How to pull a sucked tick from the skin

The desire of a person to remove a sucked tick from the skin as soon as possible is quite natural and understandable - a parasite can introduce dangerous infections into the blood with saliva, and the longer the blood flow lasts, the greater the number of infectious agents that can be injected into the wound. And, unfortunately, it often happens that an unprepared person, finding a parasite in himself, tries to immediately remove it with his fingers, simply tearing it off the skin. However, brute force in this case will not lead to anything good.

The fact that the tick is fixed in the skin very securely. Studies have shown that after the start of bloodsucking, a special capsule is formed around its head from hardened saliva, which helps the arthropod to remain in the skin and prevent its extraction. That is why it is not so easy to just remove the parasite - often the tick is held in the integuments of the human body so tightlythat when trying to remove his body just comes off the head.

This situation can be dangerous: saliva (possibly infected) remains in the head of the parasite, which continues to enter the wound. This may increase the risk of contracting tick-borne encephalitis or other diseases carried by ixodides. And the tissues in the place where the fragment of the parasite remains can become inflamed, followed by suppuration.

At the same time, just leaving the tick in the skin, hoping that he would suck blood and he would disappear, it would be wrong. In this case, the risk of infection is significantly increased, as the parasite constantly injects new portions of saliva into the blood vessel as it draws blood. And the process of bloodsucking can take several days.

This means that the tick needs to be removed quickly and at the same time correctly - so that its skin does not remain its head or the torn proboscis. On how to do it in the best way, we will continue and talk more ...

 

The most common mistakes: how not to remove the parasite from the skin

The most common and obvious mistake when extracting a tick is an attempt to just grab its torso with two fingers and tear it away from the skin. Such an action is likely to lead to the separation of the body from the head.And if the tick has already sucked a lot of blood, then such removal can be accompanied by squeezing the blood from his stomach back under the skin - this increases the risk of infection.

Meanwhile, many people understand that simply trying to tear a tick from the skin is impossible. And often other methods are used, which are also ineffective. Among such methods, for example:

• Pour vegetable oil on the tick - it is assumed that the oil, enveloping the parasite's head, blocks the access of oxygen to it and leads to strangulation. As a result, the bloodsucker allegedly tries to get out of the wound. In reality, this will not happen in most cases: peritremes with spiracles in ticks are located on the sides of the abdomen, and not in the head, and the parasite can breathe, even if there is oil in the place of its contact with the skin. And even if the entire body of the parasite is richly covered with oil, it will really suffocate, but this can happen much earlier than it will have time to detach itself from the skin;
• To put gasoline, vinegar, alcohol on the tick, or even more sophisticated, to pierce him with a needle from a syringe and inject hydrogen peroxide into his body.In these cases, the parasite may die before it pulls the head out of the wound;
• Burn the tick with a match or a hot needle - the result will be similar to the previous one.

In order not to make such mistakes and not to lose precious time, you need to understand that a tick, not yet fed up, is unlikely to break away, even if there is a risk of injury and death. Therefore, trying to somehow “motivate” him is almost useless to unhook.

It is interesting

Bleeding is a critical and rather long process in the life cycle of a tick. It is during nourishment that certain internal organs of the arthropod develop and reach maturity, the intestines are finally formed, and the inactive processes in the body are fully launched before that. If at this moment the tick is unhooked from the owner, then he will most likely not find a new one and will die. Therefore, the behavioral model of avoiding various external stimuli during feeding was “evolutionally disconnected” in these parasites. That is, even when injured, the tick, rather, will remain where it has stuck, rather than unstuck itself.

Also, any ways to clean a tick are not correct, if they initially imply a head tear (for example, cut with a knife or scissors). In this case, additional manipulations will be required to remove the parasite's oral organs from the skin.

In fact, to pull a tick means to remove its head from the skin, even if it is not connected to the body. However, while the parasite is intact, make it easier. Therefore, the correct removal of it is such that:

1. Mite is removed as quickly as possible - within a few minutes after detection. You do not need to go to the hospital or expect to remove the parasite at home on returning from a picnic or fishing - it must be removed where the person found it on himself;
2. The body of the parasite is not compressed;
3. The mouth organs of arthropods do not remain in the skin at the site of the bite.

There are several methods for extracting a sucked tick from the skin that meet these criteria. Let's look at them in more detail.

 

Special tick removers

All special tools to safely reach the tick, work on a similar principle: the body of the parasite is captured in the place of its junction with the head (close to the skin) and fixed in a special groove of the device.After that, the device gently rotates, as a result of which the fixation of the hypostome (oral apparatus) in the skin weakens, and after several turns the parasite is safely removed.

