"Immunization of guinea pigs with cement extract induces resistance against Ixodes scapularis ticks"
Posted by Ann-Ohio (Member # 44364) on :
When a tick bites you, its saliva goes in as it sucks blood and actually holds the tick attached.
When the tick is ready to leave, it regurgitates and its stomach acid dissolves the saliva-stuff holding it in place so it can withdraw.
If you pinch or burn the tick to get it off you, the tick panics and regurgitates so it can get loose. That is when it gives you all the germs of the diseases it carries.
If you carefully grab hold of the tick with a pointy tweezers or a tick remover next to your skin, you will get hold of its mouth-part or proboscis which is made of chitin - like hair or fingernails are - and has no nerves or sense of feeling.
So you can pull the tick out without it knowing anything is happening and save yourself from being infected..
Posted by daisys (Member # 11802) on :
Thank you.
I've always believed that the best thing to do is to pinch the tick as close to the point of entry as possible, and remove it, even if the head is left in temporarily.
The infections are in the body, so it's best to pinch between the person and the tick's body and remove it as quickly as possible and then deal with the imbedded head, if need be.
An added benefit is knowing that if the head is severed from the body, that tick is dead.
It's good to to have my knowledge reaffirmed. I did exactly as described for my sister who had a tick in the back of her head. She never got ill.
Posted by Ann-Ohio (Member # 44364) on :
Pinching the tick with your fingers is not good as you will just make the tick squirt all those bad bacteria into you. Best to use a tweezers or a tick lifter.
Getting anything left in the bite area out can be tricky.
The head of the tick is not inserted in the body. The tick's proboscis, (kind of like a beak) through which it sucks the host's blood, is the only part that goes through the skin.
The head may break off and still be attached to the "beak" and may be hard to remove.
If you try and still have something stuck in the bite, It may come out in a few days, just like a splinter might.
Or you can get your doctor or someone at an urgent care place to remove it.