How to remove a tick from a person: methods and features of removal

Hello everyone, friends! Surely everyone who loves nature walks, picnics and barbecue, became a victim of a tick. For experienced, such a collision does not cause any problems: they say, removed the parasite and went on.

However, there is such a huge amount of how to remove a tick from a person that I think it is necessary to bring final clarity.

Remember all these tips about vegetable oil, alcohol, twisting the tick clockwise or counterclockwise ... In my article I analyze in detail which methods are safe and which are best avoided.

How to properly pull a sucking tick in humans

As soon as the sun warms up and the grass begins to turn green, people are massively reaching for nature. And here a person is in danger of becoming a victim of an attack by an ixodid tick.

If this situation happened, and there is no medical institution nearby, then the rules on how to get a tick out of a person should help in traveling conditions.

Features of removal of sucked tick

In order to understand how to properly remove a tick from a person, you need to have an idea about the structure of the parasite and the way it is introduced into the skin to saturate the blood.

The ixodid tick has a freely rotating head attached to the body with a mouthpart. Getting on the victim’s body, for a long time, up to an hour, he can crawl over his body or clothes, choosing a place suitable for a calm and safe “meal”.

Such “favorite” places on the human body are places with the thinnest skin and closely located blood vessels.

• Groin;
• Popliteal hollows;
• Elbow cavities;
• Axillary hollows;
• Patches behind the ear;
• Temporal and occipital region;
• The scalp.

Having chosen a secluded place, the parasite attaches itself to it with suction cups on its legs and proboscis carefully and painlessly pierces its skin for the victim. Then it begins to twist the proboscis, immersing it in the thickness of the skin to reach the bloodstream.

As the blood saturates, the body of the small spider swells, increasing up to 10 times. By this feature, you can determine how long the bloodsucker is under the skin - for a long time or has just invaded. In any case, it should be deleted.

How to remove a tick

As soon as the bloodsucker is detected, the best way would be to contact any medical institution where a specialist who knows how to remove the tick will do it professionally and without consequences.

They can also take the extracted parasite for analysis to determine if the victim has "awarded" the infection. But if there is no such possibility for a tick bitten, then the insect will have to be removed on its own.

Hand extraction

The most risky method is to pull out the parasite with your hands, because there is a danger of crushing or tearing the body of the bloodsucker, and then infection of a person, if this tick is a carrier of infection, becomes much more likely. Nevertheless, they resort to it most often forcedly when there are no suitable tools with them.

1. Fingers should not be wrapped around the body itself, but the place of articulation with the head, which is already in the subcutaneous layer;
2. It is necessary to capture carefully, as close to the skin as possible;
3. With a few rotational movements, as if a screw was twisted, it is necessary to gradually remove the bloodsucker along with the head and proboscis so that there are no spider remains under the skin;
4. If there is a natural disgust for the insect, fingers can be wrapped in a handkerchief, gauze or bandage;
5. After removing the sucked parasite, the affected area must be immediately treated with any improvised antiseptic.

If possible, it is best to place the extracted bloodsucker in some kind of lidded vessel and deliver it to the hospital for 2 days for analysis in order to examine the presence or absence of pathogens of serious diseases in it.

Tweezer Extraction

This method is suitable in case of quick detection of the parasite, when its size is too small to be removed with your fingers. Here, too, have their own removal rules.

• With tweezers, similarly, you need to grab it not by the body, but by the skin itself, and use a careful rotational movements to unscrew the whole tick.
• It is better to place the tweezers parallel to the skin, and not at an angle or perpendicular.
• No need to pull and make sudden movements, as well as it is unacceptable to squeeze the body of a bloodsucker itself. The probable rupture of the parasite bodes as a result of formidable troubles - infection and suppuration of the bite.

Thread removal

This method is rightly considered doubtful in terms of a flawless result, since it requires skill and patience. Otherwise, there may be a risk of the body tearing off the head embedded in the skin.

1. A strong thread or a thin cord is taken;
2. Around the bloodsucker, at the very site of the bite, a seizure is made by thread;
3. Then a loop is made;
4. With loosening vibrating or twisting movements, the sucked bloodsucker is gradually removed.

If the parasite has just eaten into the body and its size is too small, most likely this method is poorly suited, because most likely it will not be possible to tie a tiny spider with a thread and make an exciting loop.

But if there is a magnifying glass, then you can try to try, if there are no tweezers available and the hospital is far away.

