How To Remove a Tick: Dos and Don’ts

After a day of hiking or some other outdoor activity, your eyes catch a glimpse of a small dark bump on your skin. Hmmm… What could that be?

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The bump’s tiny legs provide the answer: It’s a burrowed-in tick — and it’s feeding on you.

“This can be very emotional to find,” says infectious disease specialist Frank Esper, MD. “It’s scary to find a tick burrowing in, and there’s a lot of concern about the diseases ticks can transmit.”

So, what should you do once you find that creepy and unwanted guest? We asked Dr. Esper and wilderness medicine specialist Christopher Bazzoli, MD, to walk us through how to remove a tick and what comes afterward.

How to remove a tick

For starters, take a deep breath and try to relax. A tick bite typically isn’t an emergency. While you certainly want to remove the tick from your body sooner rather than later, there’s no need to feel rushed.

“A couple of minutes isn’t going to be life or death here,” emphasizes Dr. Bazzoli.

Once you’re ready, here’s how to get the tick out.

Step 1: Wash the area

Gently wash the tick bite area with soap and water. (Don’t scrub!)

“The tick created an entry point, or opening, when it burrowed in,” explains Dr. Bazzoli. “Cleaning the area first helps lower the risk of a secondary infection from any bacteria that may be on your skin.”

Step 2: Grasp the tick

It’s time to start the extraction. Ideally, you’ll use a clean pair of blunt-tipped tweezers for the job. No blunt-tipped tweezers? A clean pair of regular tweezers will do. If you don’t have tweezers, use your fingers.

You’ll want to grasp the tick as close to your skin as possible. This is to improve your chances of removing the entire tick, including the mouthparts hooked below your skin, and limit the chance of infection.

If you grab hold of the tick farther away from your skin, you risk squeezing its body and forcing potentially harmful pathogens — like bacteria or viruses — out of the tick into your bloodstream. (Ick, right?)

Step 3: Pull the tick out

Once you have a firm grip on the tick, gently pull it straight up at a 90-degree angle to the skin.

“Pulling straight up increases the chances of getting the entire tick out,” says Dr. Esper. “Don’t jerk to the side, twist or scrape because you might remove the body but leave portions of the head in the skin.”

What should you do if part of the tick breaks off? Try to remove detached mouthparts with your tweezers. If you can’t remove the bits easily, leave them alone. Your body will naturally push out the remains over time.

Step 4: Dispose of the tick

There’s no need to keep the live tick once it’s pulled out. You can safely dispose of it by:

Flushing it down the toilet
Placing it in a sealed plastic bag or container and tossing it in the trash

Take a picture of the tick before getting rid of it, suggests Dr. Bazzoli. This may be helpful later if you get sick. “If we can identify the type of tick that bit you, it narrows down the list of potential diseases,” he says.

It isn’t necessary to test the tick itself for potential disease.

Always wash your hands thoroughly after removing a tick. Also, don’t crush a live tick with your fingers, as that could expose you to bacteria or viruses.

Step 5: Reclean the bite area

After the tick is removed, wash the bite area again with warm, soapy water and gently scrub. This second cleaning helps make sure no small mouthparts remain and reduces the risk of infection.

You can apply a small amount of antibiotic ointment to the wound or simply cover the spot with a bandage to protect the open skin.

Tick removal methods to avoid

If you search online, you may find some … well, interesting ideas on how to remove a tick. Don’t be tempted to try them. They don’t work well and may increase infection risk by causing the tick to regurgitate its stomach contents into you.

Methods to avoid include:

Burning the tick with a match or lighter
Applying petroleum jelly, nail polish, or creams and oils to the tick
Dousing the tick with rubbing alcohol

“Don’t try anything drastic,” urges Dr. Bazzoli. “Using tweezers is your safest and most effective option.”

When to see a doctor after a tick bite

After removal of a tick, you enter what Dr. Bazzoli calls a “watch and wait” period for about two weeks. Monitor the bite site and contact a healthcare provider if you experience symptoms like:

An expanding red rash, especially one shaped like a target or bullseye (a telltale sign of Lyme disease, the most common tickborne illness)
Fever
Shakes or chills
Body aches
Joint pain
Headache
Fatigue

But before you worry too much, know this: While illnesses like Lyme disease, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and others are a concern after a tick bite, the odds of infection are low — even if you live in a tick disease hotspot.

“If you’ve been bitten by a tick and it’s been fewer than 36 hours, the likelihood of it transmitting Lyme disease is less than 3%,” reports Dr. Esper. “For transmission, the tick has to have been feeding on you for two days or more.”

And even after that length of time, he adds, the risk of transmission is around 25%. “So, that’s a 75% chance you’re not going to get the infection.”

If you need help deciding whether to see a healthcare provider, check out the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Tick Bite Bot. Answering a quick series of questions is all it takes to determine whether you may need medical treatment.