, the best way to remove a tick might require you to use one of the below tools, so you don’t leave part of the tick in your skin, which can lead to infection. I chose these tick removal products because I’ve used them, especially tweezers, in the field for years, and they work. In tight situations, I’ve also plucked ticks off with my fingers, but I don’t reco*mend doing this unless you’re in a bind.

• Best Overall Tick Remover: Tick Key





• Best Budget Tick Remover: Tweezers





• Best Kit: Tick Check Premium Tick Remover Kit





• Best for Precision: Uncle Bill’s Silver Gripper





• Best for Kids: Tick Twister

When they bite, ticks inject a mild anesthetic before embedding three barbed probes into your skin. That’s why you rarely feel a tick bite you. They can then feed on your blood for up to 48 hours, possibly transmitting a virus or bacteria into your body during the process. Severe symptoms might include fever, swelling, redness, rash, hives, itching, chills, headache, neck stiffness, nausea, or others. If you’re experiencing any of these symptoms, it might be time to drop your home remedy and see a doctor. —Alan Clemons

Best Way to Remove a Tick: Tick Key

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The Tick Key

     

             

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