Oil recovery

A simple, but at the same time, risky way, questionable from the point of view of medicine. It consists in the principle of blocking the access of air to the tick and depriving it of the ability to breathe, which supposedly forces him to leave the victim.

• An ingested parasite is poured with sunflower oil or any other having a liquid fraction;
• To prevent the oily liquid from spreading, it is better to put a ring on the bite area, and pour oil in its circle;
• After a few minutes, the bloodsucker should come out by itself, after which it must either be saved for analysis or destroyed.

Not always, as doctors say, a bloodsucker leaves the victim on its own. Often there are cases when a parasite, deprived of the ability to breathe, dies, but before that it injects back the pumped blood along with the infected saliva.

How to remove a tick

On the above methods of extracting a tick that has eaten into the skin, the correct ones have exhausted themselves.

Contrary to common recipes, pulling out a bloodsucker with soap suds, gasoline, alcohol and other exotic means, doctors do not recommend resorting to them. And that's why.

1. From aggressive influences, the bloodsucker dies, and remains embedded in the human skin;
2. But before death, he often relaxes the proboscis, and the blood with which he managed to pump, along with the saliva infected with possible infections, enters the victim's blood stream.

And then the risk of getting encephalitis or borreliosis increases many times.

If it was not possible to completely remove the tick

Often, out of inexperience or because of panic, people pull out a tick, tearing its body sticking out from the outside of the head immersed in the thickness of the skin. What to do in such cases?

• The main thing is not to panic and calm down;
• Find a sewing or injection needle from a syringe, a pin, or any sharp pointed object;
• Glow it on a flame;
• The place from which the bloodsucker was just pulled out should be treated with any available antiseptic;
• Act as if removing a regular splinter;
• After removing the pest residues, thoroughly treat the wound with an antiseptic again.

If suppuration could not be avoided, and the wound is inflamed, then do not worry! Together with the pus, the remaining parts of the parasite will come out, the skin will cleanse, and the bite site will heal.

5 ways to remove a tick from the human body

Ixodid ticks that live in Russia and the CIS countries are attached to the skin of a person to get fresh blood, which they need to reproduce.

By itself, an insect bite is not dangerous, but its saliva may contain pathogens of infections such as encephalitis and borreliosis.

How to pull out a tick

If a person is bitten by a tick, then it should be quickly removed, because the longer he is in contact with a person, the higher the risk of infection with dangerous infectious pathologies.

The parasite must be twisted, and not torn off, because it is deeply and tightly attached to the skin with the help of a proboscis with processes that hold it.

You can remove the tick at home using your hands, using a thread, tweezers, a syringe or special devices (Tick Twister, Anticlesch, Nippes), which are available in pharmacies.

Such tools resemble a hook or tweezers, but have a special modified shape to facilitate the extraction of the parasite. Adaptations are recommended to be taken with you when traveling to nature.

Tweezers

One of the most popular tick removal tools, Nippes, helps capture the insect as firmly and as close to the skin as possible, preventing it from tearing.

Use Nippes as follows: grab the arthropod between the teeth of the tool, turn it counterclockwise, pulling it slightly toward you.

After removing the parasite, treat the suction area with iodine or alcohol. To use ordinary tweezers, the following recommendations exist:

1. With tweezers, grab the head of the insect at the very base, remove it with rotational movements, the parasite must twist out without effort.
2. The tool is best placed parallel to the skin.
3. After removal, lubricate the skin with an antiseptic.

Hands

The disadvantage of extracting the parasite by hand is the high probability of crushing the insect, tearing its body apart, which can provoke encephalitis infection, therefore this method is considered the most undesirable.

The advantage of removing the insect with your hands is that you do not need to use special or improvised tools. Remove the parasite with your fingers as follows:

• Treat your hands and skin around the bite with an antiseptic.
• It is recommended to wear disposable gloves or wrap hands with gauze, bandage.
• Grasp the tick at the junction of the body with the head as close to the skin as possible.
• Slowly remove the insect with a few counterclockwise rotations.
• Treat the affected area with an antiseptic, it is recommended to put the insect in a plastic container and take it to the laboratory for examination. After the procedure, wash your hands with soap.

Thread

One of the most simple methods of removing a tick at home is to extract it with a thread. Among the advantages are its availability and speed.

