Finding a tick on your body or pet is never a pleasant surprise, and removing a tick can seem stressful. It needn’t be. Just follow the six steps below to remove a tick safely.
Remember to remain calm when removing a tick and to remove the tick as soon as you can. Ticks are aggressive, and they can cause severe illnesses, including Lyme disease.
Safely removing the tick as soon as possible may reduce you or your pet’s chances of infection.
In this article:
How to Remove a Tick: 6 Easy Steps
- Grip the tick: Grasp the tick as close to the skin’s surface as possible with sanitized fine-tipped tweezers. Do not grab the tick around its engorged belly. Doing so will push infected fluid into your body.
- Pull upward: After grasping the tick, pull upward with steady, even pressure. Don’t twist or jerk the tick. Twisting or jerking movements may cause the mouth-parts to break from the tick’s body and remain in the skin.
- Didn’t get it all? Don’t worry: If the mouth-parts do stay in the skin, then leave them alone. The remaining parts will likely come out on their own as the skin heals.
- Clean the bite area: After removing the tick, clean the bite area and your hands with rubbing alcohol, an iodine scrub, or soap and water. Don’t touch the tick with your bare hands.
- How to save the tick for testing: If you wish to preserve the tick for disease testing, place it in a zipped plastic bag with a moist cotton ball and bring it to your local health department or private lab.
- Get rid of the tick: To dispose of the tick, put it in alcohol, wrap it tightly in tape, or flush it down the toilet. Don’t crush the tick with your bare fingers.
Don’t remove ticks with debunked remedies such as nail polish, petroleum jelly, heat, gasoline, or rubbing alcohol. Don’t smother or burn a tick as that could cause the tick to release fluid into your body, increasing your chance of infection.
How to Avoid Ticks
- Your skin: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-registered insect repellents containing DEET, picaridin, IR3535, oil of lemon eucalyptus, para-menthane-diol, or 2-undecanone.
- Your clothing: Treat clothing and gear with products containing 0.5% permethrin. The EPA has a repellent search tool to help you find a repellent that best fits your needs.
- Your pets: Treat your domestic animals for ticks as recommended by the veterinarian.
- Wash up: Shower after being outdoors.
- Go long (pants and sleeves): Wear long pants and sleeves when outdoors.
- Tuck it: Tuck pants into socks when outdoors.
- Go light (color clothing): Wear light-colored clothing outdoors to make ticks easy to spot.
- Inspect yourself: Check your body daily for ticks, including inside the belly button, between the legs, behind the ears, and on the scalp.
When to Call a Doctor
If you develop a rash, fever, headache, joint pain, or flu-like symptoms within several weeks of removing a tick, see your doctor immediately. Tell the doctor about your recent tick bite, when the bite occurred, and where you may have come in contact with the tick. If you do not seek medical attention after symptoms appear, the infection may become life-threatening.
Ask The Experts
How to Remove a Tick
- What is your No. 1 tip on how to prevent tick bites?
- What is your advice on how to keep children calm while removing a tick?
- What is the most common mistake people make when trying to remove a tick?
- What is the best way to preserve a tick if you need to submit it to a lab?
- What should you do if you can’t remove a tick?
What is your No. 1 tip on how to prevent tick bites?
Overall, the use of a tick repellent.
What is your advice on how to keep children calm while removing a tick?
Do not delay. Just scrape off the tick if finding tweezers takes more than a minute. I could say put on a movie — “The Tick” might be a good choice.
Also, see the Tick Bite Bot.
What is the most common mistake people make when trying to remove a tick?
Irritating the tick by burning or smothering it with something can cause the tick to reflux more significantly into the host, increasing the pathogen transfer risk.
What is the best way to preserve a tick if you need to submit it to a lab?
1. Place the tick and collection specifics in a ziplock bag (or airtight container), and place that inside a second bag.
2. Place the double-bagged tick in a freezer for one to two days to kill it prior to mailing.
What should you do if you can’t remove a tick?
I can not conceive of a situation in which this would be the case. Just unceremoniously pulling or scraping them off as opposed to leaving them attached is preferable. No matter where they are attached. Get creative.
What is your No. 1 tip on how to prevent tick bites?
Wearing permethrin-treated clothing when going into fields and forests.
What is your advice on how to keep children calm while removing a tick?
Cover the tick with a thick layer of petroleum jelly to suffocate it, causing the tick to release to try and get clear of the viscous gel.
What is the most common mistake people make when trying to remove a tick?
Trying to pull out the tick by grasping the body with tweezers often results in the mouthparts remaining stuck in the skin. When feeding, ticks cement their mouthparts into the skin to remain attached. Squeezing the body may also force tick digestive fluids into the wound.
To physically remove a tick:
1. Grasp it with the tweezers by the mouthparts as close to the skin as possible.
2. Do not twist.
3. Apply gentle pressure directly backward until the tick comes free.
Ticks are easiest to detach as soon as they are discovered. Perform tick checks as soon as you return from the field. After the tick is removed, clean the wound thoroughly with alcohol or peroxide.
What is the best way to preserve a tick if you need to submit it to a lab?
Preserve the tick in 70—80% ethyl alcohol or isopropyl alcohol. Do not use formaldehyde to preserve the tick, because that will destroy any DNA that might be useful to detect viruses, bacteria, or parasites.
What should you do if you can’t remove a tick?
Cover the tick with a thick layer of petroleum jelly to suffocate it, causing the tick to release to try and get clear of the viscous gel. This is a slower, but less traumatic method.
What is your No. 1 tip on how to prevent tick bites?
The best prevention is avoidance and protection.
If you are going to be outdoors in an area where ticks have been seen or encountered, or where wildlife is known to frequent and there is high vegetation, be aware that ticks could be, and probably are, present.
It is recommended to dress appropriately — in light-colored clothing — so you can spot the ticks. Wear long sleeves and pants, and tuck the pants into your socks if you will be in an area of concern for a lengthy period of time.
Another option is to apply DEET before going into these locations. If you plan to be out in wooded areas or a location with dense vegetation, permethrin-treated clothing could be your best defense. In Texas, where many own cattle, it is important to protect yourself when working cattle or in the pastures as well.
What is your advice on how to keep children calm while removing a tick?
Distract them with a phone. As a parent who has recovered a few ticks from my daughter, I just removed it quickly without much fuss — but my children are not afraid of insects and arachnids.
What is the most common mistake people make when trying to remove a tick?
Doing it incorrectly. A tick should not be twisted or jerked when removed. Never attempt to burn the attached tick. It is best to use tweezers or use a special tool and pull the tick up swiftly and straight up.
What is the best way to preserve a tick if you need to submit it to a lab?
A tick should be placed in a secure container and can be stored in the freezer.
What should you do if you can’t remove a tick?
Seek medical attention and have it removed.
SEE RELATED: How to Control Ticks in Denver
Main Image Credit: Fairfax County, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CC BY-ND 2.0
