# Hydrogen Peroxide for Tick Removal ???



## fordy (Sep 13, 2003)

............Has anyone tried using a cotton ball to apply Hydrogen peroxide too ticks on a dog or other animal to see if it will cause them too release their grip ? Thought maybe this might be an effective way to remove large numbers of ticks that had collected on a dogs ear . I haven't tried it myself but it just might work . , thanks , fordy


----------



## wingnut64 (Jan 12, 2012)

I think we tried that when we didn't have rubbing alcohol around.
Didn't work.
Great for disinfecting afterwards, but alcohol has a greater effect on releasing their grip.
However, even that doesn't work on the really stubborn boogers.
The best method, tried and true, is to heat up a pair of tweezers with a flame and grab near the head. You don't want to pull the body off and leave the head, so don't pinch hard, let the hot metal make that sucker let go and want to leave in a hurry, lol.
I have tried sulfur powder too, without much success.
There may be commercial products that will do the job on a large area like you described, but for DIY home remedies, hot tweezers work best.


----------



## Otter (Jan 15, 2008)

You can also coat them with very heavy oil. Motor oil (clean!) works - I mean, don't drench the whole dog with it, but go ahead and put it on tick encrusted ears. All the ticks may not let go, but they will all die and new ticks aren't keen to get into it to replace them.


----------



## wingnut64 (Jan 12, 2012)

Otter said:


> You can also coat them with very heavy oil. Motor oil (clean!) works - I mean, don't drench the whole dog with it, but go ahead and put it on tick encrusted ears. All the ticks may not let go, but they will all die and new ticks aren't keen to get into it to replace them.


That's true, i forgot about that. It basically suffocates them.
Might be hard to do around the ears and face without them shaking their heads and getting it in their eyes - and everywhere else too. lol


----------



## davel745 (Feb 2, 2009)

Tick Twisters work great.
http://www.ticktwister.com/


----------



## geo in mi (Nov 14, 2008)

If you happen to have a nit comb(for head lice), it will do the same thing as the ticktwister. It will get underneath the tick and lift it as you apply the alcohol.

geo


----------



## Haven (Aug 16, 2010)

Ticks are nasty little hard-to-kill buggers.

I keep a tick jar at work for when I have to pull ticks off my k9 clients. It is a Mason jar filled with rubbing alcohol. I can pull off ticks and toss them into the jar and they are still wiggling their feet around 1 hour later, after being totally submerged in alcohol.

I just snap the mouthparts with a hemostat and pop them off - takes 1 second. Much easier than applying all kinds of stuff, hoping they release on their own.


----------



## Tommyice (Dec 5, 2010)

I found, online, a great way to get rid of them. Put your finger on top of them and basically move them around in a circular motion. Depending on it's tenacity, it takes only a minute. I think it gets "dizzy" and releases without the usual tugging. Works great for my dog--he won't hold still long enough to grab it and pull it out. This way he just lays there like he's getting petted.


----------



## salmonslayer (Jan 4, 2009)

I dont know about anyone else but I dont think the ticks really died off or went into hibernation this winter around my place. We are already seeing ticks on the animals.


----------



## Cabin Fever (May 10, 2002)

If these are the type of ticks that carry Lymes or other type of disease, you do not want to apply anything to their bodies: alcohol, petroleum jelly, motor oil, peroxide, etc. These applications can cause the tick to immediately regurgitate its stomach contents into the blood stream of the host animal, thus infecting the animal with the disease. 

The best way to remove disease-carrying ticks is to simply pull them off. If the head breaks off and is left attached, it shouldn't cause a problem. It will scab over and eventually be sloughed off.


----------



## Tracy Rimmer (May 9, 2002)

Cabin Fever said:


> If these are the type of ticks that carry Lymes or other type of disease, you do not want to apply anything to their bodies: alcohol, petroleum jelly, motor oil, peroxide, etc. These applications can cause the tick to immediately regurgitate its stomach contents into the blood stream of the host animal, thus infecting the animal with the disease.
> 
> The best way to remove disease-carrying ticks is to simply pull them off. If the head breaks off and is left attached, it shouldn't cause a problem. It will scab over and eventually be sloughed off.



