"Janet Baraclough" wrote in message
...
The message ews.net
from "Shazam" contains these words:

Friend said the
best thing to do, rather than pull it away, was touch it with a cigarette
because it withdrew its head

Not recommended practice. The tick is plugged in to the host and
sucking on blood by its mouthpart. Burning causes the tick to grip
tighter and contract, which injects its stomach contents back through
the mouth into the hosts epidermis. So if it is carrying Borrelia, the
host gets the full load delivered into the bloodstream. .

I've removed many hundreds of ticks from animals and family (we lived in
a tick-infested area of Scotland with Lyme risk present). Briskly grip
the tick with your nail-tips, as close to the skin as possible (do not
squeeze the tick body with your fingers) and tweak. This removes the
whole insect instantly, including the entire mouthpart.

If you're too slow, the tick will grip tighter and you'll pull off
the body leaving the head imbedded, to become an irritating little
lump.
Janet

I can never manage to get them of like that.
A friend once had a nifty plastic gadget. It was a piece of flat plastic with a
tiny wedge shape cut out of it, with which you could sort of scoop the tick
away. It worked a treat,.

Does anyone have any idea where I might buy such a thingy?

BTW I don't mean those special tweezers they sell - tried those = useless!

Jenny