The San Diego Union Tribune
September 20, 1998

To pull or burn: That is the question.

On Aug. 23, the Union-Tribune Travel Section ran an article with the headline: “El Niño Strikes Again: Illnesses increasing.” The story detailed how the weather phenomenon had led to an increase in insects in some regions, which, in turn, could result in an increase in insect-borne diseases.

A major concern is the diseases carried by ticks, said the story, which went on to say that the best way to remove the critters is by pulling them out with tweezers or by using a tool made to yank them out.

That ticked off reader Eileen Clause. She called to say that the tweezer method is incorrect. Burning ticks is the way to extract them, Clause said.

She’s right, I thought.

Growing up in Florida, I learned to accept a few realities of summer: Showers are useless because you perspire as you’re drying off; air conditioning is a need, not a want; and playing outside makes you a magnet for creatures such as ticks and mosquitoes.

Ticks were the more unpleasant of the two. Unlike mosquitoes, they approached silently, and slapping didn’t threaten them.

I don’t remember ever finding any ticks on my body. But I do remember Dad’s advice: If I found one and couldn’t remove it with my fingers, I would need to burn it out. I forgot most things Dad told me, but THAT I remembered.

But I looked for confirmation and a more recognized source than “Dad.” From medical journals I learned other tick trivia:

  • Ticks aren’t insects; they’re distant cousins to spiders.
  • Ticks are second only to mosquitoes as arthropod carriers of human diseases.
  • Ticks may feed for days or weeks.
  • Ticks do not jump, fly or drop from trees. Ticks ascend to the ends of foliage and await to be brushed against by a host. Someone has named this tactic questing.

Then I talked with a physician.

The most important thing is to remove the entire tick, according to Dr. Mark Bracker, director of sports medicine at the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine, which is affiliated with the UCSD Medical Center.

Bracker said to use a very fine pair of tweezers and grab the tick near its head, if it has been on the host less than 12 hours and the head isn’t burrowed very far. If the head remains in the skin, see your physician to remove it.

These recommendations are established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he said. He also said burning the tick doesn’t work: “It’s just an old wives’ tale.”

Next, I called Clause to see where she heard about burning ticks. “I’ve known about that all my life, she said. “I grew up in eastern Washington state. We camped in the Idaho mountains when we were children, and we were always conscious of ticks.”

Her family would check each other, but she doesn’t remember ever getting any ticks. She does recall hearing that you cannot use tweezers to remove them. “Most outdoor people know about burning them,” she said.

So I tired REI’s camping department. Employee Robert Brandt said he was not familiar with tick infestation, but the store did have two tools for tick removal. “When you see a tick on you, you don’t want to just jerk it off, because the head stays inside the skin and gets infected,” Brandt said. With one of the removal tools, you slide it on the tick and the tick will let go, he said. “The tool extracts it gently.”

I asked another REI employee, Ryan Alford, the best technique for tick removal if I didn’t have one of REI’s handy tools. “Use a match and blow out the match and put it near the tick’s bottom. Sometimes this will cause it to become uncomfortable and lift its head out,” Alford said.

Then I returned to my original source, good ol’ Dad.

Burning ticks to remove them was not an old wives’ tale, he said. People were using this method before any scientific journals came out, he said. I told him I read that a blown-out match applied to the backside of a tick would not remove it – that this was just a folk method and had not been proven effective.

“That’s the problems,’ Dad said. “You apply the match as close to the tick’s head as possible and it will back out.”

Then Mom got on the phone. “First, you try to remove it with your fingers or tweezers, but if that doesn’t work, you burn it out – but be sure you don’t burn the host.” Thanks, Mom.

Personally, I’d rather tweeze than burn. But I’ve concluded that tick removal is a highly personal decision best left to the unfortunate host.

This article was published many moons ago when Lisa was an intern for the The San Diego Union-Tribune, Travel Section.