This might be old hat to some but is new to me and it works.
Take a cotton ball and apply some liquid dish washing soap I used Dawn, and rub on the tick for 10 or 15 seconds and the tick backs out and will be sticking to the cotton ball. This works great for removing ticks from you dogs and yourself.......stabow

I've always just pulled them off. I know, I know, I'm going to die someday.
   

I actually pulled off about a dozen this weekend during and after my hog scouting trip. Probably picked off another 50 that were still crawling. They were thick where I was.

Hopefully i wont be trying that anytime soon. but when the need arises, I will sure give it a try! thanks for the info  

I've used amonia and it works but some say they regurgitate before they back out thats not good !

Turn on the stove burner to Hi. Get a single sheet of toilet paper & fold it in half a few times. Cover tick w/paper & pull straight off. They adhere to the TP. Throw his kicking screaming nasty parasite disease carrying butt in the fire! Have what's left of a good day.

did the liquid soap trick on my wife yesterday...I just use a dish cloth w/ some on it and make a circular patern over the tick...pop right out!  Have done this dozens of times and never had the inflamed red irritated area that comes up afterwards like when pulled.

Tweezers and steady pull works for me. If they have latched on good I send them to the lab-happens once or twice a year.

Most probably already know it but as a nurse I would always caution two things,  One,the method described in the original post is much preferred to just pulling them out. Ticks have been known to leave small pieces of their mouth parts behind when you attempt to remove them without letting them "back out" voluntarily.  I have seen first hand an abcess from one of those incidents and it was not pretty, requiring IV antibiotics and a hospital stay,  just a word to the wise.  And second, if you ever develop a bullseye rash around an area with a tick bite, you have been bitten by a deer tick, not a common tick and most likely you have just acquired lyme disease and you will need to be treated.  Keep the tick if at all possible for lab testing and contact a physician.  For those who dont know the difference between a common tick and a deer tick the deer tick is much much smaller, about the diameter of the head of a straight pin where even an immature common tick is at least double to triple that size.  Good luck in the woods,  Permethrin treated clothes will eliminate being bit pretty much at all.

If it's a deer tick and it's been attached take it in for testing.  I would strongly suggest taking the 30 treatment before the test results are in.  Don't take a chance with Lyme disease! I've been there!

Is lyme disease as common as people make out? Because I've had lots of deer ticks on me and never gotten sick. And I do know the difference in deer ticks and other ticks (they're tiny). Is it possible some people have more resistance to it than others? Of the dozen or so ticks I had "stuck" on me this weekend, several of them were deer ticks. I even found one more this morning before I got in the shower.

The native americans didn't have any Permanone to spray on themselves and I assume they weren't all walking around with Lyme Disease. Is this just an affliction of peoples who have no immunity to it or what?

I have used finger nail polish remover on a Qtip...worked well.

eminart,

Yes, it is that common in certain areas of the country.  Here in Wisconsin as well as in the NE one can almost assume that deer ticks have Lymes.  I am not aware that anyone has an immunity from Lyme disease AND just because you got it once does not give you one iota of immunity the second time.  Talked with a guy from New York recently that has had it six times.  It is nothing to fool with and in later stages has the potential to be fatal.

I have had my dog vaccinated against Lymes for 10 years but even the vet will tell you that the vaccination is only about 80% effective.  A buddy had his lab get it after being vaccinated.

Since the host of the tick is the deer the current prevailance maybe related to the deer population .............. or not.

Be glad it isn't in your area though keeping it out will likely be impossible.

Have been using the subject ascribed method with success for years. Have had some ticks that have held on for several minutes before releasing.

Young living Essential oil of oregano, makes them back out immediately !

Buy one of the Tickkeys.They're a little aluminum bottle opener looking thing.You can hook it right to your keychain,they only cost a couple bucks. You just slide it over the tick and it slips him right out,mouth parts and all.Doesn't squish the body at all. Grabbing,rubbing,burning them ect. makes them release more of the "bad stuff" into you. We're loaded with ticks here and just about anyone who spends time outside here gets ticks.Alot of Lymes here to. I have it.My 8 year old daughter spent a few days in the hospital because of it.Caused her to get fluid in her hip joint so bad she couldn't walk. I can name off 50 people I know who have it here,without really even having to think about it.I've shot deer with so many ticks around their eyes,ears and neck,you didn't even want to touch them.Hang the deer up with a cut off 55gal drum filled with soapy water under them.In a day or two there will be hundreds and hundreds of ticks in the water.

Interesting that there is much Lyme's disease as reported here.  My doc here in KS is hesitant to treat as there is no reportable populations/epidemic concerns. ???

Goshawkin,
Question for you.

I hunt Western Wisconsin and we are indundated with deer ticks.

What I have found is if we let our deer hang for a day or two all the ticks leave the dead body, helps to not deal with them when butchering.

Do you use the 55 gallon drum and soapy water in lieu of hanging the deer for a day or two?

Builder,

We have had similar circumstances when we used to be able to hunt bear in Ontario in the spring.  The bears would be covered in ticks.  We found that if we hung them by the nose overnight all the ticks would migrate up to the head (the last of the warmth I guess).  We would skin the bear out and put the hide in a garbage bag and put in the freezer for a few days - all the ticks would die and could then be brushed off the hide.

What Goshawkin said is what the varied Lyme sites and support groups suggest.

Anything that makes them back out makes them also "throw up" into your body and out comes so many more of them pesky li'l spirchettes (?) that carry lyme.

Lyme tests are notorious for FALSE negatives, meaning that they say you dont 'have it but it's not true, you do!

Western Blot is one reputed good test, but there are few labs that do them I'm told and most won't take anybody's insurances... and they're not cheap.

Ounce of prevention. Scares the bejabbers outa me when I think about it... Permanone all the way!

We just pluck em here in Osage county