A removed tick is not biologically dead the moment you take it out - it can survive in a sealed container for weeks. CDC recommends sealing it in tape, dropping it in alcohol, or flushing it. Crushing it with bare fingers risks contamination from the same gut contents that transmit disease in the first place.
Mailing a removed tick to a lab for pathogen testing is useful for community surveillance but should not drive treatment decisions. CDC…
Folk remedies for backing out an attached tick - lit matches, nail polish, petroleum jelly, essential oils - all do the same wrong thing:…
Within 5 to 30 minutes of biting, a hard tick begins secreting a glycine-rich saliva that hardens around its mouthparts into a cement…
CDC and IDSA guidance hold that Borrelia burgdorferi typically requires 36 to 48 hours of tick attachment to transmit. Removing a…
Soft ticks in the genus Ornithodoros can survive years between blood meals and live for a decade or more. A single infected tick can sit…
Wet ticks are surprisingly hard to kill in laundry - even hot wash cycles leave a fraction alive. Tumble drying clothes on high heat for…