A significant drawback of thread removal is the high risk of incomplete extraction of the parasite. The sequence of actions during the procedure is as follows:

1. Lightly press your fingers on the skin near the sucking insect.
2. Take a thread (preferably synthetic, because it is stronger) 20-30 cm long, make a small loop in the middle.
3. Put the middle of the loop on the skin so that the parasite gets into it.
4. Firmly tighten the loop into the knot, connect both ends of the thread into one and twist your fingers counterclockwise.
5. After the thread is tightly twisted, pull it towards you.
6. Treat the skin with iodine or alcohol.

With oil

Removing ticks in humans with oil consists in blocking the oxygen supply to the insect, which forces it to detach itself.

The advantage of the method is the lack of risk of damage to the site of the bite or body of the parasite, and the disadvantage is frequent inefficiency.

Experts believe that due to the lack of oxygen, the insect begins to inject a large amount of saliva, which possibly contains an infection, increasing the risk of infection. Removing a tick with oil should be done as follows:

• Place the bite in sunflower oil or any other vegetable. Sometimes it is acceptable to use a fat cream.
• After the tick detaches from the skin, destroy it.
• Treat the wound with alcohol or an antiseptic.

Syringe removal

The parasite can be removed using a disposable syringe without a needle. The advantage of this method is its simplicity, and the disadvantage is the high probability of tearing off the tick head and its incomplete extraction from the skin. Removing the parasite with a syringe should be carried out as follows:

1. Treat the area around the sucking insect with alcohol, cologne or an antiseptic.
2. Release the syringe from its packaging, slide its piston down.
3. Press the syringe to the surface of the skin, so that the parasite is completely hidden in the "nose".
4. Slowly pull the piston up.
5. After the insect has separated from the skin, wipe the wound again with an antiseptic.

What to do with a tick after removal

If it is possible to transport the insect during the day, then after removing the tick, it should be placed in any sealed container and taken for examination to the laboratory, which is often located in infectious hospitals. Otherwise, the parasite should be burned or scalded with boiling water and discarded.

How to treat a wound

After removing the insect, it is necessary to thoroughly disinfect the wound. You can do this with medical alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, tincture of iodine, cologne, or any antiseptic (such as chlorhexidine).

After treatment, the skin should be left without a bandage (can be sealed with adhesive tape). It is necessary to avoid rubbing the wound on clothing for 1-2 days.

How can I get a tick out of my body at home

The arrival of spring marks not only the onset of warm days and the approaching long-awaited summer. Nature wakes up and far from its most pleasant representatives - arachnids.

Finding a small bloodsucker on the body can be difficult. These are small brown arachnids. Their thin body increases tens of times with the absorption of blood.

After a walk in places of possible contact with ticks, you yourself need to carefully examine the surface of the body yourself or with the help of loved ones. If you find an unpleasant find, do not panic. It is better to think about how to get the pest.

It is worth remembering the main thing - you can not abruptly pull out a bloodsucker or just shake it off a person’s body. Inaccuracy and haste in this matter are not helpers.

After reading our article on how to properly remove a tick in a person (and in a dog) and observing simple rules, you can cope yourself in home and quiet conditions.

Tick ​​Removal Methods

There are reliable methods on how to remove a tick at home, time-tested. The basic rule is not to rush and follow all the recommendations exactly. Do not neglect cleanliness: be sure to wash your hands, use clean tools and, without rushing, pull out the bloodsucker. Then the extraction of bloodsucking from the body will be successful.

Tick ​​Remover

Special twisting hooks help safely remove these pests. The use of such devices minimizes possible risks: in this case, there is no squeezing of the body of the bloodsucker.

It looks like a device like a small hook resembling a nail clipper. They are sold at any pharmacy.

Stages on how to properly remove the tick with the help of such a simple device at home:

• Choose the right size of the scrubber;
• Take the bloodsucker from the side so that it is between the cloves;
• Gently pull the tick up;
• Gently and slowly, remove the tick in a circular motion.

Tweezers

Curved tweezers are suitable until the tick is sufficiently saturated with blood and its size is too small. To get a tick by this method, you can follow these steps:

1. Grab bloodsucker near the surface of the skin without squeezing his body;
2. Hold the tweezers parallel to the bite site;
3. Gently pull up and at the same time begin to slowly unscrew the pest (you can rotate in any direction, the main thing is not to change direction);
4. Do not pull out the tick, but gradually twist along with the head.

Finger extraction

This method does not require additional devices, but is the least acceptable: it often leads to damage to the body of the pest.

