Remove Ticks From Human Skin With a Thread

Always bring a piece of thread when going outdoor adventures because that is what you need to pull out a tick without any pain and little chance to get infected. Watch the video for the instructions!

Comments

[RobertP78]

Just paint the back end of the tick with finger nail polish or some other liquid that will seal off the breathing tube on the rear of the body, they back out when they no longer have air to breathe.

[doo da do]

we use Vaseline, it closes the breathing tubes like the other solvents

[MDZPNMD]

I demand sources. Common sense tells me an angry tick is a bad tick. Stories of this method using oil instead of nail polish are well spread where I live but lead to higher infestation rates. Might be because of the tick suffocating and vomitting while still in your skin. Also this might only works for ticks with tracheae systems while others might not even breathe at all.

Woolley, Tyler A.: Acarology. John Wiley & Sons, 1988, ISBN 0-471-04168-8

[antioch]

If you knew where those tubes really are located, if you knew how long a tick can live without using them and if you knew how nasty both the tick and the sore skin around the incision will react to nail polish or similar liqids you would definitely not spread this advice.

[tickbait]

The tick mouth parts are breaking off. It's not spiral.

[MDZPNMD]

Twisting is more effective even though the mouth parts are not spiral.

De Boer, R., Van Den Bogaard, A. E. J. M. [1993]. Removal of Attached Nymphs and Adults of Ixodes ricinus [Acari: Ixodidae]. Journal of Medical Entomology, 30(4), 748–752

[Julie716]

I myself like the general idea of freezing them off. Going to be another great item for my bugout bag. Thanks petestrash!

[HRA444]

Another way to do it is to take a quie tip and dip it in bleach. Rub the bleach on the tick and it the intire tick will drop off.

[thequara]

Seems to me this has a good chance of twisting the body off of the head, leaving the head embedded, and increasing chance of infection... Why not?

[Jobar007]

That would be a problem if you didn't get the thread close enough to the skin. My guess as to why it works is that you can see the tick revolving with the thread. It looks like you use the gentle but constant pressure from the rotation to twist the tick out. I could be wrong though.

[vitallyz]

If by "pressure" you mean pulling the tick out, then there should be no pressure at all. Twisting the tick forces him to release itself from the skin and making for him impossible to grab your skin back again. Thus he gets out naturally.

[Jobar007]

Thanks for the clarification!

[vitallyz]

Twisting the tick forces the tick to release his head out of the skin. That is how the original tick twister work, I just did not have any at the time so I used a thread instead to twist the tick's body. Infection is still possible if the tick squished too much at it's stomach when putting the tread on.

[petestrash]

Most methods that require you to physically remove the tick, run the risk of either emptying the stomach into your skin or leaving pieces behind. The best method that I have found is to use a freeze spray. They are available in Pharmacies and usually sold to remove warts or other skin blemishes. just spray the tick. it dies immediately and just drops off.

[vitallyz]

Does he drops off with his head or without it?

[petestrash]

The entire tick drops off.

Here are some details:
http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/4177191.htm

[tiunkabouter]

guess you need 2 hands to do the removal of the tick?

[blakehx]

Interesting idea but too much work! I just use red-hot tweezers! As soon as you grab them they get burned and let go of the skin!

[tisaconundrum]

i've heard of a lot of different ways, one including wiping them with some kind of liquid that they don't like that will make them take there heads out.

[vitallyz]

I heard about wiping them with mosquito repellent should make this effect, but never got the chance to test it myself.