Ticks
 

Just when we thought we could begin to enjoy some of the outdoors, we find the TICKS ARE BACK already !! We have found a number of them after a brief walk in the woods today and had one digging in the skin from raking leaves Friday. So it is important for people to really check themselves carefully as well as the kids after being outside. And also protect your pets who roam outside. I HATE ticks!!!! UGH......

Just found the first tick on me for 2014 also. Now the fun begins...ticks, black flies, mosquitoes, snakes, spiders, and POISON IVY!!!!

"Ticks are remarkably well adapted for doing what they do best, latch on, hang on, suck blood. First they saw a tiny slit through the outer skin, using a pair of alternating saw blades called chelicerae, injecting an anesthetic as they go. The victim usually feels nothing. Next, the tick forces its multi-barbed hypostome deep into the skin and secretes a sophisticated organic glue thereby locking itself solidly into place. In terms of removal, the hypostome of a glued-in tick might just as well be part of your skin."

http://remove-ticks.com/tickquick.htm

One more
 

Also checking in; having found one tick after a short walk in the woods, 100 yards from the lake. I guess the winter wasn't cold enough to whack them back a bit.

I had a tick on the back of my neck 3 weeks ago, while there was still snow in my yard. It was a cute little baby tick. :eek:

Ticks Suck, literally and figuratively....
 

...found a big fat one on the floppy ear of our Golden two weeks ago. Suddenly, this past Saturday, she was limping...got worse as the day went on and by Sat night, she couldn't stand up. Took her to emergency vet yesterday AM...couldn't walk, lethargic, etc. Blood test showed that she has Anaplasma, which is a tick-borne illness, in the Lyme family. A month-long course of antibiotics ahead, but luckily, after just a couple doses, she is now able to get up and walk at least a little bit.

Protect your dogs and yourselves!

MM

Thank you for the posts on ticks... I had wanted some property with trees on in, but now I'm thinking I'll take concrete and no plants.... :eek:

How do you get them off you? Here in Oregon I've only seen one tick in 30 years and I'm in the woods a lot. **sigh** We've not moved there yet and I'm already having culture shock...

Seriously, though, is there a way you can get them off? I've heard of using a lit match, and unscrewing them, and using tweezers. Do those work?

I've got this picture of a person walking out their door and past a tree and being covered in the little buggers... :eek:

On the topic of pests... do you have leeches in the lakes?

Tick Removal

If you find a tick attached to your skin, there's no need to panic. There are several tick removal devices on the market, but a plain set of fine-tipped tweezers will remove a tick quite effectively.

How to remove a tick
1.Use fine-tipped tweezers to grasp the tick as close to the skin's surface as possible.
2.Pull upward with steady, even pressure. Don't twist or jerk the tick; this can cause the mouth-parts to break off and remain in the skin. If this happens, remove the mouth-parts with tweezers. If you are unable to remove the mouth easily with clean tweezers, leave it alone and let the skin heal.
3.After removing the tick, thoroughly clean the bite area and your hands with rubbing alcohol, an iodine scrub, or soap and water.

There are leeches in New Hampshire lakes, aside from the "Eewwwwwh" factor they are not a health hazard.

Unfortunately, ticks are a problem for man and beast. SSs method above is the correct one for tick removal despite all the old wives tales.

You're not going to see a leech unless you swim in some murky backwater. I only swim in sandy spots and deep water and I've never seen a leech.

Ticks are unfortunately now a bane of New England. Lyme is in too many ticks to risk exposure. So you really have to have two lines of defense, DEET and visual inspection. DEET is the only practical human-safe repellant and it isn't 100% effective. So you need to check yourself after every exposure. Your risk goes up the longer they are on you. Find them while they are still walking and you're safe.

You can add a third level of defense with clothing but how practical are long sleeves and pants tucked into your socks come summer?

leeches
 

I will be moving up in July, I have never seen any leeches in the lake. Do they try to stay where people aren't. I really don't know anything about them.
Ticks are very scary!

ticks
 

Hi, did you dog have frontline or something similar on? I don't know if it's enough for walking in the woods. perhaps a powder also. My daughter had lymes and it's very scary. She was lucky in a way that she was sick enough they treated her correctly. If anyone has any great methods to keep them at bay please post.
Thanks

A little off-topic but there is a vaccine for dogs to prevent Lyme disease. It is not 100% effective and not all vets like it, so ask yours.

