Daily Grooming

Daily grooming can help you find ticks that have not yet become embedded in the skin. Ticks can be picked up on the comb and flicked into a container of alcohol. Embedded ticks should be removed immediately. First, forget that old wives’ tale about coating ticks with petroleum jelly, burning their rear ends with a match or lighted cigarette, dousing them with lighter fluid or gasoline. Just protect fingers from the tick’s body fluids with surgical gloves or a plastic bag, grasp the tick firmly, rock it back and forth a few times, and pull it out. If a patch of skin comes along, it’s unlikely that any of the tick’s head has been left behind.

Dab on some antiseptic cream on the spot where the tick was removed. This will help prevent local infection, especially on tender ears, a favorite feeding place for ticks.

Keep your grass trimmed and control the spread of shrubbery and tall weeds. This will prevent ticks.