How to remove a tick from a human body? How to remove ticks from human skin. Top tips on how to properly remove a tick at home

A sucked tick must be removed. The longer it is under the skin, the more damage it will cause. It is necessary to pull the insect out of the body carefully, observing certain rules, since in this case there is a risk that the belly of the pest will be deformed and the part will remain at the site of the bite.

After a bite, infection with tick-borne encephalitis, tularemia, hemorrhagic fever can occur.

When deciding how to remove a tick from a person, only those methods should be considered in which the risk of damage to the insect is minimal. Use tweezers or regular thread, syringe and special devices(twisters). In addition, you can remove the tick using vegetable oil, alcohol. However, the latter method has significant drawbacks.

Using thread and tweezers

You need to pull gradually, without jerks and with stops, giving the animal the opportunity to unhook itself

You can not pull with considerable force, sharp movements also do not need to be made. The tick is removed gradually. In some cases, with this method, the insect begins to independently get out from under the skin.

Make a grip between the head and abdomen of the insect. Then the tick is gently pulled up, rotating around its axis.

Special twister

The twister looks like a small nail puller. Hooks different sizes, for removing large and small ticks.

The insect is hooked with a hook so that it is between the teeth, and gently “twisted” out of the skin.

Syringe application

It is important to check that the resulting edge is even. This will ensure maximum adhesion of the syringe to the skin surface.

The finished device is installed in the place where the pest managed to stick. It can be squeezed out by pulling the syringe plunger upwards from the skin. The vacuum formed in the cavity of the tube will contribute to the expulsion of the insect.

Wound treatment

Thinking about the question of how to pull a tick into the house, you need to take care of disinfecting the wound. After contact with a pest, wash hands with soap and water. Then it is necessary to lubricate the skin at the site of the bite with an antiseptic. Use alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, brilliant green, iodine solution.

Good advice: We take out the tick at home

When deciding how to quickly pull out a tick, people often consider methods that absolutely cannot be used when trying to pull out a blood-sucking insect.

These include:

• Burning with a cigarette.
• Use of aggressive liquids: kerosene, turpentine, gasoline, vinegar.
• Fast extraction, usually with sudden movements. As a result, the extracted tick will be deformed, its proboscis or head will remain under the human skin.
• Extrusion method with bare fingers. This method is inefficient and usually results in damage to the insect.
• When thinking about how to remove a tick or get an insect's head stuck under the skin, they sometimes use a needle, picking at the skin. This cannot be done, as the result will be an acceleration of human infection.

Theoretically, it is possible to pull out the tick with vegetable oil, however, this method leads to a deterioration in the patient's condition as a result of splashing infected saliva into the circulatory system by insects.

If it so happens that the tick has penetrated the skin, it is not recommended to hesitate. If possible, it is better to seek qualified help from a hospital, but since most often such cases occur in the bosom of nature, and it is not possible to quickly find a doctor, you need to know how to properly remove a tick from yourself or another person using improvised means.

Pick up the belly of the insect with a thread and carefully twist it

The main thing when extracting a tick is to prevent it from being damaged or split in half, otherwise the risk of human infection will greatly increase.

Today, the modern pharmaceutical market presents special devices with which the extraction of ticks at home is simplified. These devices are called so - pliers pliers. They have appearance, as shown in photo 2. You can buy a twister at any pharmacy.

This device can be purchased at pharmacies

The meaning of their use is that they allow you to pry the tick as close as possible to its proboscis and pull it out entirely. The device is designed to remove the insect gently, which reduces the risk of infection.

In addition to the device in the kit, a test tube is included in which the removed tick is placed for its further transfer to the laboratory.

This must be done without fail, since removing the tick is only half the battle.

Other ways to extract a tick

You can also get a subcutaneous tick from a person with the help of vegetable oil, which is always in the house. To do this, they should generously lubricate the area affected by the insect, as a result of which the tick will be in uncomfortable conditions for life - a suffocation effect will be created that will force the insect to leave the skin without any action, climbing to the surface. After that, you can easily remove it from the body.