You can use it yourself to get the blood-sucking out of the body only as a last resort. How to remove a sucking tick in a person without special devices:

• Wash hands, wrap thumb and forefinger with a piece of gauze or bandage;
• Gently grab the insect as close to the skin as possible: grab the junction of the body of the parasite with the head;
• Keep the arthropod perpendicular to the body;
• Gradually pull out the tick with slow rotational movements in any direction until completely removed;
• After removal, treat the bite on the body with an antiseptic.

Pulling a loop from a thread

In the absence of special tools, you can pull out the pest with a thread. It’s not easy to do it yourself.
It is necessary to tightly clasp a small body with a loop and, twisting, pull it out.

A quick careless jerk will lead to its rupture. How to pull a tick in a person at home with a thread:

1. At home, find and cook a strong and not very thin thread;
2. Around the body of the pest, close to the proboscis, a loop is made;
3. Gently and tightly tighten the thread around the body of the insect;
4. Pull out with light swinging movements, gradually pulling up;
5. It is necessary to pull with stops.

How to remove a tick with a syringe

After applying this method, a small bruise may form on the skin, but it quickly passes. How can you safely remove the tick in this way? To do this, you need a syringe (insulin or any small volume) and a sharp knife:

• Prepare a syringe: with a knife, evenly cut the part with the needle;
• Press the resulting tool tightly around the bloodsucking;
• Pump out the air with a piston of a syringe: the resulting vacuum will push the small arachnid out of the wound;
• Remove the tick from the body.

Should I use oil to remove the tick

Many people mistakenly consider oil to be the first aid in removing insatiable insects using home remedies. They fill it with sunflower oil or any other fat.

It is naive to hope that under such conditions the pest must independently remove the proboscis. In fact, the resulting oil film will kill the arthropod.

The pest simply suffocates, but before this, part of the sucked blood from the body of the parasite can fall back into the wound. This increases the risk of infection.

If it was not possible to completely remove the tick

If it was not possible to pull out the arachnid from the body itself, then a subtle black dot remains (this is the head of a tick with a proboscis). Do not panic. The head of a bloodsucker must be removed. How to remove part of the parasite remaining under the skin:

1. Heat the needle to a high temperature (sewing or from a syringe), while carefully removing it from the fire. This is necessary for disinfection;
2. Treat the bite area with any available disinfectant;
3. To remove the proboscis from the body: gently pull out as an ordinary splinter;
4. Re-wipe the affected area of ​​the body with an antiseptic.

What needs to be done after getting a tick

Wash hands thoroughly with soap and running water. Before you clean the tools used at home, they should always be washed with soapy water and treated with an antiseptic. Wipe the affected area on the body with a disinfectant.

After only 10 days, after an unpleasant contact, a study is carried out on tick-borne encephalitis and borreliosis. Tests for antibodies are given later: after 2 weeks - to the tick-borne encephalitis virus, and after a month - to borreliosis.

What to do with the tick itself after removal

Only live specimens are accepted to the SES laboratory for the detection of infection carriers.

If you got a tick that bit you, then put a living pest in a clean container on a piece of cloth, cotton wool or paper, previously moistened with water. Within two days, deliver to the nearest laboratory.

Prevention of tick bites

The surest and easiest way is to wear closed clothes and shoes, use special deterrents in open areas of the body.

For walks and relaxation, try to choose well-groomed parks with trimmed lawns. Science knows how to remove insects even from large areas.

This is worth doing even if you walked in the courtyards with grass, as Now you can pick up a tick even in areas of the city. It’s not necessary to go even to the forest.

Methods for removing ticks in humans

Ticks are one of the varieties of arthropods, which is one of the oldest living on the planet.

All species have completely no vision, but as compensation, the sense of smell is extremely well developed, which allows ticks to easily find food and navigate in space.

Basic rules for tick removal

The main methods by which the parasite can be removed will be discussed in detail a little later, the following are the most important rules that must be followed when using any tick removal technique:

• Use only a sterile instrument for the removal procedure, which must first be treated.
• The entire procedure should be carried out in disposable protective gloves.
• Removing the parasite with bare hands is allowed only in the most extreme cases, when there is no other way. This is due both to the risk of infection and the fact that during such an operation the tick will most likely be torn and crushed, which increases the risk of infection if it was infected. This can occur due to the ingestion of substances with the virus on the skin or directly into an open wound.
• Regardless of the removal method chosen, it is necessary to remain calm and to exclude any haste and making sudden movements, since inaccurate removal can aggravate the problem.
• Carefully examine the remaining wound after the tick is removed, because you need to make sure that there is no head of an arthropod or torn proboscis left in it. They are quite small, so maximum care is required, the use of a magnifying glass is recommended.
• The fact of a bite does not mean that an infection of any dangerous disease has occurred. However, even if the parasite has been successfully removed on its own, it is important to seek professional medical advice.

