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For the uninformed, what's the proper way to remove a tick these days? When I was younger I heard advice to put a flame or extinguished match near the tick until it unlatches, but I've also heard that that's a bad idea because it causes them to emit some irritant into your body or something to that effect. What's the correct way?

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That's terrible advice. The flame will cause the tick to unlatch, but it can also cause it to vomit, giving you any pathogens it's carrying.

The correct way is to take tweezers, side on grasping the top and bottom of the head and pull gently straight up (perpendicularly from the surface of your skin). Be patient. Taking a few minutes to do it right is better than rushing; you have about 24 hours before any significant risk of infection. Make sure you identify the head first and grasp that, as sometimes the head is buried. If you grab the body, you'll just decapitate the tick by pulling.

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