We got the Seresto tick collar for our dog last year from our vet. It was expensive ( $85 ) but it lasts for 8 months. It worked so much better than anything else we had used. We didn't need to use the Advantix anymore, which wasn't working well anyway, and is very expensive.

I hate ticks. One of my friends bought a house 2 years ago that had sat vacant for a few years, and the lawn had overgrown quite nicely. He was picking 25+ ticks a day off his small dog, and it continued to be a problem until he had mowed the lawn back to the woodline several times, which drove them back. Funny part is I was over there a lot during this time and never had a tick on me, neither did my daughter. Only thing I can think of is the amount of garlic eaten in my house would probably kill the average person. We don't have a problem with mosquitoes either, they don't seem to like the taste and smell of garlic. Coincidence?

They might be Vampire ticks and mosquitos.:D

They say it is not 100% effective, but the company that produces the vaccine will cover 100% of your vet/treatment costs if your dog contracts Lyme.

A blood test needs to be performed prior to verify that Lyme is not present.

We got complacent from the cold weather...
 

Normally, we are very diligent with applying the tick repellent to our dog. We use a liquid product that our vet recommended called "Vector", which is very similar to Frontline. With all of the snow and cold through March, we hadn't applied any, thinking there were no ticks around. The snow melted fast at end of March and we got caught.:(:(

We have used the Lyme vaccine for our dog since moving to CT several years ago, (a little factoid is that Lyme disease is named for Lyme, CT, since it is so prevalent down here), and she hasn't gotten it...not sure if it is the vaccine or just dumb luck.

MM

Leeches
 

I have only seen one leech at our place on East Bear Island in the 46 years that we have been there. It was in our boat slip area between our breakwater and our dock which contained some vegitation. It resembled an undulating tape worm and was a couple of inches long. [In the mid-west, we have leeches which we call "blood suckers". They are much smaller, resembling a black "glob".] We no longer have any weeds in our slip, but we do have a resident mink family which has taken care of our crawtads [crawfish] and possibly any leeches. Duck itch is our present nemesis. UGH!!!!! :eek:

What is duck itch?

It seems like everybody's dogs are testing positive for Lyme Disease around here. Mine did yesterday-now they have to send it away to get a count and make sure it wasn't a false positive. I have only ever seen two maybe three ticks on this dog. But the deer ticks are so tiny that maybe I didn't see one. Am hoping it comes back ok, but since so many others are testing positive I am not optimistic. It seems like it is an epidemic.

Sorry,...had to do it. :D

I have a dog that is 11 years old and last year he tested positive for Lyme disease. I didn't even know that the vet was testing him for it until she told me he tested positive and should take the 10 day medicine treatment. Then this year he still tested positive again and the vet said that she could treat him or just watch to see if he gets lame or sick. I read that most all dogs will test positive for Lyme Disease and that most of them will not show symptoms because their immune system fights it off.

Over the years my dog has been given all the latest and greatest protection medicine for Lyme Disease so I am a little confused as to why "NOW" has he tested positive. He never showed any symptoms of the disease and has always acted the same.

It's a little confusing as to why more and more dogs are testing positive.

IMO I think most all dogs will test positive but the body fights it well enough without the treatments. If your dog shows symptoms then probably he/she needs the treatments.

I am thinking the same thing you are, Rusty. There are just too many dogs testing positive. I mean EVERYBODY I know who has had their dog tested is coming back positive. She called me a little while ago and said he is 112 and should have the antibiotic for a month. He has no symptoms. It is confusing. Sometimes I wonder if we don't give them too many shots and medicines.

Vaccine your pups for Lyme. Important
 

More importantly, depending on how you view the world, be vigilant in checking one another.

Watched a lady die a slow painful death from Lyme disease a couple years ago. Another friend has been diagnosed with it as well. Very painful and life "sucking" real disease.

Be well.

p.s. I hope your dog is back to good health soon.

