Why has nobody come up with an effective and safe way to remove ticks from humans and animals? Preventative measure are never completely effective, and there are no good preventative measures available for humans at all.

I have a couple of ideas and wonder if these have been tried or tested already. I googled both and found nothing.

My first thought is to use sound or vibration - localized ultrasound, directed at the tick's body or by contact - or lower frequencies (20-100Hz), or perhaps ultrasound impulses. Possibly standing waves from two ultrasound or low-frequency sources aimed at the subject. This might vibrate their exoskeletons enough to make them disoriented or uncomfortable, so that they simply let go?

My other thought is a small cup you and place over the tick, which would be filled with either smoke or gas, or a mild tranquilizer of some kind - ticks have bad reactions to poisons, which can make them "barf" their poison and/or infected blood from a previous victim, but if you could somehow make them drowsy or sleepy enough, they might simply pass out and fall off?
-- mindplay, May 04 2013

Tick Removal http://www.bada-uk....ndextickremoval.php
Lots of places on the Internet suggest that using a cigarette is a bad idea. [Wrongfellow, May 04 2013]

Those aren't bad ideas.

If it helps, there are cheap plastic tick removers available from vets. They look like a miniature crowbar with a v-slot in one end; you slide the head under the tick (as if about to pry out a nail), then twist and pull. They were recommended by our vet because they have only a very small risk of either breaking off the tick's mouthparts or causing it to regurgitate stuff.

I wonder also if a touch with a lit cigarette would cause the tick to pull out. Works for leeches, according to Humphrey Bogart in The African Queen.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, May 04 2013


//I wonder also if a touch with a lit cigarette would cause the tick to pull out.//

I actually thought this was the recommended way to do it, but Google suggests otherwise (see eg [link]).
-- Wrongfellow, May 04 2013


Perhaps there is something that could be eaten, which yields a substance circulating in the bloodstream that is so offensive to ticks that as soon as they bite and taste the blood, they recoil in horror and run screaming away to find another victim.
-- Vernon, May 05 2013


Ether, chloroform, and ethyl acetate are used to quickly immobilise insects. Presumably they work on ticks.

I once used ethanol (methylated spirits) to remove ticks from a lizard. It worked, but I think I overdid it - the lizard died too. (I was about 10 years old.)
-- spidermother, May 05 2013


What would you call one of these creatures that had the following characteristics? moved around a lot; came from Italy; was constantly showering affection on its partner?
-- xenzag, May 05 2013


Hmmm, let me see...

Moved around a lot? Roaming tick.

Came from Italy? Italian tick - nope. Neapolitan tick - nope. Milanese tick - nope. Hey, I know! Roman tick!!

Was constantly showering affection on its partner? Smothering tick - nope. Cloying tick - nope. Effusive tick - nope. Oh, how about romantic tick?

Or would that be a romantic roaming Roman Tick?
-- Canuck, May 05 2013


I am concerned that the stuckedness of the tick does not require activity by the tick. Dead ticks seem fairly well stuck. I think one must compel the tick to detach. I wonder about ivermectin. This works for scabies, a mite related to ticks. I wonder if taking ivermectin would cause the tick to detach or if it would kill the tick before it detached?

The place to try this is on an animal infested with ticks.
-- bungston, May 06 2013



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