Ticks and their removal!

[MikeLA]

Looked at many different tick removal tools, most say to remove from the tool Either - coming into the head or it’s front or by placing the tool from the back of the tick to its head.

Which way do you all find on the different tools you use works for a clean removal of the tick. Hope you see what I mean

 

[Paul_B]

It's funny but I've rarely seen leeches in the UK. Once doing volunteer conservation work, once near the top of a Lakeland fell and last weekend in a freshwater stream among a load of tadpoles and water snails. That was IIRC called Haweswater near Gaitbarrow in Arnside and Silverdale AONB in really clear water. Can't remember seeing any more than that. How common are leeches in the UK?

 

[hebdo9]

I really can't see anything in the skin just the scab. If the rostrum is there it's under the skin and the scab. If it isn't possible to remove it then I guess infection is possible but also it's going to be dealt with by the side p dogs immune system / body.

Or should I get them checked out by vet? I really cannot see anything even with kids magnifying microscope thingy (can't find my magnifying glass used for geology at university so all I had to hand).

I have never known anyone in my family to get a tick, ever!!! Friends have but I've never seen a tick attached. I've seen one pre feed, as in very, very small body, when I brought it home on my clothes. I watched it walk down my arm from my t-shirt sleeve then off my hand to the chair I was sat on. I then picked it up to get a closer look and realised it was a tick. Squish! No longer a tick!!!!!! I'm seriously not considered lunch by ticks. I'm a tick repellant but midge magnet. Walk with me through a cloud of midges and you won't get bitten but I will. One time a mate had no midges near me but I had a 5+ m high cloud following me. However, I have a mate who almost always gets ticks. He's got a very understanding tick remover in his wife. There's places nobody but your mother or understanding partner might go!!!!

We realised that we were due another flea / tick dose for the dog so that's why she got them. We miscalculated when it was due. Normally we're better at that hence she's had no ticks before this.

Many years back, I got a sheep tick on me - only realized an hour after getting back to my flat, I had been out for a late summer walk in the country. I had some white spirit and had been advised to use that around it, but it just dug in further so I got my nail clippers and cut it off as close as possible, then used a match to partly burn the skin, the clippers had shaved a thin layer off my inner wrist. I was fine apart from a small red rash which I checked with a doctor as well. I later heard that Vaseline is good as it suffocates the tick and it releases, I have never tried this as yet.

 

[oldtimer]

A leech got me last month in my vegetable patch which adjoins a water meadow. This is the only time one has ever got me in my 79 years in Europe, the USA or the Bahamas.

 

[oldtimer]

It's funny but I've rarely seen leeches in the UK. Once doing volunteer conservation work, once near the top of a Lakeland fell and last weekend in a freshwater stream among a load of tadpoles and water snails. That was IIRC called Haweswater near Gaitbarrow in Arnside and Silverdale AONB in really clear water. Can't remember seeing any more than that. How common are leeches in the UK?

A leech got me last month in my vegetable garden which adjoins a water meadow. This was the first time one had got me in my 79 years in Europe, the USA or the Bahamas.

 

[TLM]

Greases work but not very fast, tee tree oil or some other terpenes kill it under a second and makes it easier to remove.

 

[slowworm]

I understood you should never burn, oil, squeeze or otherwise harm a tick as it risks the tick regurgitating it's meal into you along with various diseases. Hence either using tweezers on the head or one of the tick removal tools.

Personally, like others, I use the O'Tom tick tools on myself, OH and hound. Cheap enough to have a few laying about.

 

[Robson Valley]

Ticks are extremely common all over North America. They can be less than an inch apart all over deer and moose. When you hang game and the body goes cold, all the ticks will pull off to look for another warm host. Self-cleaning but a mess on the garage floor. Never squish a tick. That spray of guts is contaminated with arboviruses.
Most effective for me is a very fine-tipped pair of jeweler's tweezers if you will.
I always tried to grab the rostrum, even on my children and myself, where I could reach.

 

[Woody girl]

I always keep a set of large and small tick removers in my first aid kit. A couple of quid buys you the set of green plastic tick removers from a chemist.
Never, never cut them off! Leaving the head in can cause serious infection. Do not squeeze them or burn or oil them, as sloworm says. It can cause you to get very sick. Any reddening of the site of the bite especially if it looks like a ring, see a doctor and get antibiotics straight away. Better to have them and stay well than get lymes disease. Don't take chances or muck about with ticks, just carry an extractor tool and be vigilant after being in the woods. They are nasty little beasts!
Remember, they can be as small as a full stop. If they are large they have been feeding off you for some while.
Ladies..be carefull taking a pee., gents, be carefull when squatting.. I had one hitch a ride in a very inconvenient place, and had to have it removed in the local a&e, very embarrassing!
When you are told, check all over... it means just that! Get someone to check places you can't see too. You never know where the nasty beggars will crawl to once they land, armpits ,groin, backs of knees....Tuck your trousers into your socks and wear light coloured clothing so they are easily seen.
Stay safe and well.

 

[Paul_B]

A mate had 4 such inconvenient ticks while wild camping in Scotland. All on one day/ night! Fortunately he married the lady who took them out by head torch light (and later told everyone the story and many more embarrassing ones with it). They were only courting at the time! It was obviously made to be!!!

 

[Paul_B]

We bought a couple of tick hook sets after our old sets went missing in the move. We used ordinary tweezers until they came in and tweezers worked well too.

Those tick removers came in two sets of three different sizes. Sold as for humans but packaging was for dogs. Still, same design so we use them anyway. They work