Easy tick removal?

[malcolmc]

I’ve been looking to add a modern tick remover to my FAK. The first chemist I tried the pharmacist suggested you don’t need them; all you need to do is cover the tick with butter – it won’t be able to breathe and will drop off in a couple of minutes.

Anyone tried this? Does it work?

 

[andyn]

thats shocking advice from a chemist!!!!

Using alcohol, oil, vaseline, butter etc or heat to encourage ticks to let go is not a good idea. These methods cause suffocation/distress and can causes the tick to regurgitate the ingested blood into the wound, this gives a much higer chance of infection or disease to be passed on.

Using tweezers or a proper tick removal claw, grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible and with a slow but firm twisting motion pull upwards. Clean the area with an antiseptic or alcohol wipe.

Make sure that there isn't a black dot remaining (likely to be its head snapped off and is under the skin now)

The ideal advice is that the tick should be placed in a tissue and put in a dated film canister and kept so that should any problems occur later on the tick can be identified, the disease can be culured and identifed and appropriate treatment given.

 

[g4ghb]

Hmmmm - I'm not impressed with the advice either!

I bought a set following the heads up from British Red - http://www.bada-uk.org

not had the opportunity or need (thankfully) to use them yet but they seem great and what drew me to them - no moving parts!

 

[janiepopps]

Was at the vets yesterday and they were selling a packet of 2 different sized tick removers for £2.85.

j

 

[Jodie]

Butter bad, O'tom tick remover good - and actually quite fun to use.
You can get them from local vet's surgeries usually.
The company has a video showing them in use: http://www.otom.com/homepage.htm

More about how to use them:
http://www.lymediseaseaction.org.uk/information/tick_removal.htm

I bought mine from the British Deer Society (BDS) but someone (British Red I think)
posted a link to the borreliosis and associated disease awareness association
(BADA-UK) which sells them at a slightly cheaper price:
http://www.bada-uk.org/ - it has very useful PDF info leaflets
http://www.bada-uk.org/merchandise.html - it's the first thing on the page at the moment.

Other places that sell them:
http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/rodents/accessories/care_grooming/29986
http://www.bds.org.uk/product57.html - where I got mine

If you prefer the fine-pointed tweezer strategy:
http://www.raymears.com/shop_item_desc.cfm?id=483&itemType=Accessories
I'm sure some of these might do:
http://www.chronos.ltd.uk/acatalog/Tweezers.html

 

[Porcupine]

i wonder what that pharmacist wil advise when you have a headache? leeches to lessen the pressure on your head?


http://www.bushcraftuk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=21793 is one of the many threads about ticks,it offers way better advice.

 

[Mikey P]

Blimey, this is going round the buoy, yet again!

However...I have something a bit different:

http://www.tickremover.com/

This is effectively a 'tick lassoo'. It's about pen-sized and when you press the button on the end, a little loop of what looks like nylon fishing line comes out the end. This goes over the tick. You then release the button and the loop comes tight around the tick's head.

Heh-heh!

You then twist the pen, which twists out the little bu**er!

It does work pretty well and I hadn't seen anything like this before.

 

[Porcupine]

one of the older threads about ticks had a tip about dental floss.

make a simple knot in it, and use the noose to pull out the tick.
tested it on the cat several times and those came out clean.

on my self i used a special tick removal tool several times, i tend to find em before they are pea size

 

[Jodie]

Does that device you discovered work on the teeny ticks as well cos I can see it being
a bit fiddly? Loved the accompanying movie on the site - a poignant moment at the
end with the tick being despatched into a waiting dustbin

Personally I'd have killed it first just in case it crawled out of the bin and sought me
out for another snack; I don't trust 'em.

 

[Mikey P]

Does that device you discovered work on the teeny ticks as well cos I can see it being
a bit fiddly? Loved the accompanying movie on the site - a poignant moment at the
end with the tick being despatched into a waiting dustbin

Personally I'd have killed it first just in case it crawled out of the bin and sought me
out for another snack; I don't trust 'em.

