Remove ticks: This is how it works without risk
Removing ticks is particularly important as they can sometimes transmit diseases. If your child has been bitten by a tick while romping in forests and meadows, you should act quickly. Find out here which tools and procedures can be used to easily remove ticks.
Why remove ticks?
Once bitten by a tick, it’s not easy to shake it off. The small parasite anchors tiny barbs in its host’s skin and also produces a kind of glue with which it attaches itself to its victim. After 12 to 24 hours, an infection with Lyme disease, a bacterial infection, can occur if the tick carries the pathogen. You should therefore check your child for ticks after walks through forests and meadows and remove them immediately.
Aid for removing ticks
To remove ticks without risk, you need the right “tool” and the right approach.
- The tweezers : If you want to remove ticks with tweezers, they should be curved and pointed at the front part. This way you can grab the tick from below by the head without pressing on its body. Tweezers from the nail case are usually rather unsuitable because they are not narrow and curved enough. With this you can only grasp the tick from above, which would inevitably press on its body.
- Tick tweezers : Tick tweezers are particularly good for removing larger ticks. The tick tweezers look like a pen with two grippers attached to the end that can be opened by pressing a button. To remove ticks with tick tweezers, you have to press the button and place one of the grippers on the tick’s head. Then release the button so that both grippers enclose the tick between the head and body. The tick can then be pulled out. You can get tick tweezers in the pharmacy.
- The Tick Map : A tick map has various sized V-shaped blanks. It is pushed under the body of the tick and the tick is thus fixed. Now the card is lifted slightly at the front, pushed in and the tick is pulled out upwards. You can also get tick cards in the pharmacy.
Under no circumstances should you try to remove the stuck tick with oil, nail polish remover or other household remedies. This only stresses them out and dumps their infectious body contents into the skin. Don’t pull the tick out with a sharp tug, but rather proceed slowly and in a controlled manner. You should leave your fingers out of the game when removing ticks, because they could press on the body of the tick and thus introduce pathogens into the tissue.
Turn or pull? Remove ticks properly
No matter which tool you use to remove ticks, it is important that you always grab the tick close to the skin so as not to press on its body. It is best to slowly pull the tick upwards until it detaches itself. This can take up to 60 seconds. If ticks still cannot be removed, you can make careful upward and downward movements.
On the one hand, you have to exert less pressure and force on the tick when unscrewing it, but on the other hand, the tick is usually injured more, so that pathogens could get into the skin. After removing ticks, you should disinfect the affected areas, for example with iodine. Your child’s skin may still be slightly red or slightly itchy, but this usually resolves within the next two days.
If part of the head is still stuck in the skin when a tick is removed, this does not mean an increased health risk. It is therefore better not to try to remove the tick head, for example with a needle. You could damage it and possibly release bacteria such as Borrelia. It is best to just wait and see, as the foreign body will usually be expelled on its own over time. If this is not the case, a doctor can cut it out.
After removing ticks
Once you’ve removed the tick, you can fold it into a folded paper towel and crush it with a glass bottom. This way you don’t come into contact with infectious body parts of the tick and you can be sure that it is definitely dead. Because ticks are real survivors and can survive for up to ten days in dry, warm apartments.
When do you have to go to the doctor?
If redness of the skin spreads after ticks have been removed, a doctor should be consulted, as this could be a Lyme disease infection. Other signs of Lyme disease include increased swelling and a painful sore that becomes hot and throbbing. You can find out more about this in our article “ Lyme disease: everything about the tick disease ”. Other diseases after a tick bite can also be clarified during a doctor’s visit.