Ticks

[Masherbrum]

Although I didn't have to see it myself, as I understand it it was more of a "flash" than a flame.  Singed hair, and an elevated level of stress...
 

I'd rather be shot in the head than even try to endure that.   Fire........the twins......nope.   

[AWwrgwy]

Although I didn't have to see it myself, as I understand it it was more of a "flash" than a flame.  Singed hair, and an elevated level of stress...
 

I can just imagine her stamping the fire out.

 


wrongway

[skullman]

seem to be worse is spring/summer when doing scouting the hunting spot.

[SIK1]

I'll bet she really knows the proper way to remove ticks.

[texasmom]

I don't buy the whole tweezers bit. I once had 30+ ticks on my legs. Used a leatherman-style knife & they came out fine.  Tweezers are for eyebrows.

[Babalonian]

Ticks... it's why I take my credit cards with me in the woods... seriously.

I've done a lot of hiking and camping, especially when I was a young scout.  Tick nips (the pliers with the specially shaped head for removing/scooping ticks have my respect, they are the best for the squeamish and uncooperative.) or a credit card with some neosporin is what I've always done on trail with good results (just a very strong (don't break your card, but almost), steady scrape and it's done).  Flame/heat works 50% of the time in my experience either b/c of two things: 1) the dang tick is just too happy to leave and doesn't care that it's lower half is on fire or 2) you accidental burn the critter too fast and too much and kill it with it's head still in you...  also inadvertently burning the "patient" most of the time when you do that.  The suffocation methods (butter/margarine/petrolium-jellys) are too slow IMO, and you get that natural itch/tendency to pick/touch/scratch at something the back of your mind knows is there.

a lit cigarette works great for leeches - will ticks disengage when things get hot too?

Yes, if you know how to do it right, cigarettes and... other rolled and smoldering things... are very good and probably the best heat-removal tools sometimes available in the woods.  Leeches (especially the healthier sized ones) you typically directly burn to have them release, but with ticks you do not want direct heat (touching), as this will likely burn you and kill the tick before it has a chance to pull anchor.  Just floating above/next to it with the cigarette cherry, blow the ash away as necessary and just keep a nice barely-tolerable-roasting temperature (typically 2-5 minutes... so if you're lucky you'll get to smoke the last half of your stoge, but likely won't), and have a little patience or you'll kill the more stubborn ones... and then it's the credit-card method, and half-incinerated ticks just aren't as pleasant (or as easy) to remove and non-incinerated ones IMO.

The best method IMO, on ease of access, time wasted on the "operation", and percentages of head-with-body success is a credit card (if you can tolerate scraping yourself really hard with the edge of a credit card and maybe breaking said credit card... *stares at the ladies* not that I didn't have a female friend go ape on me when I successfully removed a tick off her arm while breaking her mom's credit card in the process... ).

Note: if you dont apply enough pressure you will just scrape the body of the tick off, leaving the head still embeded.

[Simaril]

Tweezers are fine, but I've had trouble getting that fine balance between "grasp firmly" and "oops the darn head just crushed" (leaving the mouth parts in the skin).

I've had great success using...DENTAL FLOSS! Sounds weird, but amazingly effective -- without much risk of destroying the tick parts. Leaving those behind greatly increases the risk of infection.


Here's what you do: Make a small loop as if you were going to make a knot (like the first part of tying your shoes). Pass that over the body of the tick, then cinch in down when you're as close to the skin as possible. The loop will find its way to the smallest, lowest part of the tick. Then pull up firmly and steadily until the tick releases its grip.

One summer we lived in a century old (little) farmhouse, with a field around it that had been let wild. It grew ticks instead of crops, and our dog got ticks almost every time it went out. Never had the dental floss thing fail me once. And, one presumes, the ticks had no cavities....

[mtnman]

I don't buy the whole tweezers bit. I once had 30+ ticks on my legs. Used a leatherman-style knife & they came out fine.  Tweezers are for eyebrows.

I do use a knife a lot too, since I generally have a knife on me, but I don't carry a tweezers...

Just slide the blade under them to the head, and grasp them as close to the head as possible by pinching them between the blade and a thumbnail, and gently lift it out.

The credit card would work well that way too. 

And then again, if you do manage to break the head off in your skin, a cordless drill can be used to quickly remove it.