When it happens · 3 min read
Found a tick on them
You found it during a bath or while drying their hair, and it is attached. This is unpleasant and very common after time in long grass, woods or leaf litter.
The single most useful fact is that time matters: getting an attached tick off within about a day substantially reduces the risk of Lyme disease being passed on. So do it now, at home, rather than waiting for someone else to do it properly.
Last updated August 17, 2026
Getting it off
Use fine-tipped tweezers. Grasp the tick as close to the skin's surface as you can — you are aiming for its mouthparts, not its body.
Pull upwards with steady, even pressure. Do not twist, jerk, or rock it: that is what makes the mouthparts break off and stay in.
If part of it does stay in, try to lift it out with the tweezers, and if it will not come, leave it and let the skin heal. A retained fragment is a minor irritation, not an infection risk in itself, and digging around causes more damage than it prevents.
Clean the bite and your hands with soap and water or an antiseptic afterwards.
What not to do
Do not burn it off with a match, cover it in petroleum jelly or nail polish, or apply anything intended to make it let go on its own. All of these are slower than simply removing it, and the delay is the thing that matters. Some may also make the tick regurgitate into the bite, which is the opposite of what you want.
Do not crush it with your fingers. Dispose of it in alcohol, in a sealed bag, or down the toilet.
It can be worth keeping it in a sealed bag with the date on it, in case a rash or illness turns up later and someone wants to know what it was and how long it was attached.
What to watch for
A rash at the bite site that expands over days, often clearing in the middle so it looks like a target or bullseye. It is usually not itchy or painful, which is exactly why it gets ignored.
Fever, headache, tiredness, aching muscles and joints, or a stiff neck in the weeks after the bite.
A small red bump right at the bite that appears within a day or two and then fades is an ordinary local reaction to the bite itself, not a sign of infection.
If anything on this list appears, say a tick bit them and when. Doctors ask, but not always, and the timeline is the most useful thing you can bring.
Making it less likely next time
This is worth getting right rather than avoiding the outdoors, which is a much worse trade. Cover legs and tuck trousers into socks on walks in long grass or woodland, and stick to paths where you can.
Use an EPA-registered repellent — DEET, picaridin, IR3535, oil of lemon eucalyptus, para-menthane-diol or 2-undecanone — at a concentration appropriate for their age. Clothing and gear treated with 0.5% permethrin is an option for regular walkers.
Do a tick check the same evening, every time: behind the ears and in the hairline, in the armpits, around the waistband, behind the knees, and in the groin. Bath time is the easiest moment to make it routine, and finding them the same day is the whole game.
Common questions
- The head is still in there. Do we need to get it out?
- Try once with tweezers. If it will not lift out, leave it — the skin will expel it as it heals. Retained mouthparts are not themselves an infection risk, and excavating the site does more harm.
- Do they need antibiotics just in case?
- Usually not. Preventive treatment after a tick bite is only considered in specific circumstances, so describe the bite, how long it was attached and where you were, and let that decision be made on the facts.
- How long do I need to keep watching?
- About a month. The rash most often appears somewhere between three days and a month after the bite, so a normal-looking bite a week later is not the end of the watch.
Still not sure
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Where this comes from
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