Best way to remove ticks

[Hank Hunter]

Used this one for a few years, has always worked well on people or animals.

[stinkyduck]

I didnt read anything about tea tree oil on the web, just thought it would help.I think it has, and this morning I switched to oil of oregano! THANK YOU. Pemby you seem quite smart, where do you get your info from then?? I have not found any articles writing by you or any other HBC expert for that matter! Just a little curious where your smarts come from. Professor propaganda?

[Quince2]

After hiking in jungle got a couple ticks, rubbing alcohol got them out. Just make sure to check that the head isnt left in the skin. Baby oil is a good tick repellant as well, as ticks wound bite through it....still unnerving seeing ticks crawling aroundon you though

[jlirot]

I have a few of those. Sometimes they itch but otherwise it's just a cosmetic thing. I forget the medical term. It's probably the same thing.

The double-tick I had on my ankle from mid April seems infected pretty bad. Probably need some topical or maybe oral antibiotics. Also just got hammered by a cold/flu (something in between) type thing. Hopefully not related. caddisgirl hasn't caught it though which is odd. Might be off to the doctor for me.

Dude, go to the Dr! Ticks can carry some nasty stuff. They claim that Lyme isn't in BC (I think they're still saying that) - but I'm not convinced. And even if it isn't/wasn't that doesn't mean it couldn't be here now. You don't want to mess around with Lyme - or pretty much anything else that ticks can carry. When I got a tick in CA they gave me a dose of anti-biotics as a prophylactic.

[Thor762]

Made a trip out to southern SK this past couple weeks where they are having a tick apocalypse. Just in the yard of the place we stayed my dogs picked up 40-50+ ticks in a couple of days, plus 6 on myself. One 5 minute walk around the farmyard my one dog had 7 just on a single leg. I'm glad we decided not to go for a walk in the wind breaks or coulees. Can't imagine how many are down in those areas.

Anyways, I didn't have any wart freeze off spray that contain ether. But I did have cans of Starting Fluid handy which has ether in it.

Results were impressive. A good shot of spray for a second and the tick stops moving immediately, is pretty easy to pull out, and in a few cases they fell off the dog.

I never saw the tick move again that had been sprayed by at least one full second of starting fluid. I had one that took a glancing spray and it went still for about 10 seconds and then started to wriggle again. But all the others seemed to "freeze" when sprayed and all were removed fairly easily with tweezers.

Can get a lot more individual uses out of a can of starting fluid too. It seems to have enough ether to kill or immobilize the tick for easy removal. It will be my go to for tick removal now.

[Pemby_mess]

I was gonna say^. I almost killed my dog trying to clean his ears out with some. Goes to show how much internet advice is worth. If you dilute it in olive oil or something, it's probably effective, but make sure it's never applied to anywhere they can lick; or even scratch, then lick their paws.

I didnt read anything about tea tree oil on the web, just thought it would help.I think it has, and this morning I switched to oil of oregano! THANK YOU. Pemby you seem quite smart, where do you get your info from then?? I have not found any articles writing by you or any other HBC expert for that matter! Just a little curious where your smarts come from. Professor propaganda?

Easy there big rig! I was attempting some self deprecation. I followed advice from the Internet instead of going to the vet, and paid the price by watching my dog suffer and having to go to the vet anyway with a worse condition than he had started with. Not everybody realizes how strong tea tree oil is, myself prior self included. I understand it can be used responsibly, I was just echoing the previous poster's advice that caution is needed anytime it's around a pet.

[Pemby_mess]

^ It's like the ammonia/bleach thing. Both relatively safe and useful chemicals on their own for standard applications, and often intuitively misused together - creating chlorine gas.

[Camp Cook]

https://commonsensehome.com/natural-tick-repellents/

The following was taken from the above article.

How Do Ticks Get on You?

You may have seen images with ticks standing on a blade of grass with their front legs outstretched, waiting to hitch a ride on their next victim. The article How Do Ticks Get on You? explains what's going:

In 1881, a scientist named G. Haller published the first description of these structures, although he misunderstood their purpose. Haller believed these structures were auditory sensors (ears), when in fact they proved to be olfactory sensors (noses). So when a tick sits on a blade of grass with its front legs extended, it is effectively sniffing the air for your scent.
What’s remarkable, however, is just how well the tick can smell you, and sense even your slightest movement. The Haller’s organ can detect the carbon dioxide you exhale with each breath, and the ammonia in your sweat. With legs outstretched, the tiny tick can pick up on all the foul odors people produce, from bad breath to belches, and it can even smell your farts.

Ticks have an incredible sense of smell and can detect you coming, some even seek you out. The way that herbs work at repelling mosquitoes, spiders, ticks and other biting insects is that they provide you with sensory camouflage. They mask your natural scent and odors that the biting species find attractive.

Tick Repelling Herbs – Which Herbs Keep Ticks Away?

Many of the same herbs that repel mosquitoes and spiders also repel ticks.
Tick repelling herbs include:

• Rose Geranium (Pelargonium capitatumx raden)
• Sweetgrass – New research finds that sweetgrass, a meadow grass native to northern climates, contains chemicals that work as well as DEET in fending off the blood-sucking insects.
• Pennyroyal
• Rosemary
• Rue
• Wormwood
• Lavender
• Lemongrass
• Citronella
• Eucalyptus

Planting any of the above herbs, as well as Beauty Berry Bush and Mountain Mint, will act as a natural tick repellent for your yard.

[orest.06]

Apparently a couple drops of geranium rose oil at the base of the spine adjacent to the tail will keep the ticks off dogs! I spray a mix of it with water all over my hunting cap & no more new ticks in the scalp! Should have done it inside my boots. They went there instead.

[orest.06]

Tweezers with firm but not too tight grasp & 1/4 turn to the left with a pull. Works well.