Is it possible to crush a tick with your fingers
A person tries to get rid of insects or parasites on his body as soon as they are detected. This sensory reflex often saves it from undesirable consequences, but not in the case of the tick. If the tick has already stuck to the victim, it will not be possible to brush it away. And crushing it is not so easy and even dangerous. To do this, there are several correct ways to kill a tick.
On a note!
The tick is an arthropod of small size. The length of his body is only 2-3 mm. Four pairs of limbs have hooks with which the parasite clings to the victim passing by it. To get to the blood, he chooses parts of the body with delicate thin skin. In humans, the tick behind the ears is most often found, in the armpit, in the groin, on the inside of the elbow, on the neck.
Removal process
A tick bite is a serious threat to human health. The parasite is a carrier of a number of dangerous diseases:
- tick-borne encephalitis;
- Lyme disease (borreliosis);
- tick fever;
- ehrlichiosis and others.
The peculiarity of the tick bite is that it inserts its proboscis, jaw, and then the head deep into the wound. If you try to sharply pull it out, the abdomen may come off the head. When rupture of the calf the contents of the stomach, and with it the pathogens of the virus will fall into the wound. For the same reason, it is impossible to crush the tick adhering to the body.
On a note!
Drip on the parasite oil or kerosene is not recommended. Sensing the lack of oxygen, the bloodsucker relaxes the proboscis and the entire contents of the stomach falls into the wound.
To remove a tick without additional risk, you can use several simple ways:
- Remove the parasite with a conventional syringe. It is necessary to purchase a medical syringe at the pharmacy and cut off the end where the needle is inserted. The resulting hole to attach tightly to the place where the bloodsucker stuck. Then pull the piston towards you several times. After that, the tick itself will come out of the wound.
- Remove the tick with tweezers. To do this, gently clasp the tips of the tweezers around the base of the abdomen of the bloodsucker and gently pull up. During stretching, tweezers need to be rotated around the axis slightly, twisting the parasite from the wound.
- A regular thread will help remove the tick. It is necessary to make a loop from the thread and throw it around the body of the bloodsucker. Next, swinging movements should slowly pull out the arthropod.
- Pulling tick with a special tool. In the pharmacy, you can purchase a special hook in the form of a bent fork. The forks need to gently pick up the parasite, but try not to press on the abdomen. Smooth movements pull it out from under the skin.
Important!
Once managed to pull the parasite out, you can not take his hands. On his proboscis remain particles of saliva and secretions that may contain the causative agents of the virus. For the parasite you need to take through a napkin or a piece of cloth, and best of all with tweezers. After you managed to take it, you should carefully consider the arthropod, whether all of his limbs in place. Sometimes they can remain in the wound. Then they must be squeezed out, and the wound is treated with an alcohol-containing solution.
The need for laboratory research
After pulling the bloodsucker out of the wound, it is necessary to make sure that it is not a carrier of a dangerous disease. For this tick is placed in a test tube or any glass container with a lid and taken to the nearest laboratory at a medical institution. There, experts conduct a series of studies and determine whether the parasite was infected by viruses.
If the answer is yes, the victim is immediately hospitalized and treated with modern medications.
On a note!
Depending on the severity of the disease, the bite victim will have to spend several weeks in the hospital, taking antibiotics, immunoglobulin, vitamins and antiviral agents.Timely diagnosis and medical care provided help the victim to be quickly amended.
Ways to destroy ticks
If during a tick bite a person is far away from medical institutions and there is no possibility to transfer the parasite to the laboratory for research, it must be destroyed. But not everyone knows whether it is possible to crush a tick after it has been detected on a human body. The parasite is covered with a chitinous envelope, and it is almost impossible to crush the tick with your fingers. During the manipulations, he will slip between the fingers.
Important!
It is possible to crush a tick with a nail, but then there is a big risk of being infected with the infected contents of its stomach and viscera. If there are microcracks on the skin of the hands and secretions of an infected tick get into it, the virus can enter the human body.
Arthropods cannot be left alive either, he will continue to search for his victim. Therefore, to correctly kill the tick without harming others, certain methods will help:
- ticks must be burned on the fire - for this, it must be squeezed with tweezers and set on fire with a regular lighter or a match;
- drowning a tick in water is very difficult, but if there are no other options, then it needs to be flushed in the toilet, flushing the parasite down the drain;
- it is unlikely that it will be possible to crush an arthropod with a foot, but it can be crushed with a stone, after having been rolled into adhesive tape or adhesive tape;
- an ordinary microwave will help to exterminate ticks if you put the parasite in a closed container inside and warm it up at maximum power for several minutes;
- if ticks were found on clothes, it should be washed with powder and placed in a dryer, where the parasites will die at high temperatures.
Bite prevention
To avoid the attack of dangerous arthropods on humans, measures should be taken to protect against them. Before you go for a walk in the park or forest, you need to dress properly. Cover your neck, arms and legs with tight clothing. During a hike in the forest try not to shake the branches of trees and avoid high grass.
For repelling arthropods, you can use special tools based on the chemical substance permethrin. It is toxic to bloodsucking insects and parasites. Ticks protection measures will help to avoid direct contact with them.