Q. What is the best way to remove a tick that has attached itself to your skin? I have read on the Internet that you should put liquid soap on a cotton ball and dab it on the tick. In theory, this is supposed to get the tick to let go and back out.
A. A reader in the Netherlands saw the same web story you did and responded: “We have ticks in Europe, but we are warned not to use soap or alcohol on the tick. That could cause the tick to spit the contents of its stomach into your skin and maybe cause Lyme.”
We also heard from an emergency department physician, who said:
“Ticks actually glue their mouthparts into the skin during a feed. It takes them several hours to accomplish this, so if you find the tick early, it can be removed intact. If you find them about 12 hours or so later, the mouthparts will generally be impossible to remove intact and don’t need to be.”
He added a recommendation for an inexpensive tick removal device called Pro-Tick Remedy available at camping stores. Other readers have recommended The Tick Key, the Ticked Off spoon and the O’Tom/Tick Twister for tick removal.
For more information on ticks and the diseases they may carry, you may wish to listen to our one-hour radio interviews with international experts on Bartonellosis or Alpha-Gal Allergy.
