Remove a Tick

5 Parts:

Tweezers Method

Dental Floss Method

Tips, Tricks & Warnings

Questions and Answers

Comments

Ticks often carry Lyme disease. It is important to check your pets for ticks regularly, and remove them as soon as possible. Ticks can also bite humans and transmit diseases.

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   The best way to remove a tick is to use a pair of tweezers with a fine tip

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   Don't use your bare hands, since this can cause abrasions and spread infection.If you have no tools available, wear gloves or use a piece of tissue to avoid direct contact with the tick.

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   Grasp the head of the tick that is embedded in the skin, not the abdomen

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   You can also pour hydrogen peroxide or isopropyl alcohol over the area to help prevent infection during the process. Place the tick in a jar and kill or dispose of it later.

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   After the tick has been removed, immediately wash the area and your hands with plenty of warm water and soap

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   Apply antibiotic ointment to the affected area.

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   Another method of tick removal is to use dental floss

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   This method is a good choice for people who have issues with damaging the tick's abdomen while pulling on it with tweezers.

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   Pour some peroxide or alcohol over the area to help prevent infection

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   Make a small loop with the floss and grab the tick's head within the loop. Gently tug up the strand of floss and remove the tick. This method decreases the chances of infection from pushing the blood in the tick back into the victim.

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   It is important to kill and dispose of the ticks properly

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   Wash the infected area with soap and water, and apply some antibiotic ointment. If ticks are a problem in your area, it's critical to keep an eye on all pets and family members and check them regularly for the reappearance of ticks.

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• If you can't remove the ticks by yourself, contact a medical professional to prevent injury, infection, Lyme disease or any other issues.
• Don't burn ticks while they're embedded in the skin.
• Check for swelling.
• Keep your lawn trimmed to discourage tick habitation.

I used peroxide to remove a tick from my boyfriend's leg. I applied it as I was pulling the tick out. Unfortunately I grabbed the body but the tick is intact and still alive. I have it sealed in a tightly sealed container and I want to bring it to the doctor with my boyfriend this morning to give to them to test it and see what kind of tick it was and what kind of diseases if any it carried. Am I doing the right thing? He has had it on him for a week?

See above for full details on my tick situation.

Though it's best to get the tick out as quickly as possible, it's good that you removed the entire tick and used peroxide to clean the area. As for keeping the tick in a jar, you could have killed it and disposed of it properly; the doctor that you need to see will test your boyfriend for applicable diseases, anyway. Make sure that you kill the tick so it can't reattach itself to you or your boyfriend.

If you have problems with any of the steps in this article, please ask a question for more help, or post in the comments section below.

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