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04-06-2004, 09:12 PM

The message
from (Mike Lyle) contains these words:

(Nick Maclaren) wrote in message
...
In article ,
"Franz Heymann" writes:
|
| As children, we were taught never to try that with a tick, as you may
| leave part of it embedded in your skin. We were instructed to let the
| tick be in peace until you have access to some paraffin. Liberally
| dousing the tick and its surroundings is said to suffocate it to the
| extent of pulling out, thus allowing you to shake it on to the floor.
| Never having been attacked by a tick, I cannot vouch for its efficacy.

I have, often, and I can vouch for its efficiency - negatively.

You will get part of the tick embedded, whatever you do, and
it will itch like hell and may swell up. But, in most places,
ticks are more common in grassland than anywhere else (and the
UK is no exception).

Back in Oz, when I was a child I got a tick in my eye. The parents
applied the kerosene treatment, and out it came intact. I take it the
thing hadn't dug in very thoroughly. I don't remember the kerosene
causing much discomfort.

The area of Stilingshire we lived in was infested with ticks, and a
Lyme disease hotspot. All of us, and our dogs, regularly got ticks.(Even
on mown lawn grass; we had a lot of fieldmice as well as deer, and ticks
spend part of their lifecycle on mice.) As with mosquitoes, and midges,
some people attract more ticks than others.

IME, it's much better NOT to daub anything on the tick, for two
reasons. In a Lyme area, it's important to know if it was the tickbite
that made your skin turn red and irritable. If you mess the tick around
with hot match ends, paraffin or any of the other old wives tales, you
only persuade it to grip tighter, and end up leaving the head in. There
is an art to tweaking them off painlessly *without leaving the head
embedded*, and much of the art depends on surprise and speed.

Janet