In the simplest case, the device looks like this:

In various stores, such a device may be called Tick Twister, Pliers, Tick Extractor or otherwise. The photo below shows how to capture the parasite with this hook:

After capturing the parasite, it is enough to hold the handle with your fingers and make several turns in one direction so that the tick falls out of the wound.

The main disadvantage of such an extractor is that, like any auxiliary devices, it is usually forgotten at home, in a car or in a tent, and at the most necessary moment it is not at hand. Therefore, it is useful to know how you can make such a tool yourself. For this you need:

1. Take a strong stick with a thickness of about 1 cm;
2. Knife to make at one end of its oblique cut length of about 1-1.5 cm;
3. At the bottom of the cut cut a groove with a depth of about 1 cm.

Such a device is somewhat more difficult to apply than the industrial manufacturer, but if you adjust, you can work with it as quickly and efficiently as with a purchase device.In this case, it can always be made in nature with their own hands. This is actively used by tourists and supporters of autonomous survival.

Due to the high seasonal demand for such devices, many of their modifications are produced, working on a similar principle:

• The same extractor, only small and attached to a bunch of keys in the form of a keychain. Called Trixie. Convenient because, for example, on walks in the city, he is always with him;
• Special Tick Key with Tick Grip. Its advantage is compactness and the ability to carry in a wallet;
• Rare in the sale of Groom Professional Tick Remover, an exciting tick just like a Tick Key;
• Special blade Ticked Off;
• Tick ​​Nipper - a kind of pliers, which can capture and remove the tick, even without rotation;
• Pro-Tick tick remover, very compact and most similar in principle to the home-made extractor from the stick;
• Special tick remover in the form of a handle, allowing you to control the parasite in a controlled manner and rotate it easily before removal;
• The Russian-made Anti-Tick Wire Extractor is a compact and simple device, but requires some dexterity for successful operation.

By and large, instead of all these devices, you can use simple tweezers or tweezers from the manicure set. The small nymphs of the parasite can similarly be removed with a cotton swab - their body is simply turned with cotton in one direction until the head comes out of the skin.

 

Using a string to extract the parasite

Also known is a method of removing a tick with a thread. Its principle is the same as that of the above tools, but it is good because it can be implemented anywhere and at any time, because the thread to extract the tick can be pulled out of clothes, towels or any other textile product.

The sequence of actions is as follows:

1. In the center of the thread knits a simple knot, but does not tighten to the end;
2. The loop attaches to the tick and is tightened so that it wraps around the point where the head and torso are articulated as close as possible to the surface of the skin;
3. The ends of the thread are folded together, clamped between the fingers, stretched, but not too tight, so as not to accidentally pull out the tick;
4. With a rubbing movement of the fingers, the ends of the thread are woven around each other, so that when they are twisted, they begin to rotate the tick.After a few turns, he will fall out of the wound.

The main disadvantage of this method is the difficulty of pulling the parasite stuck at itself, especially if you need to look in the mirror (if the tick, for example, stuck to the head) or remove the bloodsucker from the hand near the wrist. The most convenient way to use a thread is when one person assists another.

In addition, in this case, requires the accuracy of action and great accuracy, which is not always available to a person who is afraid of ticks. Nevertheless, the method is quite effective and can be adopted by tourists and outdoor enthusiasts.

 

Removing with bare hands

Finally, ticks can be removed from the skin with bare hands. This is possible if the parasite is large and, moreover, managed to pump a large amount of blood, due to which it increased in size (then it can be conveniently grasped with your fingers).

In this case, the arthropod's trunk seizes, but is not compressed, and rotates in one direction. It doesn’t matter if you rotate in the kukui side — 3-4 turns are enough to stop the bloodsucker in the wound. After that, while rotating, it just falls out of the skin.

The disadvantage of this option is the impossibility of removing small nymphs, especially those who have just stuck together and are difficult to grab with their fingers. Also in this case, there is a high risk of squeezing the contents of the mite into the wound or tearing of the head. - nevertheless, the parasite has to be grasped by the body filled with blood (in contrast to the cases when special tools are used to capture the parasite under the body, that is, the place where the head and body join together).

Nevertheless, the experience of many tourists and hunters shows that with a certain skill this method is very effective.

 

A few words about the parasite removal by vacuum (using a syringe)

Argued that the tick can be removed with a syringe. Allegedly, if you cut off the upper part with the tip-cone from the syringe, slightly raise the piston, attach the cylinder with the cut edge to the bite site so that the parasite is inside it, and the cylinder edges are pressed tightly to the skin, then pulling the piston can be due to vacuum literally “suck out” the mite from the skin.

In fact, this method can hardly be considered working. In practice, the vacuum that forms in the syringe, in most cases, is not enough to remove the firmly attached parasite.

In addition, when an attempt is made to remove it, edema is formed on the skin that is drawn into the cylinder of the syringe - this area becomes burgundy. Increased blood supply in an infected wound will only lead to accelerated spreading of infection throughout the body.