Removal Methods

The following are the various most popular and common methods for removing sucked parasite. Any method requires a cautious and accurate approach, if you are not sure that everything can be done correctly, then the most rational solution will be to contact specialists for emergency medical care.

Twisting

A bitten tick is not allowed to be pulled out, instead it is necessary to make twisting movements, and this option is the most recommended way to remove it. This procedure is carried out as follows:

1. Using a disinfected curved tweezers, grab the body of the tick, it must be done as close as possible to the site of the bite. At the same time, it must be grasped carefully and not squeezed in order to prevent the death of the parasite.
2. Pull lightly on top, but without sudden movements and attempts to pry it.
3. Along with pulling up, start to make rotational movements. Different people recommend twisting the tick exclusively clockwise or against it, but in fact there is no fundamental difference.
4. If 1-3 turns have already been made, but it is imperceptible that the bitten tick begins to succumb, additional treatment with petroleum jelly is required, which will facilitate the process. Make a few more turns, this time the procedure should be crowned with success.

Oil use

Removal by oil or kerosene is a well-known technique that has been practiced for a long time. Despite this, using this method is strictly not recommended for the following reasons:

• Inability to breathe will kill the parasite.
• The death of a tick will cause it to spit out a small amount of freshly drunk blood mixed with salivary fluid into the wound. This increases the risk of contracting an infectious disease if an individual has been infected.
• A person will lose the opportunity to provide a living individual for medical research by a specialist.

Thread Removal

The use of thread for removal is recommended to be practiced only in situations where it is not possible to use alternative methods.

The method itself is not dangerous, but requires some skill, which makes it difficult. The process itself can be implemented by adhering to the following algorithm of actions:

1. Choose a lace with a small diameter or a thread with a dense structure.
2. Make a small loop that slips on the body of the parasite.
3. Place the loop so that it is located as close to the bite as possible.
4. The loop cannot be tightened strongly so as not to kill the bitten individual.
5. Without sudden movements, start to slightly pull on the thread or cord, at the same time make smooth movements from side to side to swing the parasite.
6. Continuing to make the described movements, gradually pull the tick out.

Removal using special tools

Relatively recently, a variety of special tools appeared on the market that were designed and manufactured to eliminate ticks.

All of them have a fairly simple design, so for the application you do not need to have any special knowledge or specific skills:

• Special hooks that look like miniature nail claws. They are used very simply: the tick must be grabbed with a tool from the side, then apply the movements already described, which consist of scrolling and sipping. It is recommended to purchase immediately kits that contain hooks of different sizes, designed for convenient removal of parasites of various sizes. Using such a tool is even safer than removing it with tweezers, since there is no compression of the body of the individual, therefore, excessive salivation does not occur, which reduces the risk of infection.
• Plastic forceps, which have a special design, designed specifically for the removal of parasites. This tool is used in the same way as ordinary tweezers. The advantage is the model, the device which includes a built-in magnifier. It not only allows better control of the procedure, but also makes it possible to examine the remaining wound for the presence of detached parts of the parasite.
• Special plates made of metal, and having a recess on the working surface, which allows you to pick up and pull out the tick. Outwardly resembles a small keychain; most manufacturers fix it on a chain, to which a magnifier is also suspended.
• Plastic spoons remove parasites according to the same principle as plates, only the design of the device is changed: the presence of a handle and a bucket simplifies the process a little.
• Trix allows you to remove parasites on the same principle as when using a conventional thread. Externally, the device resembles a handle, only on the working part it has a small loop instead of a rod. With its help, the body of the tick is picked up, and the presence of a convenient handle makes it easy to rotate to pull it out.

How to remove a tick

All the main methods that allow you to safely remove the parasite have already been considered, but various actions that are unacceptable during this process require additional mention:

1. It is forbidden to use any liquids that lead to strangulation of the parasite and its subsequent death. These include various types of oils, gasoline, kerosene and alcohol.
2. Cauterization, for example, with a lit cigarette or a hot needle, is also not allowed. This not only increases the risk of infection, but also the place of the bite will cause much more discomfort, increasing the already significant duration of healing.
3. It is forbidden to use any kind of local anesthetic, the reasons for this prohibition are the same as when cauterizing or using asphyxiating liquids.
4. It is not allowed to compress the body of the tick too much, even if there is no purpose to cause him any harm, as this will increase its salivation.
5. When removing a tick, it must be rotated, but not twisted, because in this case it will most likely be torn into several parts.
6. You can not pull out the parasite with your fingers, as this increases the risk of death, the likelihood of infection or getting into the wound of any infection from the hands.
7. It is forbidden even a brief touch to the pulled out parasite, since infection can occur even if some substances get on the skin.

