As you can see Dr. Joe’s Tick it Away is a forked prong device. You simply slide the tick remover with a forward downward pressure and guide the tick into the tapered groove as far as possible. Try to keep the wider part of the tick perpendicular to the length of the groove. This will facilitate capturing the tick in the groove.

 

Once, the tick is caught as far down as possible in the groove, push the handle down with constant gentle pressure. This will lift the front prongs of the tick remover and in turn lift the tick away from the skin detaching it intact and alive.

 

One of the advantages of Dr. Joe’s Tick it Away is that the motion that lifts the front of the tick remover and the tick off the skin also forces the tick further down the groove, enhancing the ability to capture and detach even the tiniest tick. Once the tick is removed, clean the site of the bite with betadyne and or alcohol.

 

The tick can be discarded or saved according to your doctor’s instructions. The tick removers are made of plastic and are disposable; they should not be reused. This avoids the risk of contamination and infection via improper sterilization of the tick remover after its use.

Do not use bare fingers, tweezers, forceps or other like devices that may squeeze the body of the tick and thus stimulate or irritate it to regurgitate and inject its infectious material into the host. The use of heat, vaseline and or other chemicals on an attached tick may produce the same undesirable consequences. Do not twist a tick off because the mouthpart has barbs and is not a corkscrew. These methods also increase the chance of detaching the body and leaving the mouthparts in the host. Leaving the mouthparts or "head" in the host may cause local irritation and secondary infection. The only safe way to remove an attached tick is to lift the tick intact away from the skin without crushing, squeezing or irritating the tick in any way as with Dr. Joe’s Tick it Away.