Earlier this afternoon I was out in the country. I did some birdwatching. The area was private land around a farmhouse, but parts were really brushy.
After coming home my sister called me, we’d been out together. She found a tick on her neck. I checked myself all over and didn’t find any. Didn’t find any then I should say.
Just now in bed I reached up to scratch and felt something small next to my scalp, it could have been anything but when I pulled it out it was a tick. Alive. After disposing of it and bathing thoroughly I’ve checked again and don’t find any more.
QUESTION
Are there any more precautions I should take now, or be looking out for? I didn’t feel any sting when I pulled out the last one. Should I see a doctor? I don’t ever remember having a tick on my body before, I’m not sure what should be done.
Probably nothing, really. As per that site I’d just wash the point of attachment if any and monitor yourself. If you develop any symptoms as described, then go see a doctor. But the vast majority of tick bites are essentially harmless ( maybe a little painful or itchy sometimes, but harmless ). I’ve had the little buggers all over me and its never been more than a skin-crawling nuisance. The biggest annoyance is often imagining you have the little bastards on you for the next day or two every time you get a random itch.
I wouldn’t be too cavalier, as disease transmission does occur. So keep an eye out for symptoms. But if you got him off you promptly, odds are you’ll be fine. Not all ticks are carrying anything malign and transmission even if they do is typically not instantaneous.
As best I can tell the tick was whole when I pulled it off me, no head in skin. I don’t feel anything bitten or itchy on my scalp. As I said in the OP, it was alive. I could see the teeny legs move.
I’m looking on youtube for my own personal records, the consistent method seems to be grabbing it near the head with tweezers and pulling upwards.
The method(s) I always heard were twisting it, or using a hot match head on the body to make it pull out. Do those methods not work? I was always told pulling it straight up would leave the head in.
If the head is left in, how does it eventually get out? Does the body break it down or does it get pushed out by the body?
Ew ew ew ew! Y’know how many people feel about spiders? That’s how I feel about ticks. shudder
But you’re probably fine. While prophylactic (preventative) antibiotics were a short-lived fad for tick bites a few years ago, we know now that it isn’t really a good idea.
Wash it with soap (or shampoo) and water and wait. Chances are astronomically in your favor that nothing bad will happen, as you got it out less than 24 hours after you were bit, and you did the right thing by pulling it out instead of smothering or burning it. Ticks that get smothered in home remedies or burnt with match sticks tend to regurgitate into you, and the viruses they carry are often in that, uh, regurgitate (tick vomit.) Ticks that are just pulled straight out tend not to throw up inside you.
Ew. Even the “good news” in a tick related post is disgusting.
Don’t twist, don’t smother and don’t burn (as I mentioned before I saw this post.) All of those increase the chances of tick vomit and the head being stuck in. Grasp the vile creature as close to the skin as you can and pull it straight out, perpendicular to the skin.
That gives you the best chance of getting the head out. If the head breaks off and you can easily pluck it out, do so. But if it doesn’t come out easily, don’t go digging around and cause a worse wound. The body will indeed perform a combination of breaking it down and pushing it out.
If it becomes infected, of course, see a doctor for it like you would for any infected wound.
ticks don’t burrow. the head won’t get left in. when you pull off the tick you might often have a bit of skin in the jaws, your skin is weaker than the tick and will give way first. even if a piece of jaw might get left in (its never happened in my experience) it is likely of little consequence. the tick has to hang on even after it is swollen with no contact but its jaws and the bitee is rubbing against stuff; tick jaws are powerful and hold the tick on for a wild ride (think of yourself biting on a rope attached to a carnival ride all while sucking on an endless slurpy drink, you got to admire those ticks for what they do [all their life stages are amazing]) and stay with the tick.
don’t twist, it isn’t a screw. don’t heat the tick (you don’t want an additional burn injury to yourself) this might cause the tick to puke into the wound.
just grab it by the front of the head, tweezers help and pull straight back. if you do it quick (but controlled) it’s over in a fraction of a second. there are also tick grabbers for pets (kind of a forked thing) that you get under the tick and pry up.
it depends on where in the world you are as to what ticks exist and if any might be a disease carrier. the common wood tick/dog tick is of little consequence. a deer tick both has to be an infected one and be in you (as in having bitten, not burrowed [which it doesn’t do]) for more than 24 hours to have infected you. if the tick is walking then it hasn’t bitten you yet. if the tick has bitten you and is small skinny and flat then it hasn’t been on you long and likely not infected you if it was a disease carrier (not all are). when a tick is swollen then there might be a chance of infection because it has been there for a few days.
I could have searched for them when I wrote the OP, but I was in a state of major gross out then. I’m calmer now, and have read more, including links in this thread, so I know I’m probably fine.
Well…what ticks do is insert a structure called a hypostome under your skin.This is what people refer to as the “head” ( it’s actually just part of the head - the mouthparts essentially ). It acts like an anchor, either mechanically or in some genera ( like Dermacentor, including the common dog ticks ) through a combination of mechanics and a cement-like secretion. It also mediates the tick feeding method.
Basically it works like this - the tick uses its chelicerae to cut through the skin and inserts its hypostome, and either mechanically or with a combo of salivary cement it forms a nice seal. Then it starts spitting into the wound it has cut in you and alternates with sucking up the blood pool that forms from the lacerations and digestive enzymes it is using to lyse your tissue ( and in some species also anesthetize the wound ). And with hard ticks it can keep this alternating pattern going for days until it is sated and drops off.
With a tick like Dermacentor andersoni it can take ~2.5 hours to form a full on blood pool and since it is hard ticks like this that transmit most tick-born diseases you can see why the recommendation is to remove them as soon as possible. The longer it is anchored the more saliva it introduces over time and if it is infected with something the higher the titer of disease-causing organisms it is exposing you to. You can also see why you can get bite reactions after removal. Not only can you have an allergic reaction to the saliva, but it has basically liquefied a tiny portion of your body.
The thing to remember is that the tick can voluntarily drop off when done - i.e. it can pull out its own hypostome without a problem, disengaging the mechanism it uses to anchor itself. Which is why, back in the dark ages when I took Medical Entomology, our professor’s recommendation for removing an attached tick was thus:
1.) Seize the tick with tweezers as close to your body as you can, at the base of the hypostome basically.
2.) DO NOT YANK. That can indeed cause the hypostome to separate from the body and remain embedded, where it can be an additional irritant. Instead pull firmly and steadily - put enough steady pressure and the tick, not wanting to be decapitated, will generally release. Or at least it will usually pull off without issue. I’ve removed a couple of dozen ticks this way with no problems. I’ve also seen people botch it by just yanking as hard as they could.
So, no - they don’t exactly burrow their whole body into you per se, but they do burrow their mouthparts in and that can break off if you’re clumsy about it.
I had Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever when I was 13. There are only a couple of cases a year in Indiana, and I nearly died because it was diagnosed so late. Anyway, I’m always telling people the early symptoms I experienced: loss of appetite and the worst headache of my life. Dizziness, weight loss followed, and the headache was unrelenting. By the time I started running a fever and getting spots on my ankles, I was in real danger and still didn’t have a diagnosis. Pure luck and a sharp-eyed nurse who wouldn’t take any shit were on my side, and on day 12 of symptoms I was hospitalized and put on tetracycline.
It wasn’t scary at the time (to me, anyway, what did I know?!), but I’ll never forget the symptoms. It’s so damned easy to miss.
On the other hand, I’ve probably found 100 or more ticks on myself in my life, so it’s not a huge risk. Just something to be aware of.