If it was not possible to completely remove the tick

After removing the parasite, the wound must be examined through a magnifier in order to check for the presence of the microscopic parts of the tick remaining in it. If they were found, then you must do the following:

• To make sure that the detected element is part of the pulled out individual, its head usually looks like a small black dot.
• Disinfect the bite site.
• Disinfect small diameter needles. It is recommended to treat it with alcohol, and then additionally with fire.
• Using a cleaned needle, pulling out the head or proboscis from the wound is done in the same way as when removing a regular splinter.

If no remaining parts of the parasite were found in the wound, but for any reason there is no complete certainty that the tick was completely removed, then it must be placed in a jar and shown to a specialist who will give all the explanations.

It is not worth delaying this process, since an unstretched head can be infected and continue to spread the infection through the blood.

In some cases, the jaw may remain in the wound, which is rather difficult to notice, but they are not dangerous. The only thing they can lead to is local inflammation, which occurs due to the presence of a foreign element, but it will pass without any additional measures.

What to do with a tick after removal

After successful removal of the parasite, additional measures must be taken to eliminate the risk of a dangerous infection:

1. Gather detailed information about the incident, which should include the date and time of the bite, the location of the bite, the amount of time that the tick spent on the skin. The latest information is not always accurate, since the tick can be detected only after some time, but the less it came into contact with the skin, the lower the likelihood of infection.
2. Seek medical help, and demonstrate the parasite, placed in any container, to specialists. Tick ​​reception in different settlements is carried out by various services, it can be epidemiological centers or specialized laboratories.
3. If it was not possible to save the tick for the provision of specialists, then there is nothing to worry about, because if the tests passed give a negative answer for the presence of diseases, the doctor will most likely prescribe a preventive vaccination.

Warnings

There are a number of precautionary measures, the observance of which can help prevent the occurrence of negative consequences:

• During trips to nature, you can use special drugs and products designed to combat ticks. However, before using them, you must carefully read the instructions, since some of them are intended for external application to the skin, others are strictly forbidden to be used in this way.
• For long-term parking or outdoor recreation, it is better to choose forests consisting mostly of dry pines, as well as places with sandy soil or simply with no grass.
• Donate blood for analysis after a bite only after a few weeks, because at an earlier stage of the disease, the diseases transmitted by these parasites cannot be diagnosed.
• Under no circumstances should you crush the ticks or touch them with your bare hands.

Prevention

Since the risk arising from a tick bite is quite high, it is strongly recommended that a number of preventive measures be taken that will reduce the potential danger:

1. During outdoor recreation, use the right clothing: it must be as tight-fitting as possible to have a hood or a headdress, trousers should be tucked into shoes, it is best to wear light-colored clothes for faster detection of parasites.
2. When camping, periodically inspect for ticks. After returning home, the inspection procedure must be entrusted to another person who can examine the most inaccessible places, for example, the neck or back.
3. Treat the skin with an aerosol with a protective antiparasitic effect, which will prevent the possible attack of ticks.
4. Get vaccinated against tick-borne encephalitis, the disease that is most commonly transmitted by these parasites. Such a measure will allow the body to begin the production of its own antibodies, preventing the active development of the disease in case of infection. Today there is a quick vaccination, as well as standard, which must be carried out in autumn or winter.

Tips & Tricks

Summing up, we can give some recent recommendations that can help in some cases:

• Do not delay the tick removal procedure, this must be done as quickly as possible after detection. Even if an infected individual was caught, poisoning might not have occurred yet.
• Even in the absence of any side effects, seeking medical help and consulting a specialist are mandatory measures.
• If the tests were negative, but after 2-2.5 weeks after the bite, a sharp and strong increase in body temperature and severe headaches were recorded, then a person needs urgent professional medical help. In especially advanced cases, such symptoms can lead to paralysis of certain muscle groups or to coma.
• During a family holiday in nature, it is necessary to tell children about ticks and the threat that they pose, as well as inform about basic safety measures. Accordingly, they themselves also need to avoid visiting potentially dangerous places.