A drop of oil is enough to make the tick feel uncomfortable.

Some experts do not recommend getting the pest in this way, explaining that artificially created suffocating conditions lead to the death of the tick, which manages to burp out all its internal contents, which greatly increases the risk of infection.

You can get a dangerous insect with the help of another accessible item - a strong thread. To do this, you need to build a loop out of it and place it around the pest. The second option is to make the thread a few turns around the insect.

When the tick is firmly grasped, it is necessary not to pull it out with sharp movements.

This process quite long, since it is dangerous to remove the pest with one jerk. However, it is not recommended to use this method to extract small mites, as they will not be easy to grab with a thread.

An insulin syringe is suitable for manipulation

After successful removal of the tick from the skin, the affected area must be treated with an antiseptic, such as iodine.

In cases where, during the process of removing a tick, its head remains under the skin, there is no need to panic.

If a head with a proboscis in the form of a protrusion is found, the remains can be removed with tweezers, or you can contact a surgeon.

If the head remains deeper under the skin, then a small abscess forms around the skin. As a rule, the remnants are independently removed outside along with purulent fluid.

What to do next?

After extracting the tick and completely cleaning the skin, the question arises: what to do with the insect? If you wish, you can contact the infectious diseases hospital, where they carry out examinations for infection - you need to take the tick with you, and on the spot they will figure out what to do with it. If you just need to get rid of the insect, then you can burn it.

In addition to the described methods and general warnings, it is also useful to familiarize yourself with the actions recommended by the Ministry of Health in case a tick is found on the body:

It is important to take the problem of skin damage with a tick with all seriousness, realizing the danger that these insects pose to human health.

If you are unsure of the actions and success of the extraction, it is better to entrust this problem to a doctor.

This means that the tick must be removed quickly and at the same time correctly - so that its head or a detached proboscis does not remain in the skin. About how to do it the best way, we will go on and talk in more detail ...

The most common and obvious mistake when extracting a tick is simply trying to grab its torso with two fingers and tear it off the skin. It is this action that is likely to lead to separation of the body from the head. And if the tick has already sucked out a lot of blood, then such removal may be accompanied by squeezing blood from its stomach back under the skin - this increases the risk of infection.

Meanwhile, many people understand that it is impossible to simply try to tear the tick off the skin. And often other methods are used, which are also ineffective. Such methods include, for example:

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

It is interesting

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

Special tools for removing ticks

In the simplest case, the device looks like this:

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 about 1 cm thick;
2. With a knife, make an oblique cut about 1-1.5 cm long at one end;
3. At the bottom of the cut, cut a groove about 1 cm deep.

Such a device is somewhat more difficult to use than a ticker. industrial production, but if you get used to it, you can work with it as quickly and efficiently as with a purchased device. At the same time, it will always be possible to make it in nature with your own hands. This is actively used by tourists and supporters of autonomous survival.

Also known is a method of removing a tick with a thread. Its principle is the same as that of the tools discussed above, but it is good in that it can be implemented anywhere and at any time, since 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. A simple knot is knitted in the center of the thread, but is not tightened to the end;
2. The loop is thrown onto the tick and tightened so that it wraps around the junction of the head and body as close as possible to the surface of the skin;
3. The ends of the thread are folded together, pinched between the fingers, pulled, but not too tight, so as not to accidentally pull out the tick;
4. With a rubbing motion of the fingers, the ends of the thread are braided around each other so that when twisted, they begin to rotate the tick. After a few turns, it will fall out of the wound.

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

Removal with bare hands

In this case, the body of the arthropod is grasped, but not squeezed, and rotates in one direction. It doesn’t matter in which direction to rotate - 3-4 turns are enough for the bloodsucker to stop holding in the wound. After that, when rotating, it simply falls out of the skin.

In addition, when such a removal is attempted, edema is formed on the skin area, which is drawn into the syringe barrel - this area becomes burgundy. Increased blood supply in an infected wound will only lead to an accelerated spread of the infection throughout the body.

