We are in the middle of summer, temperatures are rising, and with that many people like to escape and venture out into the woods and go camping. While camping is a fun time we all have to be aware of the dangers that surround us. One danger, in particular, are ticks. Ticks are extremely dangerous, one bite of a tick can cause Lyme disease or a skin infection. Lyme disease can cause serious problems with the joints, nervous system, and the heart. It is often hard to diagnose Lyme disease. A friend of mine suffered for over a year until she was finally diagnosed. The doctors could not diagnose her, they tried treating her symptoms. With Lyme disease, there are a variety of symptoms which makes it hard to pinpoint the cause. There are many methods out there on how to safely remove a tick. There is some bad advice out there, such as burning a tick or pouring peppermint oil on a tick. This can force the tick to regurgitate its saliva back into your skin and the bacteria will go back into your skin. Below are 3 ways to safely remove a tick from your body.
3 ways to Safely remove a tick
First, check to see if the tick is still present on you and engorged (meaning drawing blood from you and buried into your skin)
Use Tweezers
- With tweezers lightly grab the tick by the base of its mouth straight out until its mouth lets go of your skin.
- Place the tick in a Ziploc bag to send to a lab for further analysis
Use Dental Floss
If there are no tweezers or if you have issues using the tweezers you can use dental floss to safely remove a tick
- Make a loose knot. Lay the knot around the tick area and gently tighten the knot making sure it tightens right where the tick meets its body.
- Then pull the floss until it closes around the tick’s mouth and apply pressure shortly after the tick should let go and the floss will be tied to the tick.
- Put the tick inside a Ziploc bag and send it to the lab for analysis
Use a Q-tip
- Get a cotton ball Q-tip and dab it into some oil such as olive oil, coconut oil or clove essential oil, ticks do not like these oils.
- Start swirling the Q-tip with the oil on it around the tick in a clockwise direction slowly agitating it, making it rotate with the Q-tip until it backs out or it attaches to the Q-tip.
- Put the Tick in a Ziploc bag and send it to the lab to analyze.
Below is a video with a demonstration from the Lyme Channel. They use water but putting a dab of oil is just as effective.
So here are 3 ways to Safely remove a tick you can use to safely remove a tick. Hope these we will work for you and hope you don’t have to deal with a situation like this in the first place. Share your thoughts below!