Also known as Swimmer's Itch
 

Swimmer's itch is an allergic reaction to microscopic parasites that burrow into your skin. The parasites associated with swimmer's itch normally live in waterfowl and some animals that live near the water. Humans aren't suitable hosts, so the parasites soon die while still in your skin.

Although uncomfortable, swimmer's itch is usually short-lived. The rash typically clears up on its own within a few days. In the meantime, you can control itching with over-the-counter or prescription medications.

Compliments of the ducks and geese.

Thank you.

We used to have dogs and they used to get ticks all the time on our heavily wooded lot. I cleared all the underbrush from the woody areas that the dogs frequent and started keeping the the ground cover well-trimmed with a string trimmer pass twice a year. The tick problem disappeared immediately and the woods look really nice now. It's a lot of work at first, but not too hard to maintain.

I do a lot of hiking and have found that I can remain tick-free pretty easily by staying on the trail and not brushing up against vegetation along the trail edge.

How to keep the ticks off of you?

One method is to treat your clothes.

Hunters use "Permethrin" on their clothing and I'm told it works well (just keep it away from your feline friends, it can be toxic to them), it can be found at Wal-Mart and other outdoor type of shops under various brand names.

Tick
 

I just noticed a black spec on our neighbor's white dog. It was a tiny tick, so small four would fit on the head of a pin. That's the second one this week I've been able to see. Had to use a magnifying glass to confirm it was a tick. Good thing the dog is white. Just an FYI these things are small and tough to see.

Deer ticks are basically out all year. Predominantly adults are fall and winter, nymps springtime and larval summer. Although called deer ticks, white footed deer mice are common mammals that the ticks will live and feed on before they shed them off to the deer, wildlife, dogs, pets and humans. I work in forestry and am outdoors constantly. Many people in our office have had imbedded ticks this year and some of us including me have found over seventy ticks on us in one day. They are horrible this year. It seems as though no insecticides, if you use them which I don't, appears is not working. We are now keeping track of the ticks as part of a study and will be getting lyme disease testing twice a year now rather than the one as an occupational hazard.
http://www.aldf.com/deerTickEcology.shtml

Oh no!!! 70 ticks???? Lyme disease is getting so scary. Doesn't that scare you? Sometimes it is fatal…….. Can you tell us a little more about it. I have heard it is very hard to diagnose in humans. It doesn't seem to hit dogs quite as hard as people??

Wheres the vaccine for humans.
 

Just read the thread (quickly, so sorry if I missed it)... Why is there a vaccine for dogs but none for humans?

Wasn't cold enough ??:laugh: I don't know about that, my fuel oil bills would disagree !! They must be super ticks !!:look:

There is a vaccine for humans. It was introduced in 98 but because of slow sales (according to GlaxoSmithKline) it was stopped in 2002. So, there IS a vaccine and the ability to make another but you'd have to convince the drug company there's a market this time. The increase in diagnosis should be enough, but alas, it is still all about money, not health.
You'll need some famous actor/actress to come down with Lyme and become the spokesperson of the times, like Michael J. Fox has done with Parkinsons Disease.

Although the absence of human Lyme disease vaccine in this country IS about money, the underlying cause is the negative publicity and activism of anti-vaccination groups, the legal system and the general low level of public scientific understanding. Politics and the perfect storm ended a decent vaccine.

Actually Lyme disease, particularly what is termed chronic Lyme disease, is a very political issue with its celebrity spokesmen and all that goes with it.

Probably a bit off topic but there is no scientific reason there is not a human vaccine and that is a shame.

Celebrity spokesmen? Political issue. Please do explain.

Ummmm... PBF answered your question a few posts back.

No offense to anyone, but its a reoccurring theme that people seem to
repeat what someone else has said a few posts before . Is it that no
one reads the previous posts, or is it that unless they think that if
they don't say it, its not true??

No offense, observation, its been going on for years

I do read previous posts before replying and after your answer I read the posts again and I still don't get it. It must be me.

The suggestion was made that Lyme disease needed a celebrity spokesman to bring it to the public attention, such as Michael Fox did for Parkinson's. I do not disagree, but pointed out that Lyme disease is a political issue, particularly chronic Lyme disease and has had its publicity seekers to rally support.

