What is the best method to remove a tick from an adolescent's skin?

What is the best method to remove a tick from an adolescent's skin?

• A. Touch the tick with a lit cigarette.
• B. Remove the tick carefully with tweezers.
• C. Pour ammonia over the tick, and it will shrivel up.
• D. Spray the tick with insect repellent, and it will fall off.

Answer: (B)

Grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible with fine-tipped tweezers and pull upward with steady, even pressure. This direct, controlled technique helps ensure the entire tick is removed, including its mouthparts, and reduces the chance of squeezing the tick and pushing pathogens into the skin. After it’s out, clean the area and your hands with soap and water or alcohol. If any mouthparts remain, try to remove them with the same tweezers. If you’ve saved the tick, it can be useful for identification if symptoms develop. Other methods are not appropriate: lighting the tick with a cigarette can burn the skin and may cause the tick to move or rupture, increasing risk of infection. Ammonia or other chemicals isn’t a reliable or safe way to remove a embedded tick and can irritate the skin. Waiting for the tick to shrivel or relying on insect repellent to make it fall off isn’t effective, and can leave parts behind or irritate the skin. The best, evidence-based approach is careful mechanical removal with clean tweezers.

Grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible with fine-tipped tweezers and pull upward with steady, even pressure. This direct, controlled technique helps ensure the entire tick is removed, including its mouthparts, and reduces the chance of squeezing the tick and pushing pathogens into the skin. After it’s out, clean the area and your hands with soap and water or alcohol. If any mouthparts remain, try to remove them with the same tweezers. If you’ve saved the tick, it can be useful for identification if symptoms develop.

Other methods are not appropriate: lighting the tick with a cigarette can burn the skin and may cause the tick to move or rupture, increasing risk of infection. Ammonia or other chemicals isn’t a reliable or safe way to remove a embedded tick and can irritate the skin. Waiting for the tick to shrivel or relying on insect repellent to make it fall off isn’t effective, and can leave parts behind or irritate the skin. The best, evidence-based approach is careful mechanical removal with clean tweezers.