How to remove a tick safely

Grasp the tick as close to the skin as you can with fine-tipped tweezers and pull straight up with steady pressure. Do not twist, burn, smother in petroleum jelly, or paint it with anything. Speed matters more than technique: the risk of disease rises the longer it stays attached.

Step by step

1. Fine-tipped tweezers. Not fingers, not blunt eyebrow tweezers — you need to grip the mouthparts, not the body.
2. Grasp as close to the skin as possible. Squeezing the swollen body can push contents into the wound.
3. Pull straight up, steadily. No twisting, no jerking. It may take several seconds of firm pressure.
4. If mouthparts break off, try to lift them out with the tweezers; if they will not come, leave them and let the skin expel them. That is safer than digging.
5. Wash the area and your hands with soap and water.
6. Photograph the tick and note the date. Species, size and how engorged it was all change the advice you will get.
7. Dispose of it by sealing it in tape or a bag — some state health departments will identify it.

What not to do

Burning it, covering it in nail polish or petroleum jelly, and twisting are all traditional and all counterproductive: they irritate the tick and make it more likely to regurgitate into the bite.

What to watch for afterwards

Write the date on a calendar. Then watch for 30 days:

• An expanding rash at or near the site, with or without a clear centre.
• Fever, chills, headache, aching joints or unusual fatigue.
• Facial droop or a severe new headache.

Any of these after a tick bite is a reason to be seen, and to say explicitly that you were bitten by a tick and when.

Attachment time matters

Transmission of the Lyme bacterium generally requires a day and a half or more of attachment. A tick found and removed the same evening is a very different situation from one discovered engorged after a weekend away — which is the whole argument for a same-day full-body check after being in tick habitat.