Successful Tick Removal

There is a photo of tick in the last post, below.  Photo didn’t show up in first few attempts.

https://backpackinglight.com/forums/topic/successful-tick-removal/

Pro Tick Remedy – TickInfo

A much better method than one I experienced on an April hike a couple years ago.  I was hiking with Bob Moulder (yes – of Moulder Strip fame) and a couple of other guys.  Our first day out started in sleet and freezing rain.  The next day was sunny and hot (with no leaves on the trees for cover).  I arrived at the top of a climb soaked with sweat and took my shirt to air it out and Bob spotted three big ticks on me.

I said I’d pull out my tick remover tool and Bob gave me one of his “Blah – just use your nails” and came over, grabbed each of the ticks between his thumb nail and his finger, and yanked.

It took more than a year for those bites to fully heal and stop itching!  Use a tick removal tool to SLOWLY remove the tick rather than yanking…

This from the CDC:

How to remove a tick
Use fine-tipped tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the skin’s surface as possible.
Pull upward with steady, even pressure. …
After removing the tick, thoroughly clean the bite area and your hands with rubbing alcohol or soap and water.
Never crush a tick with your fingers.

Yep – Big lesson learned!

I used it on others, O’Tom tick twister (https://www.otom.com/en/).  Worked always well, never ripped the tick’s head off, all ticks were removed alive (then killed with joy).

I like to believe all the permethrin I use helps and I won’t need it for myself.

I like to believe all the permethrin I use helps and I won’t need it for myself.

There you go!  Insect Shield clothing. I haven’t had to remove a tick in over 10 years because I no longer get ticks.

I wouldn’t want someone to get ticked off at me for withholding info so here’s some more info that might be useful to you.

We consulted with Kaiser Dr. on the  bite that my wife Laura got.  She (Dr.) said the type of tick and length of time tick had its head in Laura helps determine if antibiotics should be administered prophylactically.  So we brought the tick in to Kaiser for identification.  We already knew the tick was flat and not engorged so it probably had not been in her more than 36 hours before extraction.

Tick was identified as a dog tick.  Likelihood of carrying one of the bad diseases is low.  So Dr. recommendation was to monitor bite area but not start antibiotics prophylactically.

+ 1 on permethrin treated clothing. Also I eat quite a bit of garlic I’m out in the woods of Iowa often and have not had  a tick embed in years so I’m sticking with that combo. I have had found them crawling on me  head and arms. I don’t carry a remover tool. Fortunately and unfortunately I have no one to check me for ticks might have something to do with all that garlic I eat.

Thank goodness that dog ticks are still lazy about being vectors. In my neck of the woods the dog ticks are having a good year and the deer ticks are not. Some years it’s dramatically the reverse, for reasons I do not know.