On a note

It should also be taken into account that the principle of removal tick syringe involves creating a rarefaction around his body. If you create such a vacuum several times, and then drop it to atmospheric pressure, then it 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, situations where the victim prefers not to bother using complex tools and decides to simply pull the tick out of the skin happen all the time. As a result, it often happens that the body of the tick breaks away from the head with the mouthparts remaining immersed in the skin.

What to do if such a nuisance occurs?

Firstly, you don’t need to worry much about this - this is not a catastrophic case, the likelihood of serious consequences is small, and it’s not difficult to get rid of the head of the tick remaining in the skin.

Even before removing the head, you need to lubricate the wound with an antiseptic - for example, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, a pencil or chlorhexidine. It is not recommended to immediately smear the wound with brilliant green or iodine, because then it will be difficult to find in a large dark spot the place where the head of the tick is stuck.

When the head has already been removed, it is useful to treat the wound again with an antiseptic agent (and here iodine or brilliant green can already come in handy).

What to do with the bite after removing the tick?

In all cases, the wound requires treatment:

1. First of all, you need to treat with an antiseptic;
2. Sometimes it also becomes necessary to lubricate the bite site with an anesthetic if pain, itching or pain is felt here. Suitable for this simple ointments such as Menovazan, Relief Advance, Fenistila and their analogues.

Treatment with an anesthetic ointment often helps when the tick has been removed from the child, and a lump remains at the site of the bite. 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 suppuration of the wound. The ointment also relieves itching and pain, so that the child will not pay attention to the bite site.

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

Should I go to the hospital or emergency room?

It should be borne in mind that the longer the infected mite remains in the skin, the large quantity he will have time to lead infectious agents into the wound.

On a note

You can analyze a tick for infection with an infection in almost any major city RF, 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 tell you where exactly the person needs to take the tick for research.

An interesting video: an attempt to pull out a tick with a vacuum using a syringe

With the onset of heat, people begin to travel to the forest, to nature. It beckons with the rustle of leaves, the murmur of rivers, the intoxicating aroma of herbs. However, in addition to the amazing enjoyment of nature, sometimes you can meet with danger.

Poisonous plants, mosquitoes, snakes - and these are not all the "surprises" that await people in nature. One of the formidable enemies is him? And if the tick is still bitten, what to do? It is important to understand how dangerous this can be. And most importantly, to clearly know how to treat the site of a tick bite.

Usually the tick chooses soft, warm and moist areas of the body. Therefore, bites can often be found on the calf muscles, buttocks, groin or anus, neck, armpits, behind the ears, between the shoulder blades. Shoulders are much less commonly affected. In addition, all these places have a shallow arrangement of blood vessels, which, in fact, is necessary for an insect.

By thrusting its jaws into the surface of the skin, the tick injects saliva. It is an anesthetic, a kind of painkiller. Therefore, a person does not feel a bite at all and painlessly tolerates such a procedure. An insect can suck blood for several days. At the same time, it increases quite a lot in size.

What does a bite look like?

A person who has never encountered ticks before may be somewhat confused. After all, the affected area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe body really looks quite unpleasant. Therefore, it is very important to know what a tick bite looks like. The photo below will help with this. Consider it carefully, it will help to accept correct solution in the event of an insect encounter.

The site of the tick bite turns red and swells. This is the reaction of the body to the poison contained in the saliva of the tick. At normal conditions redness will pass by itself after the removal of the insect. To make the symptoms go much faster, you can take certain medications that your doctor will prescribe.

lurking danger

The bite itself is not dangerous if you know how to get rid of the tick. Serious consequences can only occur if the insect itself was infected. A tick is infected from a sick animal or person. At the same time, he does not get sick, but becomes a dangerous carrier of infection, infecting subsequent victims with it.

As you know, the tick releases saliva into the puncture. For an insect, this process is very important. Firstly, being a natural analgesic, saliva allows you to make a puncture completely imperceptibly. Secondly, with its help, the proboscis is glued to a part of the victim's body. In addition, it reduces local immunity. This contributes to the rapid spread of infection. Therefore, it is necessary to take measures to combat it as early as possible. To do this, you need to know how to treat the site of a tick bite.

