The best way to remove a tick is always to use fine-tipped tweezers to grip the tick’s as close to your skin as possible and pull straight upward, with firm, gradual, and consistent pressure. Don’t try to yank or twist the tick out as you pull and go slowly.

Proper tick removal is very important. If you don’t remove the tick cleanly and completely, you may inadvertently leave behind pieces of its mouth parts of the body behind in the wound. Unfortunately, a frustrating amount of misinformation about the right way to remove a tick has made learning the proper technique somewhat difficult. To set the record straight, here are the definitive “dos” and “don’ts” of tick removal. Next time you have to remove a tick from yourself, your children, or your pets, keep these dos and don’ts in mind:

Do

1. Act fast

Ticks take 24 hours to transmit the diseases they may carry to human hosts. The faster you can pull attached ticks off of you, the less danger they represent. You should prepare to remove the tick from your body as soon as you find it whenever possible.

2. Use the proper tweezer technique

No matter what you’ve heard, the right way to remove a tick is always using tweezers. Get a set of fine-tipped tweezers or specialized dual-tipped tick removal tweezers and follow each of these steps:

a: Grip the tick firmly as close to the surface of your skin as possible. Try to lock the tweezers around the tick’s mouthparts (this may be impossible depending on how far the tick has burrowed).

b: Pull straight up (away from your skin) with steady, firm, and gradual pressure. If you feel the tweezer’s grip slipping at any point, reset.

c: Remove the tick all at once and store it in a jar or cup nearby.

d: If pieces of the tick remain behind in the wound after you extract the body, carefully attempt to remove the pieces using the tweezers. Be careful not to hurt yourself! If you can’t easily remove the pieces, try washing them out or leave them alone until you heal.

3. Preserve or safely dispose of the tick

Preserving the tick in alcohol or a sealed bag can help your doctor or a pest control professional identify it. Consider keeping the tick for a week or two. If you develop symptoms, take the preserved tick with you to the doctor for identification.

If you don’t want to preserve the tick, then wrap it in tape or foil, place it inside a sealed plastic bag, or flush it down the toilet.

4. Wash the wound

After removing the tick, you should immediately wash and disinfect the bite wound. Use a disinfectant such as rubbing alcohol or simply wash thoroughly with soapy water. Take this opportunity to check the bite wound for leftover pieces of the tick.

5. Visit the doctor in you develop symptoms

If the site of the bite swells, breaks out in a rash, itches, or inflamed, or if you develop a fever or other symptoms of illness one to four weeks after you remove the tick, visit a doctor. Tell the doctor when and where you were bitten by the tick, how long the tick may have been attached to you, and how long it’s been since you removed it. If you have the tick, bring it with you to the appointment.

Do not

1. Panic

Even if you don’t know how long the tick has been attached, you should never panic when you find it. Ticks won’t suddenly burrow deeper, detach, or defend themselves in any way as you attempt to remove them. Stay calm and remove the tick as soon as you can.

2. Use an “alternative” removal method

The tweezers technique is always the right way to remove ticks. Do not try “burn” the tick off with a match, “drown” it with rubbing alcohol or water, or “freeze” it with ice. Not only are these techniques ineffective, but they may actually get the tick to burrow deeper into your skin.

3. Twist or yank at the tick

When removing the tick, you should always pull straight and steadily, even if you can’t seem to remove the tick at first. Never yank the tick suddenly, twist it, or attempt to “wiggle” it out of the wound. Doing so could break off pieces of the tick in the wound even if you remove it. These pieces could still transmit disease or infect your skin, and they’re harder to remove than the full tick.

4. Crush the tick

After you’ve removed the tick, you should never crush or squish it by hand. Pieces of the tick could get stuck in your fingers or hands, and it may secrete blood or another blood that could infect your skin or transmit diseases. Instead, preserve the tick or dispose of it safely with a bag or foil.

One last don’t: don’t forget that we’re here to help. If you have any questions about removing, identifying, or preventing ticks, don’t hesitate to give Griffin Pest Solutions a call. We can find ticks near you, identify them, and keep them away for good.

Ticks can latch on anywhere, but they’re fond of warm, dark places such as armpits, joints, behind ears or in hair. They will typically try to crawl to your head. After returning from a tick hunting ground, strip and use a mirror to check for tick bites thoroughly.

Ticks can be surprisingly difficult to find, even when they’re attached to your body. Tick bites are painless because the bloodsuckers’ saliva contains a localized anesthetic, so you won’t feel them bite down. After catching a ride on your body, they also like to climb to warm, dark places around your body, which may make them even more difficult to find. In order to effectively find ticks, you have to know when to look, where to look, and what to look for. We can help you learn each of those things:

When to look for tick bites

Michigan’s ticks live in tall grasses, shrubs, brush, and forested areas. They hunt, or “quest,” by climbing to perches on vegetation near footpaths and waiting for prey to wander by. If you get close enough, they’ll simply grab on as you walk by. Tick’s legs are hooked to make clinging to and moving on clothing and fur easier. The longer you spend around their possible perches, the more likely it is that ticks will crawl onto you.

It’s important to check for ticks whenever you spend an extended period of time near their habitats outside. Obviously, this means after camping trips, hikes, walks through woods or grassy fields, or trips to the park. Unfortunately, however, some ticks may live closer to home than we’d like to admit. You should also check for ticks after yard work or gardening, especially in summer time. Any time you’re outside and around vegetation, you could be around ticks.

Where to look for tick bites

Ticks can bite down on any part of your body, but they have a few different favorite spots. First, they seek out areas where they can consume a lot of blood quickly. They’ll look for centers of circulation and heat. For this reason, ticks are most attracted to your head and will make their way up your body to reach it if they can. Consequently, ticks frequently attach themselves higher on your body than you may expect.

Ticks also prefer to attach to areas with thin skin, where they can access blood more easily. They’ll look for areas like your scalp, ankles, hips, knees, and elbows. Finally, ticks tend to like warm, moist, hidden areas where they won’t be bothered. They’ll frequently crawl near armpits, joints such as the back of your knees, your hair, or the underside of your breasts. Remember, though: even if you don’t find ticks in the likely spots, you should still check everywhere else, too.

What to look for to identify tick bites

Counter-intuitive as it may seem, you want the tick that has bitten you to have remained attached. This makes their bite much easier to find and means they haven’t been attached for too long. Remember that ticks are very small, so you may not immediately recognize them as ticks even if you’re looking right at them. Furthermore, ticks can burrow their bodies further into skin until they become partially buried under the skin.

Basically, when ticks are on your body they may only look like small brown or black spots. The area on or around the bite may turn red, develop a rash, become inflamed, or swell. Unlike mosquito bites, it will not contain liquid, though it may itch. Ticks could stay attached to people for anywhere between 3 and 10 days, depending on several factors. If you’re unsure if you’re looking at a tick bite, try a magnifying glass or feel for a bump.

To summarize: check for ticks after you spend an extended period of time outside and/or in grassy, overgrown, or forested areas. Check all over your body, but pay special attention to your hair and scalp, ears, neck, shoulder blades, armpits, elbows, hips, knees, and ankles. Look for small black and brown spots, bumps, rashes, protrusions, and swelling.

If you seem to be having a lot of tick problems this summer, remember that you don’t have to suffer in silence. Just because ticks can live near your home doesn’t mean they should. If you need help getting ticks away from you, give Griffin Pest Solutions a call any time. We can drive off the bloodsuckers for good.