Ticks Removal Tips

I hate ticks. They're annoying and they can grow real fat by simply sticking to your dog for a couple days (hours even). Aside from using the tweezers to pull their heads from the dog's skin, there's this device called the tick remover .



Aside from the ones mentioned above, here are some products that have been used to make the ticks let go of their grip on the dog's skin.

1. Petroleum Jelly (Take a tiny glob of one of the first three items listed and swab it liberally on the ticks body to suffocate it.)
2. Peanut Butter (Unfortunately, the dog might be tempted to eat the Peanut Butter)
3. Cooking Oil
4. Nail Polish

On the other hand, some people do not encourage the use of these 4 tick removal substances because there's a possibility that the tick will release its saliva on the dog's blood stream.

What tick removal techniques work best for you?

In my family we've always tried to burn them off with a recently extinguished match. You light it, blow it out and quickly press the head of the match against the ticks body before it loses it's heat.

(08-16-2012, 07:31 AM)writer811 Wrote: In my family we've always tried to burn them off with a recently extinguished match. You light it, blow it out and quickly press the head of the match against the ticks body before it loses it's heat.

I've never tried that before because I have shaky hands. Do they let go immediately after being burned by the match stick?

I'm the type who'd usually resort to getting a pair of tweezers to easily pull them off, one by one. What I hate most is when some of them will clump together in one area.

(08-17-2012, 01:41 PM)haopee Wrote: I've never tried that before because I have shaky hands. Do they let go immediately after being burned by the match stick?

I'm the type who'd usually resort to getting a pair of tweezers to easily pull them off, one by one. What I hate most is when some of them will clump together in one area.

Don't use the tweezers if they're biting you. They bury their head into your body and just pulling them off will break the head off into your body and that is very unhealthy. It can get very infected that way.

Sometimes they let go immediately and sometimes they sort of just squirm around and a few times they barely reacted at all. I guess it just depends on the tick.

The burnt match works really well. They do come off immediately. My Mam'maw tried that one on me when I was a little girl. I've done the nail polish one too. Just have to wait for it to dry.

On a slightly different note, since nail polish made me think of this. If you have a wasp flying around and no bug spray, use hair spray. It hardens on their wings and the fall out of the air.

(08-21-2012, 07:26 AM)writer811 Wrote: Don't use the tweezers if they're biting you. They bury their head into your body and just pulling them off will break the head off into your body and that is very unhealthy. It can get very infected that way.

Sometimes they let go immediately and sometimes they sort of just squirm around and a few times they barely reacted at all. I guess it just depends on the tick.

I think using the tweezers is way better than what I used to do- doing it by hand (which was totally wrong). My sister sent me some fine-tipped tweezers which can be pretty good at pulling them from the head- just like how the CDC advises it to be done.


Source

And to prevent infection, I usually use antiseptic ointment or Neosporin because it's effective. I also have a container beside me with kerosene or alcohol to drop them in after I pull them out. Alcohol takes longer to kill them.