# Tick removal



## Jerry Lyda (Apr 4, 2006)

I haven't tried this but I'll bet it works.

Tick Removal 
Summer is here and the ticks are out. Here is a good way to get them
off you, your children, or your pets. Give it a try.
Please forward to anyone with children... or hunters or dogs, or
anyone who even steps outside in summer!!

A School Nurse has written the info below -- good enough to share --
And it really works!

I had a pediatrician tell me what she believes is the best way to
remove a tick. This is great, because it works in those places where
it's some times difficult to get to with tweezers: between toes, in
the
middle of a head full of dark hair, etc.

Apply a glob of liquid soap to a cotton ball. Cover the tick with the
soap-soaked cotton ball and swab it for a few seconds (15-20), the
tick will come out on its own and be stuck to the cotton ball when you lift
it away. This technique has worked every time I've used it (and that was
frequently, and it's much less traumatic for the patient and easier for me.
Unless someone is allergic to soap, I can't see that this would be damaging
in any way. I even had my doctor's wife call me for advice because she had
one stuck to her back and she couldn't reach it with tweezers. She used this
method and immediately called me back to say, "It worked!"


Good Information to pass on.


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## maggie fraser (May 30, 2008)

Jerry, in my experience that isn't strictly true. I ran a thread on this very same topic on another forum a while back.....there were loads of suggestions so I pretty much tried them all. I came up trumps with the liquid soap...some brands worked more effectively than others but..they all still required removal with tweezers. The only tick I've ever known to fall off without a tweek was a great big fat one at the end of it's cycle. I'm a master at tick removal lol


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## Ashley Campbell (Jun 21, 2009)

Hey that's pretty neat! I've never really lived anywhere I got ticks on me, but I've seen them on the dogs. Lighter fluid made them let go too, so does torching them with a lighter...but that method seems better yet.


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## maggie fraser (May 30, 2008)

Ashley Campbell said:


> Hey that's pretty neat! I've never really lived anywhere I got ticks on me, but I've seen them on the dogs. Lighter fluid made them let go too, so does torching them with a lighter...but that method seems better yet.


 
I first learned the burning cigarette technique many years ago, but you really need a very fine haired (and still) animal for that to be effective. Lighter fluid, meths etc. will momentarily stun them but they'll still cling on, I believe the dollop of liquid soap, nail varnish etc. kind of suffocates them which lessens their grip....but the bast***s will still grip.


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## Ashley Campbell (Jun 21, 2009)

lighter fluid kind of suffocates them, I think that's the idea behind liquid soap. So I would imagine any thick petroleum based liquid would have the same effect. 

Dunno, I haven't actually seen them here on my dogs. My friend had a little short haired dog that I used to use a lighter on them - but it was really slick haired vs mine which might go up like a Roman candle.


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## maggie fraser (May 30, 2008)

Yeah, it's the setting them on fire is the hazard, even using a cigarette end can be quite clumsy.


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## leslie cassian (Jun 3, 2007)

Maybe we have different ticks here in Canada, but just getting under them and plucking them off seems to work. Then I drown them in alcohol. 

Icky, horrible, nasty things... the dogs were picking them up more in the spring, but not so much now that it's summer. Shudder.


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

I just grab and rip. Ofcouse that usually leaves the head and that itches for a couple of weeks.
Never tried the cigarette thing on a tick but I chased a leach around on my foot with one. Damn thing would let go and slide in between a couple of other toes. Burnt the crap out of my foot. ](*,)
The soap and cotton sounds worth trying.


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## Thomas Barriano (Mar 27, 2006)

We used to spend some time in Tallequah Oklahoma and used a drop of tea tree oil on the tick. I think the soap works on the same idea. The tick suffocates and lets loose on its own?


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## David Frost (Mar 29, 2006)

leslie cassian said:


> Maybe we have different ticks here in Canada, but just getting under them and plucking them off seems to work. Then I drown them in alcohol.
> 
> Icky, horrible, nasty things... the dogs were picking them up more in the spring, but not so much now that it's summer. Shudder.


Our TN ticks must be like yours. We just get under them and pop them off. I've never had a problem over many many years. I do like to put them in a piece of kleenex and set it on fire. You can hear the little booger "POP". I hate ticks. Although I do have to say, I'd rather have a tick than a chigger.

DFrost


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## Jerry Lyda (Apr 4, 2006)

You can have a tick but you can't have a chigger. You have chiggerS, they come in bunches like grapes. LOL


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## David Frost (Mar 29, 2006)

Jerry Lyda said:


> You can have a tick but you can't have a chigger. You have chiggerS, they come in bunches like grapes. LOL


I stand corrected. I do know better, ha ha.

DFrost


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## Nancy Jocoy (Apr 19, 2006)

I got chiggers so bad once I had to have prednisone. 

A bee or wasp sting - hurts for an instant then goes away

A fire ant raises a little blister and itches for a few days but you know when you have been bit and get the hell out before too many do.

A mosquito bite raises a small welt that itches a little bit for a day - maybe

Chiggers are 4-5 days of agonizing itching hell! I swear to God they like pine needles more than anything. If I am not coated with Deet I won't sit down in the woods. Chiggers are the only bite I have scratched myself bloody with and have memories of sleepless childhood nights reeking of campho-phenique. or Oil of Wintergreen or other remedies, none of which did squat.


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## David Frost (Mar 29, 2006)

I promise I'm not trying to do a "one up" on ya, the story is true however. In the early 70's I was doing a tracking program for the Land Warfare Labratory. I was tracking an area where the johnson grass was over my head. I had so many chigger bites, my scrotum was swollen the size of a large grapefruit. I had scratched myself so raw I had multiple infections. I was taken to the hospital with a temp of 104 and immediately admitted. I told the doctor, I didn't care what he gave me, just make the itching stop. I stayed in the hospital for 5 days, just because of chiggers. I'll pick ticks any day. 


DFrost


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## Bob Scott (Mar 30, 2006)

Amen on the ticks over chiggers!


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## Christopher Smith (Jun 20, 2008)

The ticks are worse than they have ever been in SoCal this year. I have been using orange oil on a Q-tip and they fall of in in a few seconds. It also helps the dog smell citrus fresh.


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