Slick tick removal: Does it work?

Posts are crawling all over Facebook, as warm weather rolls in, warning of tick season and offering tips on preventing and removing ticks from people and pets. The latest post offers this tip: Run a lint roller all over yourself (especially on pant legs and sleeves) and all over your pet after an outdoor walk or playtime.

The idea is simple: You want to get rid of any hitchhiking ticks before they have a chance to embed themselves in the skin of you or your animal. Once they do, ticks can infect people or pets with all sorts of nasty stuff.

Some ticks are so tiny that a person might not easily find them by simply eyeballing oneself or running hands over a pet. So the lint roller trick makes sense.

A rolled loop of duct tape is equally effective.

Here’s the best part: You can fold the sticky part over the tick and discard it before he has a chance to crawl away and bug someone else.

Does this trick really work?

I have found several ticks this way, particularly after walks in the woods or farm fields. I cannot say whether I might have found these ticks anyway, but it sure was nice to have the sticky paper on the lint roller pick them up, instead of having to pluck the nasty critters off with my own hands.

This process also removes a lot of loose hair or fur on an animal. But that’s OK in this season.

Even with this first tick prevention technique, I still never feel fully satisfied that I am tick-free after time outdoors until I have taken a full shower and changed my entire outfit from head to toe.

What if a tick is already attached?

If ticks do embed into either a pet or a human, The Tick Key is a handy device for removing them. You can even find The Tick Key (TickKey) Tick Remover Family 6-Pack for cost savings.

Image/s:

Ticks on Fingertip

Public domain photo

Lint roller 
and Tick Key

Product promo photos

Fair use

Feel free to follow on Google Plus and Twitter.  You are invited to subscribe for free to my General Pets Examiner column, so you will receive email notifications whenever new articles appear.