As someone who lived in the south and worked with people who specialized in tickborne illness, none of them recommended the fingernail approach.
Most "tools" are just a specialized set of tweezers, which aid in the pulling process in a way that doesn't separate the body from the head, and are generally recommended by the medical profession.
And the heating, Vaseline, etc. methods aren't just more work - they're actively harmful.
Doing it without a tool risks leaving the mouthparts embedded in your skin, leaving you prone to infection even after the tick was removed.
Re:Lyme Disease Is on the Rise Again
by stronglikedan on Monday May 07, 2018 @04:15PM
(#17016120)
Ridiculously terrible and potentially dangerous advice aside, not everyone has fingernails.
Unless you bite them down to a nub, all you need is a normal, close trimmed fingernail.
Ridiculously terrible and potentially dangerous to remove a tick with your fingernail? I scoff at the ignorance. The great majority of ticks will be unknowingly scratched off before you even notice you have one dug in. So I guess you could use special tools to remove those last 10% that you happened to notice before scratching them off.
Just use your fingernail, scratch it off carefully. I can't imagine trying to use this or one of the crazier, "heat a needle" or "spread vasaline on them methods" when trying to remove the sometimes hundreds of ticks and chiggars you might have after working in the wrong field for a day.