^^THIS^^

The stupidest thing I ever heard was when someone told me (in all seriousness) that ticks need to be "unscrewed" by twisting them, because that's how they attach  

Ticks BITE. If they carry Lyme, they will regurgitate what they've sucked out if they're smothered with petroleum jelly, oil, etc. The best way to remove them is to grab hold of them (tweezers work well) and pull STRAIGHT OUT. I have a friend who has a small jar of bleach that she drops them into, and they die immediately. I burn the little suckers with a match.

Ticks are gross, but they're not that big a deal. There is no reason to panic over them, just pull them out, and dispatch them so they can't go and lay their eggs and produce a hundred more.


----------



## sweetbabyjane (Oct 21, 2002)

Well, I'm probably the one who told you that, and my vet told it to me. Believe it or not it works! About a turn and a half counter-clockwise and the tick comes right out, head and all, every time. Pet never knows you are doing anything. This came in very handy for my touch-me-not Chow mix.

SBJ


----------



## libby (Feb 27, 2011)

We use a gob of antibacterial hand gel. It stays in place on the tick even if the dog move around a lot (which ours does) while you are getting it off, and it has lots of alcohol.


----------



## Joshie (Dec 8, 2008)

Use a flea and tick med. We use Bayer Advantage Multi. It's a flea, tick and heartworm preventative. It also protects against hookworms, roundworms and whipworms.


----------



## wwubben (Oct 13, 2004)

What cabin fever said works fine.


----------



## Wis Bang 2 (Jan 12, 2010)

I have a tick key which has a teardrop shaped opening you place it over the tick and slide it down into the narrow end and lift up pulling the tick right out.


----------



## tinknal (May 21, 2004)

Only people who rarely need to deal with ticks (less than 50 times a spring day) fool with this silliness. You can see who the tick pros are here. Just pull them off. Between us humans and the critters we will harvest a couple hundred a day during peak tick season.

With virtually no winter this year this spring should be a doozy.


----------



## NickieL (Jun 15, 2007)

DO NOT coat the tick in ANYTHING!!!!!! RULE NUMBER 1!!!!!!

Disturbing a tick like that, with peroxide, a match, vasoline, etc...will cause that tick to SPIT as it backs out of you increasing your chances of getting lyme or other diseases. You learn this in first aid 101!

Take a twizzers and grasp behind the head gently and pull strait out.


----------



## am1too (Dec 30, 2009)

I like the garlic approach. They don't much like the taste and I just happen to like garlic. I think it also is a blood thinner.


----------



## poppy (Feb 21, 2008)

I've always used Sevin garden dust. Works on fleas and ticks, is cheap, never hurt my dogs, and it is labeled for that use on the bag.


----------



## NickieL (Jun 15, 2007)

This stuff REALLY WORKS. We use this for our hiking/backpacking/outdoors clothes...keeps the horrid mosquitoes around here away too, and ticks stear clear big time.

http://www.campmor.com/sawyer-24-oz-permethrin-clothing-insect-repellant-pump-spray.shtml?source=CI&ci_sku=8133624OZ&ci_gpa=pla&ci_kw={keyword}


----------



## gone-a-milkin (Mar 4, 2007)

The simple fact that we are having a tick thread in early March is enough to depress me a little.
It is going to be a buggy year. Arm up for it.


----------



## Micheal (Jan 28, 2009)

I use the tweezer method myself, but have heard that "Dawn" (the dish soap) on a cotten ball works, but it takes a few minutes of holding the cotton ball on the tick/animal and don't know about anyone else my dog won't stay still long enough......

Around here I've been finding ticks and fleas on the dog off and on all winter - been a strange winter.......


----------

