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Tools for Tick Removal

Ticks are notoriously hard to remove once they have latched onto a victim. If you simply tug at a tick with your fingers, you might be unsuccessful at removing it or you might crush the body, pushing the tick's possibly poisonous insides into its victim. It is also very common for the tick to leave body parts behind, most notably the head, if you try to remove it haphazardly. Many companies have developed tools designed to remove ticks completely.

  1. Tick Forceps

    • Tick forceps are fine-tipped and similar to tweezers. The tool has a curved body to prevent vision obstruction, while the fine tip allows you to grab the head of the tick without crushing the body. It is very sturdy, which allows for traction with ticks that are deeply embedded. Similar tools include blunt tweezers, sharp tweezers, straight hemostats and curved hemostats.

    Ticked Off Tick Spoon

    • The Ticked Off tick spoon is a small plastic spoon with a V-shaped notch on the end. You slip the notch underneath the tick and lever it off the victim. Ideally, the tick body would fall into the spoon. A similar device is the Pro Tick Remedy tick slider. This device has a spoon-like shape with a small notch on the end. It works in the same manner as the Ticked Off tick spoon.

    Trix Tick Noose

    • The Trix tick noose is a spring-loaded gadget that releases a mono-filament nylon noose when you push the top of the handle. Glide the noose under the tick's body and around its neck. Release the button on the top of the handle and the noose tightens to pull the tick off.

    Tick Nippers

    • This device looks like a mixture of the tick spoon and tweezers. You squeeze the handles together to close the cupped shape around the tick. The sharp part of this device, called the "jaws," is thin enough to slip underneath the tick's body without squishing it. As you squeeze the handles and clamp the jaws around the tick, the device puts pressure on the shoulders of the tick and forces it off. Ideally, the tick would then fall into the cupped shape of the end of the device.

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