Ticks Are Nasty!
So nasty in fact, that they should have their own horror film. Oh wait – they do. And get this – Seth Green is in it. The trailer will gross you out and make you hate ticks even more so, here it is.  If that was the world we lived in I probably wouldn’t be writing this article. I’d be looking online for homemade flamethrower plans. Fortunately, we don’t live in that world and ticks are only about 3/16th of an inch long (phew).
Sooner Or Later You Will Get A Tick
Getting ticks is just a reality of spending time in the woods. I grew up  dealing with this and it doesn’t bother me a bit. The thing is, to remove a tick you first have to find the little buggers. It’s easy to do if you look for them, which brings me to the next fun part of this article…
The Tick Check!
Tick checks are so well known that there’s even a hit song about it. It only takes a second to do, but it’s very important. Do you really want to go to bed and feed those guys all night? Yuck is right. To do this you’ll need either another person or a hand held mirror and a wall mounted mirror.
- Check your clothes first, then get down to your underwear.
- Check your legs (especially inner thighs), arms and chest.
- Have someone check your back, or do it yourself with a hand mirror and a mirror behind you.
- Check your hair by massaging your fingers through your scalp (like you’re putting shampoo in).
If you find one don’t freak out! It’s not a big deal and you’re going to be just fine. Just make sure you don’t aggressively yank it out. Here is NOT how to remove a wood tick:
How to properly remove the bloody, blood sucker:
Simply grab the tick as close to the skin as possible with either a tweezers or a tissue and pull it out – SLOWLY AND STEADILY. Don’t twist it and don’t jerk it.
That’s it. If you want to get medieval and throw it into the campfire, go for it. I usually just throw them back into the woods. I’m not naive enough to think that killing it is going to make a difference in the tick population, and I grew up with them so I don’t really need vengeance. I just send them on their way, after having a stern talk with them about avoiding me in the future.
