How to remove ticks

Ticks are small parasitic insects commonly found in grassy areas during spring and summer. Ticks live by attaching themselves to a host (humans or animals) and sucking blood. Ticks are stealthy animals, most of the time you can’t feel one walking over you, or even biting your skin. I had many ticks in my life and I felt one biting me only once, probably because it was a monster of a tick. They also have very powerful jaws which makes them hard to remove. It may be interesting to note that ticks don’t have an anus. They don’t produce feces. My biology teacher used to say that this is because blood is the perfect food.

Ticks could be very dangerous because they transmit Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. There is no way to tell whether the tick that attached itself to your skin is carrying any of these diseases or not, so it is important to treat every tick as a dangerous one. Therefore, it is of utmost importance that the tick is removed properly. Improper removal or usage of various fold remedies makes the tick regurgitate the contents of its bowels back into our bloodstream.

First line of defense is prevention. Ticks rarely attach immediately after climbing onto our bodies. Most of the time they walk around, up to 24 hours, searching for a good place to bite down. This gives you plenty of time to search your body and you clothes for ticks after you return home from a walk in the park or some other grassy area. Just make sure to search thoroughly, turn your clothes upside down and look in every nook and cranny. It is best to do this while standing in a bathtub.

Let’s see now what you should never do if a tick actually attaches itself on your skin. Virtually all the folk remedies that make the tick fall off, such as kerosene, diesel, gas, dish soap, etc. will make the tick regurgitate into your blood stream before it dies. If it has any pathogens they will go straight into you. The same is true for using fire, sticky tape, wax and other things.

The only right way to remove a tick is to pull it out with tweezers, but this must be done in a way that the tick’s abdomen is not squeezed. You must use tweezers designed for tick removal (can be bought in drug stores). Only they are narrow enough to enable you to grab the tick just by its thorax. This is the part of the tick that is closest to your skin and that has legs attached to it. Abdomen is the big round or shriveled thing at the back of the tick, behind its legs. If you squeeze the abdomen it will just squirt its contents into your bloodstream.

If all this sounds too complicated seek medical help.