You probably won’t see a tick as it clings to a blade of grass, but it can see you. The tiny parasites are opportunists that spend their days waiting for humans, dogs, and other mammals to brush against them so they can latch onto exposed skin and feed on blood. As the climate warms and tick populations proliferate, there’s a good chance that in many parts of the U.S., you’ll get intimately acquainted with one this summer.
[time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”]Most people who get bitten by a tick will be perfectly fine, says Michel Shamoon-Pour, a molecular anthropologist at the Binghamton University Tick-borne Disease Center in New York. But a small percentage develop serious symptoms related to Lyme disease and other illnesses, including anaplasmosis and babesiosis. “The best thing you can do is avoid a tick bite—and, if you find a tick, remove it quickly and safely,” Shamoon-Pour says. “That’s the closest we get to not having to worry about diagnosing or treating an infection. Just put a stop to it before it starts.”
Tick removal requires technique—and if you don’t do it correctly, you can increase your risk of infection. We asked experts for the best and worst ways to remove a tick.
Best: Use fine-tip tweezersWorst: Use your fingers or a tweezers with a wide tip
Ticks are remarkably small—many are no bigger than a poppy seed, Shamoon-Pour says. Adult deer ticks, for example, are about 1/10th of an inch when they’re not engorged. If you go after one with your big, clumsy fingers, or a large tweezers, you’re probably going to end up grabbing the body of the tick—and that’s one of the chief mistakes experts report people make. Speaking of…
Best: Grab the tick’s mouthWorst: Go after its body
When you’re ready to remove a tick from your body (or someone else’s), use your tweezers to clasp its mouth, which is the part digging into your skin. Don’t grab the entire body. If you do, you’ll end up squeezing it, “and our concern is the potential presence of pathogens,” Shamoon-Pour says. “If you squeeze the tick, you’re going to be basically emptying whatever is in its body, including potentially pathogens, into your skin.”
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Once you’ve clamped onto the tick’s mouthpiece, pull it straight up with steady, even pressure. Then, clean the affected area with rubbing alcohol, and wash your hands with soap and water or sanitizer.
Best: If the tick breaks, leave its mouth or legs thereWorst: Dig around for any lingering pieces
Sometimes, a tick will break into pieces while you’re removing it, and its mouthpiece or legs will remain in your skin. (You’ll usually be able to tell because you’ll still see a small black dot at the spot where it was attached.) When this happens, let those remnants there. “Honestly, it’s not a big deal,” Shamoon-Pour says. “It’s gross, obviously, but these kinds of things happen.” Your body doesn’t like foreign objects, he adds, and within a few days, your skin will have pushed it out.
Best: Stick to the tweezers-removal techniqueWorst: Try to suffocate the tick or burn it off
People often fall for so-called tick removal remedies like using a match to burn the parasite off or smothering it with petroleum jelly, nail polish, or some kind of noxious substance. “We can assure you the tick will definitely not fall off,” Shamoon-Pour says. “None of these things will work.” Plus, of course, literally playing with fire can result in burns much more serious than an interloping tick.
Best: Flush it or suffocate it with tapeWorst: Crush it to death
Ticks can be difficult to kill. Once you’ve removed one, wrap it tightly in tape so it’s not getting any oxygen, and put it in the trash, says Dr. Amy Duckro, an infectious disease specialist with Kaiser Permanente in Colorado. You could also submerge it in rubbing alcohol or flush it down the toilet. Whatever you do, don’t crush the tick: Potentially infected blood, guts, and saliva can pour out, increasing your risk of getting sick.
Best: If you’d rather keep the tick, just in case, preserve it in a sealed containerWorst: Immediately send it off for testing
Lee Ann Sporn, a professor of biology at Paul Smith’s College in New York, fields lots of calls from people asking if they should send their tick to a research lab to have it tested for infection after it’s bitten them. She recommends against it (advice echoed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). There are a couple reasons for that: “One is that even if the tick does show evidence of something that causes disease, it certainly doesn’t mean you’ll contract the disease,” she says. “It’s not an absolute, and it could lead to over-treatment.” On the flipside, if the tick is negative for disease, “it doesn’t mean you’re home-free,” Sporn says. “If you were bitten by one tick, you may have been bitten by several and were unaware.” Plus, many tick-testing labs have inadequate quality control, she adds, and the results aren’t diagnostic grade.
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Experts agree that immediately disposing of a tick after you remove it is a safe bet. That said, if you’re particularly anxious about the tick bite, you do have another option: You could put the tick in rubbing alcohol and then drop it into a sealed container or plastic bag and save it in your freezer. That way, if you do end up getting sick, you could show it to your doctor for proper visual identification, Sporn says. She also recommends taking a photo of the tick bite and the tick itself. You’ll then have a handy, dated documentation for future reference. “Let’s say several weeks down the road, you develop a fever and flu-like symptoms, and a doctor asks, ‘Have you been bitten by a tick?’” she says. “You have that record and can say, ‘Yes, I was on this day, and here’s what the tick looked like.’ That’s really helpful information.”
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