The wound can easily become infected and fester. In addition, the person is at risk of serious illness after a tick bite, such as encephalitis and borreliosis. However, not all ticks are infected. It is impossible to visually distinguish the infected person. Testing for infection is carried out only in the laboratory.

Tick-borne borreliosis

Infection with this disease occurs only when bitten by an infected tick. But the borrelia themselves can only get into the wound when combing. That is why people after a tick bite quite rarely become infected with this disease. When it enters the skin for several days, Borrelia multiply. Then they begin to spread to the following areas of the skin. At the same time, important internal organs are also affected - the brain, heart, joints. The causative agents of the disease can be in the body for years, "dozing" or provoking the development of a chronic form. This greatly complicates the treatment.

After a tick bite, it can take from 2 to 30 days before the first symptoms appear. The onset of the disease can be determined by fairly characteristic symptoms. Severe redness appears at the site of the bite. The spot begins to grow, reaching up to 10 centimeters in diameter. Sometimes you can observe more large forms. The spot is almost always rounded, oval. Very rarely it can have irregular outlines. The outer layer has a brighter color and rises slightly above the surface of the skin. The central part after a while begins to turn pale and acquires a bluish tint. The bite site itself is immediately covered with a crust, and then scarred. The stain, regardless of treatment, disappears over time (about 2-3 weeks). After about a month, and sometimes after several years, symptoms of damage to the heart, nervous system, and joints begin to develop.

Be very careful. Do you observe such, if there was a tick bite, symptoms? Treatment must begin immediately.

Tick-borne encephalitis

The disease in which viral infection is affected nervous system. Quite often, encephalitis causes severe consequences that end in paralysis and sometimes death.

The incubation period is from 7 to 14 days. There is severe weakness in the legs, numbness of the neck and face. The disease begins very sharply. characteristic symptoms are, if the source was a tick bite, temperature (38-40 ° C), severe chills. The feverish state lasts from two to ten days. The disease is accompanied by severe headaches, vomiting, nausea, high fatigue, and sleep disturbances. The acute period is characterized by chest, neck. Pain occurs throughout the body, especially concentrating in the muscles. Often it is in those in which paralysis can occur.

To avoid such serious consequences, it is very important to understand how to treat a tick bite and start treatment as soon as possible.

Disease Prevention

It is best to prevent a tick bite from occurring. Treatment, even the most effective, will not return the former health. Therefore, when going for a walk in a forest or a park, precautions should be taken.

These include:

• Protecting the body with clothing. If you are going to places where the likelihood of a tick bite is high, try to wear long sleeves. Not bad if the trousers are tucked into socks. Better yet, wear boots. Don't give an insect a chance to get close to you!
• Insect repellents. Today you can buy quite a lot of effective substances. They will scare away not only ticks, but also mosquitoes, wasps.
• Lemon, lavender. Ticks cannot stand these smells at all. Therefore, rub all unprotected parts of the body with these oils. Unfortunately, 100% protection by such means is not guaranteed.
• Body examination. If the tick has landed on the surface of the skin, it can travel over it for up to two hours before sticking to a specific place. Therefore, it is very important to carefully examine the surface of the body every two hours. This will allow much earlier in case of danger to get rid of an uninvited insect.

First aid

If during the inspection you notice a tick bite, you need to take immediate action. As a rule, people behave in completely different ways. Some remove it on their own, completely forgetting how to treat a tick bite. Others go into a hysterical state. Both approaches are wrong.

Of course, there is a risk of infection. Therefore, it is necessary to consult a doctor, and if necessary, preventive measures. However, don't get hung up on the bite. Ticks bite a lot of people during the season. Serious consequences occur in a much smaller number. Even if an insect is a carrier of an infection, this does not mean at all that a person who has received a bite will definitely get sick. In addition, encephalitis is not always fatal.

