Angela Haupt
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.
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.”
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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 tweezers
Worst: 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 mouth
Worst: 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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