Yes, and the syringe itself is unlikely to be on hand where a parasite attacks a person. Therefore, to consider such a method as effective and rely on it is not worth

On a note

It should also be borne in mind that the principle of removing a tick with a syringe involves the creation of a vacuum around his body. If you create such a vacuum several times and then dump it to atmospheric pressure, then this will be equivalent to squeezing the contents of the tick into the wound.

 

What to do if the head or proboscis of the tick remains in the skin

And yet the situation where the victim prefers not to bother with the use of complex tools and decides to simply pull the tick out of the skin, happens all the time. As a result, it often happens that the tick torso detaches from the head with the oral organs remaining immersed in the skin.

What to do if such a nuisance occurred?

First of all,There is no need to worry much about this - this is not a catastrophic case, the likelihood of serious consequences is small, and it’s easy to get rid of the tick head left in the skin.

Secondly, the remnants of the parasite must be extracted. They should be pulled out in the same way as a regular splinter is removed from the skin: you need to pry the head with a disinfected needle or nail scissors and pull it upwards. If necessary, the edges of the wound can be slightly extended. It is painful, but tolerable.

Even before removing the head, it is necessary to lubricate the wound with an antiseptic - for example, with alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, lyapisny pencil or chlorhexidine. Immediately, it is not recommended to smear the wound with green paint or iodine, since then it will be difficult to find a place where the tick head is stuck in a large dark spot.

When the head is already removed, it is useful to treat the wound once more with an antiseptic (and here iodine or brilliant green may already be useful).

It is useful to keep in mind that nothing critical will happen even in the case when the tick head remains in the skin. The wound fester, the abscess will burst and the remnants of the parasite will come out with pus. However, this is an undesirable option: the longer the mouth organs of the tick will be in the skin,the more saliva gets into the tissue and the higher the risk of tick-borne encephalitis or borreliosis. Therefore, all that could remain in the skin when trying to remove a parasite, you need to pull out. Fortunately, this is done relatively simply and quickly.

 

What to do with the bite site after removing the tick?

If the tick is removed sufficiently quickly after sticking, when it has not yet had time to become nourished, then there are usually no strongly marked traces at the site of its attachment. If the parasite has already sucked a lot of blood, then after its removal, a noticeable lump remains on the skin, quickly smoothing.

In all cases, the wound requires treatment:

1. First of all it is necessary to process an antiseptic;
2. Sometimes it also becomes necessary to lubricate the bite site with anesthetic, if there is pain, itching or stinging. For this purpose, simple ointments such as Menovazana, Relief Advance, Fenistil and their analogues are suitable.

Treatment with anesthetic ointment often helps when the tick has been removed from the child, and a lump remains at the bite site. As a rule, such a blister is very itchy, and the child will involuntarily try to comb it.This can lead to secondary infection and wound suppuration. The ointment reduces the itching and pain, so that the child will not pay attention to the bite.

The same is true for pets - dogs, cats, rabbits - they can comb the bumps to the blood.

 

Should I go to the hospital or emergency room?

It is logical to assume that the safest and most reliable way to pull out a tick is to consult a doctor. On the one hand, this is the case: the specialist has all the necessary arsenal of tools for extracting the parasite, as well as effective medicines that can be used to treat the wound.

On the other hand, the removal of a tick is a simple and quick procedure that any person can conduct in the same place where he found the parasite on himself in less than a minute. Spending hours of time on a trip to the clinic and sitting in line for such simple manipulation is irrational.

It should be borne in mind that the longer an infected tick remains in the skin, the greater the number of infectious agents it will have in the wound.

So, when a tick in the skin is found, it is necessary to pull it out yourself, or ask a person nearby to do it.If the bite occurred in an epidemiologically dangerous area, then the extracted parasite should be saved (for example, placed in some tightly closed container) and go with it to the polyclinic. There, the victim will undergo emergency prophylaxis of tick-borne encephalitis, and then they will tell you where to take the tick for analysis.

On a note

It is possible to analyze the tick for infection with infection in almost any large city of the Russian Federation, including where tick-borne encephalitis is not common. Such an analysis is relatively simple and inexpensive (in Moscow it costs about 300-500 rubles). If it is not clear where to go, then Rospotrebnadzor will be told where exactly a person needs to take a tick to a study.

If the parasite has bitten where tick-borne encephalitis or borreliosis is not registered, then simply throw away the tick removed, remember or write down the date of the bite and observe the condition of the injured and the appearance of the skin around the wound for two weeks. If, within 2-4 weeks, the bitten person has symptoms of infection, take appropriate measures, and if there are no signs of the disease, then you can no longer worry.

 

Removing a sucked mite with a string

 

Interesting video: an attempt to pull the tick out with a vacuum using a syringe