How to Safely remove a tick from skin after it attaches itself

The most common Lyme disease ticks is the deer tick (western black legged tick) and (lone star tick) Depending on your location 1% to more than 90% of ticks are infected with Lymes disease, deer ticks have a two year life cycle, deer ticks can be found all year round including wintertime. You will hear many ways to remove a tick, this is the approved method in the emergency room in which I have 10 years experience in. the MD's use this method. If done correctly the entire tick will be removed, of course, there is always that chance that the head will still be embedded in the skin. You still need medical attention no matter what.

Things You'll Need

• tweezers
• jar with rubbing alcohol in it and tightly capped

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Instructions

• 1

  Many people remove ticks the incorrect way, as an ER nurse the proper way to remove a tick from the skin is tweezers. *Do Not Use petroleum jell or a hot match* many people make this mistake and increase the risk of removing the tick with the head imbedded in the skin. pictures below are the on the left is a most common transmitters of lymes disease

• 2

  Once a deer tick is discovered on skin, first don't panic! Get a common pair of tweezers, grab the tick at the skin where to tick is attached very close to the skin, usually the ticks will release when pinched but if the tick does not release pull the tick off being very careful to get the whole tick, but if the ticks head is still imbedded in the skin, my advise would be to put rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball and tape to the skin where the tick is and leave for 10 minutes on the area and try again, if this fails as well you may need to take a ride to the emergency room, there, antibiotics may be prescribed as a precautionary measure.

• 3

  Last step, once the tick is removed place the tick in a bottle with rubbing alcohol in it and cover, this preserves the tick for MD to identify for carrier of Lymes Disease. Remember, not all ticks carry Lymes Disease, however common dog tick carries Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, however, this tick is still under study as to whether it is a carrier of Lymes Disease