You guessed it! Chester had a wood tick burrowing into his ear. Luckily, Layla and I had spent about half an hour last week watching videos on youtube on the right and wrong ways to remove wood ticks. Greg had a wood tick in his hair from one of our hikes but it hadn't bit him yet so I thought we'd better learn up on it.
So when Greg came over with fingernail clippers to remove it I was able to say with confidence that that was a bad idea. I knew Layla was going to be very disappointed to miss the tick removal but we didn't want to leave it in his ear any longer that necessary.
Greg did a great job removing the tick with the head intact. In fact, the tick was still alive and scurried along the bathroom counter until he put it in the toilet to save for Layla to see. She was very excited about the tick and wouldn't let me flush him down until much later in the day. We all checked each other and luckily nobody else had ticks. I think I've had my fill of creepy crawlies for the season and it's only May. Good grief.
i think you meant WITH the head intact.
ReplyDeleteso you didn't mention how you got it out?
it looks big. are they always that big?
I'm surprised you didn't put it in a glass jar to add to Layla's collection of buggy pets. Love the picture of Chester on his back. Shows a lot of trust on his part.
ReplyDeleteI think it was about "standard" size for a tick. We got it out with tweezers by gasping close to the head as possible and gently squeezing pulling straight out, no twisting or yanking. He came out with a chunk of Chester, it was really gross. We don't like to keep bugs that may contain diseases harmful to humans. YUCK.
ReplyDeleteNail clippers -- HA! My illustrious F-I-L took one off Anders' head with a sautering iron. So stupid. But I guess it worked. I heard ticks get bigger the longer they're left on ie. the more engorged they get with blood. Nice.
ReplyDelete