Warm springtime temperatures means more South Dakotans are getting outside – enjoying the outdoors can also mean encountering ticks. Health officials say anyone that is outdoors in tall grass or in a wooded area should thoroughly check themselves, children, and pets for ticks.
Mike Birgenheir is a Physician’s Assistant at Regional Urgent Care in Rapid City. He says if a tick has attached itself, get it off immediately. But, he says, scrubbing it off with chemicals doesn’t work.
“All petroleum jelly and nail polish does is kind of suffocates it so it takes a little longer for it to die and fall off. If you just take a very fine tweezers and grasp the tick as close to the skin as possible, if you pull up firmly with a steady even pressure – don’t jerk it, don’t twist it, don’t yank it – then you will prevent mouth parts from breaking off or remaining under the skin,” says Birgenheir.
Birgenheir says after the tick is removed to wash the area, hands, and tools with rubbing alcohol. He says removing ticks immediately is important because some ticks can make people sick. He says the few cases of Lyme Disease that have been reported in South Dakota are from people that got bit by ticks in other parts of the country. Birgenheir says South Dakotans can protect themselves by wearing repellent containing at least twenty-percent DEET.