I guess it depends what part of the world you might be in, because I was ‘bitten’ by a tick in coastal scrubland in eastern Victoria a few years ago…never felt the initial bite, and only realised I had been screwed by a tick when my right arm refused to move without severe pain ensuing!!
The tick was actually located on my neck, but had burrowed in and had caused a ‘trickle-down’ effect on the nerves and muscles of my arm. Made it a right bugger to drive from the campsite into the nearest town for a doc…with only one good arm, and a manual car!!
The one time I got bit by a tick I never felt it. I noticed the tick when I was getting ready to shower and saw this speck of what I thought was dirt on my abdomen. When I tried to flick it off, it sort of just folded over and the legs started going haywire. It was pretty freaky looking. The camp doctor pulled it out, which wasn’t all that painful. It had not gotten very deep.
Growing up as a kid we took the occasional trip to Wisconsin to visit my Grandfather. He lived in a cabin sourrounded by thick woods woods near a small lake and there were ticks EVERYWHERE.
I don’t ever recall noticing a bite. At the end of the day we’d have to strip down and my mom would my brothers and I for the little bastards. It wasn’t uncommon for her to pull 3-4 off of each of us, and we’d have been completely unaware of them if she hadn’t checked.
Now that I am all grown up, I have to admit, the idea of something burrowed into my skin and sucking out various bodily fluids freaks me the hell out.
If one is biting you, swab it with rubbing alcohol and it will let go.
I don’t remember if I feel the initial bite, since it’s been a while since I had any, but I always have a bad reaction afterwards. The bite turns into an inflamed burning itchy sore for about 3 or 4 months. Much worse than mosquito bites (and those are pretty bad for me, too!). I seriously hate them.
I’ve always been told that you shouldn’t remove them this way, lets you would remove the body while letting the head and the mouthpieces in place.
When I was a child, the prefered method was to use ether to put the tick asleep, and then only remove it. But nowadays, ether can’t be bought freely anymore around here and besides I don’t even know if it’s good advice.
I once returned home from a romp in the woods, and discovered that I had what looked like a watermelon seed stuck to the side of my leg. Except that I hadn’t been near any watermelon. I tried to flick it off, but the pointy end was attached to my skin. I pulled it off and threw it away, oblivious to the fact that the head was still in me. It got infected in a really bad way, and I had to have minor surgery to get it all cleaned up.
That says simply “alcohol” so I’m not sure if they mean liquor or rubbing alcohol, but I am sure that rubbing alcohol works to get them to let go as it was used countless times by my parents in my childhood to get ticks off of us kids after a trip up to the lake or to other tick-infested places. My mother was very paranoid about the head remaining attached and never wanted to try to just pry them off.
I grew up in the woods and for some reason the little buggers alway ended up in my hair.
We always found the best way to get them out was to grab them as close to the skin as possible with a pair of tweezers and pull them out. Then you could use the tweezers to hold them over an open flame and hear them go “pop”.
I’ve only ever been bitten by one—I was wearing sweats, indoors, and I don’t know how long it had been lodged in (not super-long, at least) when I began to notice what felt like a large sliver of something on the inside of my calf. I’d broken a glass maybe half an hour before, so I actually thought a shard might have bounced up and gotten me, or something. But I rolled up my pantleg and, sure enough, there was a little black tick, the size of a kernel of corn lodged onto my leg.
I hate parasites. Especially macroscopic ones.
My sister was around, and kind enough to carefully remove the bugger for me. (We’ve had lots of experience—living in the woods with lots of dogs, and my mother’s a vet tech.)
No, Ghanima is correct. The key is to grip as close to the skin as possible and to pull steadily, not yank. Yanking will indeed detach the head, but ticks, while the can’t be called “smart”, will voluntarily decouple their attachement rather than be decapitated ;).
Not considered a reliable method, generally speaking, despite how commonly it is advised. I was taught the above when I took medical entomology.