Having found an insect, it must be removed. The most important thing is not to forget how to treat the site of a tick bite. Be sure to use an antiseptic with the addition of a local antibiotic. It is strictly forbidden to crush the tick. Otherwise, viruses that may be in the body of an insect will certainly enter the body of the victim.

by the most the best option the bitten person will be transported to the hospital. The doctor knows very well how to get rid of the tick. Therefore, he will very carefully remove the insect and properly treat the wound. In addition, he will send an uninvited "guest" for analysis to determine whether this individual is infected.

Self-extraction of a tick

Of course, it is best to entrust this matter to professional doctors. But in the absence of the opportunity to seek help in medical institution, you can pull out the tick at home.

Seeing an unpleasant sight, I want to get rid of the insect as soon as possible. But it's not worth the haste. Abrupt removal can provoke a rupture of the torso and head. It is very unpleasant if part of the tick remains in the wound. As a result, blood poisoning and inflammation can develop.

If the tick has stuck under the hair, wet it and comb through different sides. Be sure to sanitize your hands and any equipment you use. Try not to touch the insect with your bare hands so as not to expose yourself to the risk of infection. For such purposes, it is best to use tweezers. In case of its absence, you can use a napkin.

Method 1. Vegetable oil

There are several quite simple, but very effective methods, allowing you to pull the tick out of the wound, without crushing it. When completely immerses his head under the surface of the skin. Respiratory functions at this time occur through special passages located in the posterior part of the tick's body. Knowing this, you can perfectly use this opportunity. Should be gently dripped vegetable oil on the exposed area of ​​the insect. The oily liquid will block his oxygen supply. In this case, he will have to independently get out to the surface.

Sometimes instead of oil, it is advised to use kerosene. Such a liquid is also well suited for this manipulation. It is only important to use the substance very carefully so that there is no irritation.

If neither the first nor the second component is at hand, you can use an ordinary candle. Light it up and carefully drop the melted wax onto the tick. In this case, you need to be as careful as possible to prevent skin burns. An insect deprived of the ability to breathe will not be slow to get out.

Be sure to remember how to treat the site of a tick bite. For these purposes, any antiseptic is suitable. You can use brilliant green or iodine. Some doctors even allow the use of alcohol. The main thing is to achieve a disinfecting effect.

Method 2. Using tweezers

If you are going to remove the insect yourself, do not forget how to treat the site of the tick bite. Any antiseptic you have on hand will help you. Grab the insect with tweezers. It is best to use a fixture with blunt or rounded ends. Grab should be as close to the skin as possible. Remember that it is strictly forbidden to pull strongly, otherwise part of the uninvited "guest" will remain in the wound. Remove it with a uniform moderate force, strictly vertically. Do not use twisting movements.

It is very important not to damage the tick during extraction. But if insect fragments remain in the wound, do not panic. Some physicians believe that oral apparatus do not pose a serious danger if properly antiseptic treatment is performed. After a while, they will come out on their own.

But there are those who give good advice on how to pull out the head of a tick. Be sure to treat the surface of the wound with an antiseptic. Carefully pierce the needle on the fire. It is with its help that you get the head of the tick. Use the same method used to pull out a splinter. After pulling out the fragments of the tick, you should again carefully treat the surface of the wound.

Method 3. Using a thread

If tweezers are not at hand, you can remove the tick with your hands. Just be sure to protect your fingers. To do this, use a bandage or put on. Wrap the insect once with gauze, try to grab it as close to the skin as possible and gently pull it to the surface. Perform manipulation perpendicular to the surface. After removing the insect, be sure to wash your hands with soap and water. It is better to treat them with an antiseptic.

You can remove the tick with the help of ordinary thread. To do this, build a loop and throw it on the body of the insect. Pull the thread from the proboscis. After that, very carefully pull the ends of the thread to the left and right, trying to pull the tick out. This method is not convenient enough, since it requires an accurate calculation of the applied efforts. Indeed, with strong pressure, the abdomen risks tearing off. In this case, the head of the tick will remain under the skin. Use a sterile needle and pull out the remnants like a splinter.

When removing a tick, you need to take security measures. To do this, cover your nose and mouth with a medical bandage. If the insect is accidentally crushed during the extraction process, the aerosolized viruses will go straight into the air. Inhaling them, you can get asthmatic or allergic syndrome.

