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Bacterial Diseases: Slate Wipers and Current Concerns |
Chapter: 18
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Picking off Those Pesky Ticks With the current interest in Lyme disease, it may be helpful to review the recommendations for removing ticks from the body. What does NOT work well is the following: covering ticks with petroleum jelly, fingernail polish or rubbing alcohol; nor does bringing the hot tip of a cigarette or an extinguished match close to the tick. What does work is pulling the tick away from the skin using a curved forceps or tweezers, if available. If forceps or tweezers are unavailable, the fingers should be used after covering them with a tissue, paper towel or rubber glove. The tick should be grasped as close to the skin as possible and pulled up with a steady, even pressure. One should avoid twisting or jerking the tick since these movements are likely to break off the infected feeding organs. Also, one should take care not to crush the tick because its body fluids may be infectious. All this can be quite difficult since the deer tick, Ixodes, that carries disease is only slightly larger than the head of a pin. |
