Ticks, the blood-sucking insects that often live in tall grasses, are parasites that bite and attach to warm-blooded creatures like humans. There are many kinds of ticks, and the bites can appear as a small reddish or black bump or nodule, a blister or bruised area, or the bull’s-eye rash of Lyme disease (spread by the deer tick).1
Although most tick bites are not harmful, ticks can transmit diseases (some of them serious) if they’re not treated promptly. It’s essential to properly follow steps to take after a tick bite and know when to contact your healthcare provider.
- Use tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the skin as you can. Household tweezers are fine as long as they have a narrow tip. You can also use a tick key, a tick removal spoon, or specialized tick removal tweezers.
- Once you have hold of the tick, pull it straight up and out from your skin with steady pressure. If the head remains in the skin, it cannot transmit disease but should still be removed because it could cause infection.
Don’t use nail polish, Vaseline (petroleum jelly), or heat to try to make the tick detach.3 These are unreliable methods that can delay tick removal. Your goal is to remove the tick as quickly as you can.
2. Secure the Tick and Take a Picture
Keep the tick in the tweezers, put it on a paper towel or tissue, and take a picture of it. That will help a healthcare provider identify what kind of tick bite you and if it is one that can cause disease. You may not need to see a provider, but it’s a good idea to take the photo.
You can dispose of the tick by putting it in sticky tape and putting it in the trash, or flush it down the toilet in a piece of tissue. If you would like to bring the tick itself to a healthcare provider, place it in a sealed container with a little rubbing alcohol.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not recommend sending a tick to a commercial lab yourself, as the results may not be dependable.3
3. Cleanse and Protect the Area
After you remove the tick, it’s important to cleanse the area.3 Use warm water and a gentle soap to cleanse your hands and the bite. You may also (or instead if soap and water are not available) apply antiseptic, such as rubbing alcohol or an iodine scrub, to kill any germs on the bite.
It’s not necessary to cover or bandage the bite afterward.
4. When to Contact a Healthcare Provider
If you cannot remove the tick because it’s burrowed under the skin or it’s too hard to grasp, see a healthcare provider. Most ticks don’t cause disease. Still, there are close to 500,000 cases of tick-borne disease a year in the United States.4
U.S Department of Health and Human Services. Tick-borne disease working group.
Watch for symptoms for 30 days after a tick bite. If you see any of the following, contact a healthcare provider:5