Tick kit

[Quixoticgeek]

Would there be interest in a group buy of Otom tick removal tools?

Julia

 

[Modchop]

Would there be interest in a group buy of Otom tick removal tools?

Julia

Definitely dependant on price.

The cheapest I can currently find them online is £3.95 delivered.

Cheers

 

[Idleknight]

I keep one of these in my wallet and tend to have wipes handy too
http://www.cotswoldoutdoor.com/tickcard-tick-card-b3210035

 

[Quixoticgeek]

I keep one of these in my wallet and tend to have wipes handy too
http://www.cotswoldoutdoor.com/tickcard-tick-card-b3210035

Have you used it to remove ticks? does it work well? I like the form factor, and the fact I could keep one in my purse...

Julia

 

[Idleknight]

I have been pretty lucky so far, so haven't needed to use it, but I am told it works well, as well as the tool to remove the tick in 2 different sizes it also includes a magnifying glass.

 

[xylaria]

My tick kit is tick o tom, bug oil, a mirror and alchol gel. The card looks useful for ticks on people. I have a forceps type device for the ferrets ears. For camping a use a magnifying compact mirror for checks. If I have gone somewhere really ticky I check again in a few days. No one has had a tick in our house for over a year though, we go ticky places like the brecons.

 

[cbr6fs]

spray your clothes with permetherine as a first line of defence, then o'tom twister

+1

Permethrin is really effective against getting them on you in the first place.

For tick removal, we've tried most readily available ones on the market.
The best we've found is the O'Tom twister lasso thing.

As a bit of background our summer house is surrounded by fields that are infested with ticks.
It's not uncommon to remove 30, 40 or even 50 ticks off our little 5kg Jack Russell of a night.

Finger nails and tweezers are the worst removal method we've found.
The V slot type are OK but not brilliant.
Problem we found was that to remove them more effectively it's better to twist as you pull, with the V slot type it's tough to do this without decapitating the tick.

If we remove say 30, at least 5 will be decapitated.

With the lasso type we've not had a decapitation yet.
It's quick, easy and very effective.

I keep one in each of my rucksacks and first aid kits, one in my car and we have several at the summer house.

Luckily our dog is pretty much bald in the summer as she sheds most of her fur, so tick detection and removal are pretty easy.
The bro-in-laws poodle on the other hand is a nightmare.

Trick is to concentrate on the warmer areas of the body, like the inside of joints, under arms, etc

 

[am5566]

I used the otom tick remover this morning to remove 3 ticks it was really easy to use and all three ticks kept their heads.
I used to use tweezers but wasn't good at it and most of the time the heads were left In. Might just be me being rubbish at it!

 

[Toddy]

cbr6fs ? what's the lasso type ?
I have the otom twister type, the ones with the end like a bent crowbar, and the tick card ones, but they're not 'lasso' if I make myself clear.

I agree with am5566, and I've never had a problem withe twister ones, apart from dropping them and having a heck of a job to find them again in the grass and they don't hang to hand on my keyring.

atb,
M

 

[mrmike]

My personal preference is the lifesystems tick tweezers and alcohol gel or iodine.
Mostly because the other tick tools are really bad at removing splinters and I like multi-functionality. .....

sent from my windswept fell using Tapatalk 4

 

[cbr6fs]

cbr6fs ? what's the lasso type ?
I have the otom twister type, the ones with the end like a bent crowbar, and the tick card ones, but they're not 'lasso' if I make myself clear.

I agree with am5566, and I've never had a problem withe twister ones, apart from dropping them and having a heck of a job to find them again in the grass and they don't hang to hand on my keyring.

atb,
M

Sorry my mistake.

The type i prefer is the TRIX Tick Remover System not the o'tom pry bar type

This is the one we use now:

[video=youtube;Q4-1xYl97gg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4-1xYl97gg[/video]

As i say problem i've found with the pry bar type is that some of the ticks we removed were well dug in, so we've found it easier to twist and pull, seems to release their barbs better.
With the pry bar type we had problems in that when we tried to twist and pull it ended up leaving the tick heads in the skin.

We've been using the lasso type for a few years now and haven't decapitated one yet with this system


Should also clarify that 99% of the ticks we've removed have been on the dogs, so a quick, easy, foolproof system is better as keeping a Jack Russell still is a accomplishment on it's own

 

[Toddy]

That looks rather tidy, doesn't it ? and a pen would hook over a pocket edge or into a slot in my bag.
Thank you for the information

Yeah, Jack Russells are known for being still and calm....not

cheers,
M

 

[cbr6fs]

That looks rather tidy, doesn't it ? and a pen would hook over a pocket edge or into a slot in my bag.
Thank you for the information

Yeah, Jack Russells are known for being still and calm....not

cheers,
M

Works really well Mary.

The bottom section is around the same diameter as a pen, the upper section is a bit thicker though, so might not fit through some pens slots.
Gimme a couple of mins and i'll snap a comparison pics against a BIC pen

 

[cbr6fs]

Here ya go

 

[am5566]

The pen/lasso looks good, does this work with the tiny nymph ticks?

 

[cbr6fs]

The pen/lasso looks good, does this work with the tiny nymph ticks?

Absolutely no idea sorry.

A quick google shows nymph ticks to be really really small, can't say as i've ever spotted one that small either on my dog or myself.
Is there a comparison test i could do to see.

How about if i try to pick up a grain of sugar with the loop, would that be a good size comparison?

 

[Toddy]

Thank you for the photo I see what you mean about the pen slot idea....ehm, I think if I saw them for sale at a reasonable price when I was out shopping I'd pick at least one up to put in the FAK's. I know the video thingie is made to make their use look as simple and excellent as possible, but from what you've said, it's true enough.

I liked the tick key idea because if any of us are out we have our keys with us, and the tick key hangs on the keyring but that's now three people who have told me that they had difficulty getting the beast out whole using one, so I'm becoming a little dubious.
Thing is, we don't get enough ticks to try the tools out often; HWMBLT gets them right enough, but he walks miles every day, I can't remember having a tick in years; I'm just getting a bitty over aware of just how bad the damned bites can be these days with Lymes disease. Colin is a classic example of just how bad it can get and he'd be the first to tell folks to check more than carefully for the blasted things.

atb,
M

 

[Blaidd]

I've been concerned about the whole "twisting" thing because the CDC says "don't". However I've recently found this very informative article which basically says (I paraphrase here)

Don't twist the tick if using tweezers.
Otom is the best tick tool but only twist one way. (It doesn't matter which way as long as you keep going in one direction.)
You can only see the mouth parts with an electron microscope, a magnifying glass isn't powerful enough.

http://www.bada-uk.org/correct-tick-removal/tick-removal-tick-removal-tool

 

[xylaria]

My ferrets pick up tiny ticks and o tom removes them. The only time I needed vet help was one in the ear canal, the o tom couldn't go around the corner to it. The o tom even removed one from a whisker pore without removing the whisker. It still caused pain, but it does the job very quickly. I even got one off the cat without getting maimed.

 

[cbr6fs]

The pry bar type do work, we've pulled no end out using that type of device, as i say it's only the really well dug in ones we had problems with.

I'm pretty sure if it was your own arm you could keep still enough to pry it out with a little pressure and slowly.
With the dogs though it's a bit tougher.

With the lasso type it's pretty much fool proof though