How to remove a tick from the skin

Although the best defense against ticks is to wear protective clothing, once bitten there is a method to making certain that the tick is removed properly. By doing so one can protect themselves, or their pets from further infection.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

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

1. First identify the area that is affected. 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. Second acquire a pair of sterile, or at very least well cleaned tweezers, with tick tweezers being the optimal tool of choice.
3. Do not put any substances on the tick to try coercing it to come loose, it won't. Instead grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible.
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. Once the tick has been fully removed, place it into the container, and then seal the container so that it can be tested for any type of infectious diseases that ticks have been known to carry.
6. Have the tick tested by a facility that can identify the potential dangers associated with the various types of ticks that are in existence.

Tips & Warnings

• The sign of infection known to appear as a bull's-eye is not always present in the host that may have become infected so go to the doctor regardless of the situation to be tested for any diseases it may have had.