Found a tick on your skin? How to remove it and when to see a doctor

If a tick is attached to your skin, remove it as soon as you can. Use clean fine-tipped tweezers if available, grip it close to the skin, pull with steady pressure, then clean the bite area and your hands.

Do not wait for a clinic visit just to remove the tick. After removal, check the rest of your body and watch your health over the next days and weeks.

The goal is simple: remove the tick promptly without squeezing its body and without tearing at the skin.

1. Use clean fine-tipped tweezers if you have them.
2. Grasp the tick as close to the skin's surface as possible, avoiding the swollen body.
3. Pull away from the skin with steady, even pressure. Do not twist or jerk.
4. Put the tick in alcohol, wrap it tightly in tape, place it in a sealed container, or flush it. Do not crush it with bare fingers.
5. Clean the bite area and your hands with soap and water, rubbing alcohol, or hand sanitizer.

Folk methods can delay removal or irritate the tick. The supported first step is prompt mechanical removal.

• Do not cover the tick with petroleum jelly, oil, nail polish, or other substances.
• Do not use heat, a flame, or burning.
• Do not twist, jerk, or crush the tick's body with your fingers.
• Do not cut the skin or dig aggressively for small parts.
• Do not start antibiotics or other medicine on your own because of a tick bite.

A photo of the removed tick may help discussion later, but commercial tick testing should not be used to decide treatment. If you feel ill, do not wait for a tick test result.

• Clean the bite area and your hands.
• Check the rest of your body for more ticks, especially after time in grass, brush, or wooded places.
• Note roughly when and where the bite may have happened in case you later need medical advice.
• Watch for rash, fever, or symptoms that worsen over the next several days to weeks.

Sometimes mouthparts break off. If they can be removed easily with tweezers, you may remove them. If not, leave them alone and let the skin heal.

Do not cut, burn, or dig deeply into the skin. Contact a doctor if the area becomes increasingly painful, swollen, infected-looking, or otherwise concerning.

Contact a doctor if you develop a rash, an expanding rash, fever, headache, fatigue, or other symptoms after a tick bite. Tell the doctor about the bite, when it happened, and where exposure likely occurred.

A routine tick bite is not automatically a 112 emergency. In Georgia, call 112 for a genuine emergency, such as severe acute symptoms, loss of consciousness, major bleeding, or a situation that needs immediate ambulance care.

Lyme borreliosis is a bacterial illness transmitted through the bite of an infected tick. Not every tick is infected, and not every tick bite causes Lyme disease.

Early removal matters because prompt removal of attached ticks reduces risk. Watch for fever, fatigue, headache, or an expanding rash and seek medical advice if symptoms appear. Do not diagnose Lyme disease from a bite photo alone.

Georgia's NCDC materials describe Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever as a tick-associated disease in Georgia and advise prompt tick removal with tweezers, avoiding crushing the tick, and seeking medical care when illness is suspected.

This does not mean every tick carries disease. It means symptoms after tick exposure deserve timely medical assessment, especially fever, bleeding signs, severe weakness, or rapidly worsening illness.

Hiking, camping, field work, and moving through tall grass are common situations where a tick check is useful. The point is awareness, not avoiding nature altogether.

• Wear long sleeves and long trousers in grassy, brushy, or wooded areas.
• Use repellents according to the product label.
• Check your body after outdoor activity; ticks often attach in soft or hairy areas.
• Remove attached ticks promptly.