Laboratory analysis

The extracted insect should not be crushed. It is much more useful to put it in a tightly closed dish and take it to the laboratory. You need to deliver an insect for verification within two days. This will allow doctors to more accurately diagnose a person who has been bitten by a tick. Treatment in this case will begin immediately, and therefore, we can hope for a positive prognosis. Some centers take only a whole insect for analysis, but there are also those that accept a tick in parts. The analysis is carried out within a few hours. The answer is usually issued immediately. And do not forget to contact the clinic. Preventive treatment necessarily. Don't risk your health.

Condition after bite

Quite often, after getting rid of an insect, a person simply forgets about the wound. It is not right. The question arises: "If you pulled out a tick, what to do next?" Initially, the wound should be carefully treated with an antiseptic.

Carefully observe the condition of the victim. Seek immediate medical attention if the following symptoms appear after a tick bite:

• there are signs of an inflammatory process in the wound;
• an increase in temperature is observed;
• enlarged lymph nodes;
• regular headaches and muscle pains appear;
• the surface of the body was covered with a rash.

Very often the question arises of whether it is necessary to use an antibiotic for a tick bite. Doctors explain: if the territory is non-endemic, and the insect was on the skin for less than a day, there is no need for such prevention. It has been scientifically proven that even an infected tick that feeds for less than 24 hours will not be able to infect the victim with borreliosis.

But if the insect has fed for more than 72 hours, or the duration of its stay on the surface of the skin is unknown, any doctor will definitely prescribe an antibiotic for a tick bite.

It is very important to remember that the drug is prescribed only if after the removal of the insect the period of 72 hours has not expired. If more time has passed, antibiotic therapy will not be useful, so it is no longer used.

The most effective drug is the drug "Doxycycline". Adults are given a single dose of 200 mg. For children over eight years old, the norm is 4 mg per kilogram of body. But not more than 200 mg. To date, this is the only effective drug, positive impact which has been proven in clinical trials.

The drug "Doxycycline" is contraindicated in pregnant women, nursing mothers and children under eight years of age.

emergency measures

If the area in which the tick has bitten is believed to be the site of an epidemic, or laboratory research gave the result that the insect was infected, it is necessary to be vaccinated. It should be done within the first 96 hours. You will need an injection of a special anti-tick immunoglobulin. The vaccine is completely free. But if the drug is not available, then you will have to purchase it yourself. The dose is calculated depending on body weight. A contraindication is an allergic reaction to blood products.

If the tick is not infected, then the vaccine is not done. Since it quite often provokes the occurrence of allergies. In addition, by itself, it is not useful to the body and does not provide complete protection against possible occurrence encephalitis or its complications. In this case, it all depends on the person's immunity and the activity of the virus.

For prophylactic purposes, medicines containing interferon (Viferon) are usually prescribed. Sometimes the drugs "Arbidol", "Anaferon", "Amiksin", "Remantadin" are recommended. It is best to take them on the first day after the bite has occurred.

There is no vaccine against borreliosis. Until now, experts have not come to a single conclusion when to drink antibiotics and what medications are most effective. The whole difficulty lies in the fact that the tick can infect both encephalitis and borreliosis. Therefore, some drugs can significantly aggravate the course of one of the diseases. Remember: if you feel bad after a tick bite, do not rush to take medications. Be sure to go to the doctor and consult on the treatment. And most importantly - donate blood for laboratory analysis.

Precautionary measures

• You can meet ticks in the grass or low shrubs. This is where they most often wait for their prey.
• Almost always, the insect crawls up, which is why, by tucking your trousers into your socks, you will protect yourself a little from it.
• Always apply tick repellant before going outdoors. If not, use a regular antiperspirant. Ticks are very attracted to the smell of sweat.
• Emergency immunoglobulin vaccination is not as effective as pre-prophylaxis with tick-borne vaccines.

Keep this in mind when you are going for a walk in the forest, and your protection, even if not one hundred percent, will be guaranteed.