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Viral Video Showing How To Remove A Tick Could Actually Give You Lyme Disease

Viral Video Showing How To Remove A Tick Could Actually Give You Lyme Disease

I bet quite a few people are ticked off at this video...

Mel Ramsay

Mel Ramsay

This viral video has been absolutely everywhere recently. If you haven't seen it, where have you been?!

Okay, I admit it. I hadn't seen it either. But it's currently sitting pretty on an eye-watering 30 million views and over 500,000 shares. That's some seriously viral content.

The video basically shows a woman with a tick in her arm. She decides to apply some peppermint oil and within 20 seconds, the tick is out of her arm and desperately attempting to get away from the oil. She tells it it's going to die, picks it up off her arm and that's that. Simple, right?

Well, no. Not quite.


Credit: Facebook/Vjeko Zahej

The Daily Mail spoke to Dr Neeta Connally, assistant professor of Biology at Western Connecticut State University, who says that removing ticks this way can actually give you more of a chance of getting Lyme disease. Wait, what?

She said: "We don't want to agitate the tick at all because many carry all sorts of diseases.

"Those are actually salivated into the body when the tick attaches and so we don't want to agitate the tick in any way that is going to make it salivate more and thereby be more likely to transmit anything into you that may make you sick."

The Borreliosis and Associated Diseases Awareness (BADA) UK charity website agrees with Dr Connally, saying: "Using solutions such as alcohol, aftershave, oils/butter, paraffin, petroleum jelly or nail polish to try to suffocate a tick may cause it to regurgitate (vomit) saliva and gut contents as it tries to disengage its mouth parts and escape the irritating solution.

"Whilst this method may cause the tick to drop off, it may also increase the risk of disease-causing organisms entering the bloodstream of the person or animal the tick is attached to."

So the way in which you remove a tick is actually really fucking important. If it leaves behind some of its mouth parts in your skin, it can result in an infection, which (in severe cases) can lead to abscesses and even septicemia.

The best way to remove a tick? Tick remover, funnily enough. Also, don't squeeze its body when removing as that can force its inside into your skin. Gross.

Be careful out there, LADs.

Featured Image Credit: Facebook/Vjeko Zehej

Topics: Viral