this post was submitted on 11 Jun 2026
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[–] Batmancer@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Recently found one embedded on my ankle. I was both afraid and curious to see what a life without red meat would look like, probably a little healthier due to more conscious meal decision making.

I was a Boy Scout for a number of years and I don’t know how other than, I’m the luckiest person I have ever met, but I’ve never had an embedded tick lose its head in my skin after peeling the fucker off.

[–] starlinguk@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (2 children)

We used to douse them in white spirit or alcohol and twist them off against the clock. No idea if the latter made any difference.

[–] valentinesmith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I think the recommendation is just to try to cleanly pull them off. With specialized equipment preferably.

Drowning them can lead to them vomiting into your blood circuit which can increase the chance the chance of contracting diseases as far as I know.

[–] edible_funk@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

I've heard to use a credit card to scrape them off, you're mostly just not supposed to squeeze the body. The pinchy tick remover tweezer style things you can get in the camping section at stores works great though.

[–] teyrnon@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 days ago

That is bad, you don't want to douse them with anything, as it can cause them to regurgitate into your skin and spread disease they may carry. They take days of being connected to pass disease so if you catch them in time you can not catch anything.

You want to grab by the head and pull it off, slowly even, to make sure the head doesn't break off.