How to Get an Embedded Tick Out of Your Body

When an embedded tick starts to feast on its host's blood, it can transmit a tick-borne disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has identified ten diseases that humans can contract from an embedded tick. That means it's important to remove a tick from your body as soon as possible. If you remove an embedded tick properly, within 24 to 72 hours after it first bites, you can reduce your risk of infection.

Things You'll Need

• Fine-tipped tweezers
• Alcohol
• Soap and water
• Plastic bag or jar

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Instructions

Tick removal

• 1

  Grasp the embedded tick as close to the skin as possible with fine-tipped tweezers.

• 2

  Pull the tick straight out in one fluid motion, away from your body.

• 3

  Clean the skin with soap and water.

• 4

  Drop the tick into a plastic bag or jar of alcohol to preserve it for identification by your doctor. Ticks carry common diseases, like Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain spotted fever, that can be transferred to humans when they bite. Preserving the tick that bit you for testing by your doctor can make identifying the tick-borne disease easier.

• 5

  Crush the tick between two pieces of paper and dispose of the dead tick in your trash can, if you don't wish to save it for identification later.

• 6

  Contact your doctor if you experience fever, headaches, nausea, muscle pain or a rash within a few weeks of removing the tick. This could be a sign of Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, or one of the other common tick-borne illnesses.