Apparently it does - I've had no problems even with the little black ones (got one this afternoon before it attached).

 

[malcolmc]

Thanks all. I did think the butter idea was a bit too easy to be true. Thanks especially to Andyn for detailed advice; it hadn’t occurred to me it was a good idea to retain the tick in case of further problems. Film pot added to FAK.

 

[Too Much Kit To Carry]

I think the thing with ticks is to check your body on a regular basis when in the wild. On a recent trip to Scotland I gave up counting ticks on the back of my left hand at 38 whilst gathering pig nuts. It had only taken a few minutes of digging to get covered in them. Whilst I checked my body on a regular basis I still managed to get at least 10 that latched on.

Ticks seem to be a growing problem and it is essential that one is aware of them crawling up you legs! I always wear gaiters even in the summer in area where there might be ticks.

Phil.

 

[Jodie]

I knew my gardening gloves were a good idea

I couldn't feel any crawling up my legs but I could definitely when one started to bite.

 

[spamel]

I went out yesterdy up the farm to dispatch a few rabbits, and when I got back, Ratbag came around. It was then that i felt a tickling sensation on my hip. had a look and there was a tick there! First one I've encountered this year. Couldn't find my removal tools, which I've since found and put in my response pak FAK where they belong.

I sat down to try and get it out with my fingers when I realised it hadn't attatched itself yet. I just picked him up and tried to crush him between my thumbnails, but it kept jumping around! I couldn't believe how far they can jump! Eventually got it in the end.

 

[dwardo]

When ever ticks come up in conversation there are always loads of "experts" on the subject including chemists, burn them, cover them in butter etc etc and alls i say is "so you have had a tick then and done this ?" errr no err but i seen it on telly once .
People seem to not mind giving duff info on things like this i have seen open heart surgery on tv but i would not say to somone "yeah its easy ye just crack open the chest an get on with it" as i i had done iot a thousand times before lol Strange aint it.

 

[spamel]

When ever ticks come up in conversation there are always loads of "experts" on the subject including chemists, burn them, cover them in butter etc etc and alls i say is "so you have had a tick then and done this ?" errr no err but i seen it on telly once .
People seem to not mind giving duff info on things like this i have seen open heart surgery on tv but i would not say to somone "yeah its easy ye just crack open the chest an get on with it" as i i had done iot a thousand times before lol Strange aint it.

Very true. This also dispels that old saying,"A way to a mans' heart is through his stomach." Evidently not, it is through the rib cage!

 

[demographic]

As already mentioned, go to the local vets and ask them for a tick removal tool.

The ones we got for the dog look like little green crowbars..

You put the claw under the head of the tick and rotate it a few times then pull it out.

 

[Jodie]

Those are the O'tom devices and I've used the smaller one twice very effectively.

LOL dwardo and spamel

 

[brancho]

I think I need to go to the vet get one of those as my springer spaniel gets ticks a lot and they are not easy to remove wit tweasers.

 

[Mikey P]

When ever ticks come up in conversation there are always loads of "experts" on the subject including chemists, burn them, cover them in butter etc etc and alls i say is "so you have had a tick then and done this ?" errr no err but i seen it on telly once .
People seem to not mind giving duff info on things like this i have seen open heart surgery on tv but i would not say to somone "yeah its easy ye just crack open the chest an get on with it" as i i had done iot a thousand times before lol Strange aint it.

Well, I consider myself pretty expert. Lyme disease is a serious in the area of Germany where I live, and we are surrounded by forests and deer - a great combination for a lot of ticks.

The lassoos, tweezers and O'toms are all just different methods of doing the same thing: twist and pull. Suffocating or burning ticks does not work. I know: I've tried it.

So, I'm quite happy to come forward on this forum and say 'Do it this way and not that way'.

To be honest, we've done this one to death now. Please - no more tick posts. It's getting boring and repetitive.