How to Safely Remove a Tick in Louisville

Icky. Gross. Do ticks give you the creepy crawlies? Us too! If you enjoy an outdoor lifestyle of hiking, biking & camping, you may come in contact with a deer tick, lone star tick or American dog tick. If it is on your clothing you can brush it away, but if it is embedded in your skin, you need to remove it. If that is the case, your first and natural reaction may be to grab it and tear it out as fast as possible, but this is a dangerous action. Removing a tick is not difficult. But safe tick removal is vital for lowering the risk of transmitting a tick-borne disease.

What You’ll Need:

• Pointy tipped tweezers.
• Rubbing alcohol or other antiseptic.

Safely Removing the Tick:

• First thing, first, disinfect the area with rubbing alcohol. This is important for keeping the risk of infection down.
• Use your pointy tweezers to grab the tick carefully and as close to your skin as possible. The closer you get to it’s head and mouth the better.
• Pull the tick straight out with a steady motion. (Do NOT twist or yank the tick, that could lead to breaking mouth parts off into your skin.)
• Disinfect the bite again.

There are many ideas around the internet for how to remove a tick. From burning them with a match to smothering them with vaseline. We cannot stress enough; these methods are NOT a good idea. If you stress a tick, you can cause it to regurgitate saliva into the bite. If the tick is infected with Lyme, Rocky Mountain spotted fever or another tick-borne disease, your risks increase. It takes a tick about 24-48 hours of being embedded before it transfers Lyme disease, making safe tick removal vital for tick-borne disease prevention.

If you would like to avoid the safe tick removal process as much as possible, avoid ticks and tick bites altogether with Louisville tick control for your property. Our traditional barrier treatment eliminates 85-90% of ticks on contact and lasts for up to 21 days. Add tick tubes for even further tick reduction. Call today for a quote.