How to Remove a Tick from the Skin

Remove ticks properly.

Although the best defense against ticks is to wear protective clothing, once bitten the tick needs to be removed. Ticks embed themselves under the skin, so it's important to remove them correctly or the tick could break off, leaving part of it still in the skin. Ticks carry Lyme disease, so preventing tick bets is the best option for dealing with the pesky creatures.

Things You'll Need

• Pointed tweezers (or special tick tweezers)
• Alcohol swab
• A sealable container

Instructions

1. Identify the affected area. This should not be terribly difficult as the tick will most likely be feasting on the blood of its host and getting larger in size the longer it dines.

2. Acquire a pair of sterile, or at least well-cleaned tweezers, with tick tweezers being the optimal tool of choice. Wipe down any tweezers with an alcohol swab before using them to remove a tick.

3. Do not put any substances on the tick to try to coerce it to come loose. Instead, grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible with the tweezers.

4. With a firm grip (but not crushingly strong) begin to slowly pull the tick directly out of the skin with a straight motion. Be sure not to twist or turn the tick as it is being extracted. Doing so may actually worsen the situation by causing the tick to inject more pathogens into the bloodstream, or it may cause some of the mouth parts to become more deeply embedded into the skin.

5. Place the tick into the container and seal the container so the tick can be tested for any type of infectious diseases.

Tips & Warnings

• Ticks carry disease, so if you notice any unusual symptoms after a tick bite, see your doctor.

References

• Centers for Disease Control & Prevention: Tick Removal