The Tick Nipper®
Tick Remover for People and Pets
Simple
Clean
Safe
Tick Removal Dos and Don'ts
Tick Removal Dos and Don'ts
- DON’T touch the tick with heat, such as a lighted cigarette or burnt match, or with chemicals such as Vaseline or nail polish.
Why? These irritants make the tick back out of the wound in order to escape, and in so doing it injects a blast of saliva to lubricate its mouthpart so it can pull out its backward-facing barbs. The saliva can contain disease-causing bacteria, so the use of irritants greatly increases the odds of infection in the host.
- DON’T rotate a tick when removing it.
Why? This action tears the tick's body from its well-anchored mouthparts, leaving those mouthparts behind in the victim's skin.
- DON’T remove a tick with your fingers.
Why? A tick’s swollen body is like an eyedropper. If you squeeze it, you may inject the blood and any disease germs back into the wound.
- DON’T remove ticks with tweezers.
Why? This may come as a surprise, but there are several reasons why you shouldn’t remove ticks with tweezers:
(1) Regular tweezers are too thick to fit between a feeding tick's body and the host's skin, and will therefore squeeze the tick in the process of removing it.
(2) Even fine-tipped surgeon's tweezers are tapered: only their tips can be used for effective tick removal. But because the 'safe' area of use is so small, it's difficult to control the action of these types of tweezers, so you will likely end up squeezing the tick anyway.
(3) Even if you could place a tweezer's tips between the tick's body and the host's skin without squeezing the tick, you would almost inevitably crush the tick's brittle mouthparts, leaving them in the host, in the process of exerting enough pressure to remove the tick.
What to do after you've removed a tick:
2. Either save the tick for medical analysis or dispose of it. If you save it (a good idea if removed from a human) place it in a small container (this could be a sealable 'baggie') with a wad of wet cotton or other moist object to keep it from desiccating, and add a label that gives the date the tick was removed. If you dispose of the tick, wrap it in the alcohol-soaked tissue you scrubbed the wound with and burn it, or drop it into a little jar half filled with alcohol and periodically dispose of the contents. Don’t flush a tick down the toilet, since they like moisture and, although there's no research to prove that ticks can escape from a septic system, there's no sense taking a chance. Another good method is to wrap the tick in a piece of tape, from which it can never excape.
How to Avoid Ticks in the First Place:
- Wear smooth fabrics (so ticks will have greater difficulty latching on), light colors (so those that do climb aboard will be easily visible), and tight weaves (to keep nymphs from penetrating clothing).
- Deet is considered a good tick repellent. Read the directions carefully before applying.
- Wear long sleeves and long pants tucked into high socks. Since this is not practical during hot weather, rely on more frequent inspections.
- When outdoors travel in pairs, and inspect each other every hour or so. Examine with a clinical eye any unfamiliar ‘freckles’ that may appear along the hairline of the scalp, in folds and creases in clothing, under the armpits, around the neck and waist, and behind the knees. This is no time to be modest. After the outing, strip down and inspect all skin areas thoroughly.
- Take your time when you find a tick. Remove it carefully and without rushing, and try to keep the victim calm.
Why the Tick Nipper® is the best method for removing ticks:
- The Tick Nipper's jaw edges are thin as a butterknife so they slide easily between a tick’s body and the host’s skin. They have been spefically calibrated to fit even the tiniest deer ticks and nymphs!
- The thin jaw edges are nearly an inch long, making them far easier to place around a tick than any tweezer tips.
- The Tick Nipper’s cupped jaws cradle the tick and any mess safely.
- The Tick Nipper has big stops between its handles that limit your grip, so you won’t exert too much pressure and break or crush the mouthparts and leave the embedded part behind as you pull the tick away.
- The Tick Nipper has a 20 power lens, similar to a gemologist’s loupe, mounted in its hub. This allows you to examine the tick after removal, if you wish, to confirm complete removal of the mouthparts.
- The Tick Nipper® has no sharp edges as do tweezers, so you can carry one in your pocket where it won’t tear your clothes or stab you. Thus you can easily carry the instrument anywhere —then the moment you spot a tick on you, a friend, or a pet, you can remove it quickly and safely.