If you spend some time googling it you can see the issues that go beyond just medical science. I was not trying to be obscure, I just get frustrated with everything being divisive and political, including discussions of scientific issues that are relatively clear cut.

Wifi, you point out the difficulty of carrying on a "conversation" via forums rather than interactively. The opportunity to ask questions during the flow is gone, and the reading of body language (more a part of our human communications than many realize) is non-existent.

I would suggest that the question you reference is still left unanswered due to ambiguity in the prior posts.

PBF made a celebrity comparison to Michael J Fox for Parkinson's Disease, implying that Lyme Disease needs an equally famous celebrity spokesperson.

The next post had this,

Actually Lyme disease, particularly what is termed chronic Lyme disease, is a very political issue with its celebrity spokesmen and all that goes with it.

...implying that Lyme already has "celebrity spokesmen".

I, the poster of the question, and probably others are still awaiting an answer on whom these spokesmen might be.

(FWIW, as I've had Lyme, and have no desire to suffer a repeat, I did a few Google searches and came up empty. I'm aware of the medical and political controversies involved. But I've never heard or seen a "famous" celebrity weighing in on the topic)

Thanks Merrymeeting. Your summary is exactly how my mind processed the flow of postings and the reason why I still had questions about the topic. I'm glad I wasn't the only one who interpreted the information this way.

Re: Permethrin
 

You can buy a permethrin spray at EMS or REI. Or, if you're paranoid and/or wealthy, you can buy a line of pre-impregnated clothing from LL Bean. The brand is Ex Officio and the line of clothes is Insect Shield. You can buy everything from shirts and pants to socks and hats. The treatment supposedly holds up for 70 Washings.

Never thought I'd buy brand-new clothing from LL to work in the woods, but after a mild case of Lyme a couple of years back, I now fall in the paranoid category.

Of course, in a few years, they'll probably decide that this stuff causes cancer :(

One thing I have found online was to plant things that ticks do not like around your yards,
One of them if Rosemary. Which also gives you the added benefit of using it while cooking.
I have tried it at home and it does seem to keep the bugs down some.
For say around $3 a plant most places, it's worth a shot.

I'm trying out a tick repellant concoction for my dog I found on the internet. Its made out of water, distilled vinegar, tea tree oil and lavender oil. When i was at a Walgreens looking for the lavender the clerk told me they didn't carry it but she did say that people plant lavender in their gardens as a natural bug repellant (like rosemary apparently).

I've only used it once but it appeared to be a huge success...only one tick! The time in the woods before that without repellant was awful as we picked off more than 20 ticks. The oil odor is strong out out of the bottle but very mild when mixed. I filled up a small spray bottle and just gave the dog a few squirts. It needs more testing before I'm completely convinced it works but the poster on the hiking blog where I found it swears by it.

I apologize for the apparent ambiguity. If you Google "Lyme Disease Celebrity" the are multiple articles listed....the Huffington Post reports on 8 (or10) celebrities who had Lyme Disease. Another reference details Debby Gibson's struggle with Lyme disease. George Bush had Lyme disease. My point was and is that it is not an obscure disease, celebrities have detailed their difficulties with Lyme disease. It really is more in the area of "chronic Lyme disease" that there is more politics and controversy. Although there are celebrities speaking out about it...there are few diseases so closely associated by the public with a single celebrity as Michael J Fox and Parkinson's.

Anyway...tomorrow I begin my 1700 mile trek to the Lake.

This may be long winded but figured I'd share.

Last year I had the scare of a lifetime. I was at my camp on vacation and started to feel rather lethargic, had zero energy. I figured eh it's probably the stupidly long and insane hours I work that had finally caught up with me. Well this persisted for a couple of days. Then it went from that to flu like symptoms. Go from having the chills to sweating like a pig. That lasted about 24 hours then all was fine. I was still a little worn down but didn't think to much about it.

A week later I determined that I still wasn't right... something was definitely wrong. I developed abdominal pain unlike anything I had ever felt before. Hmm.. so I grinned dealt with it until one night it was keeping me awake and I said good grief maybe I need to get checked out. It was so bad in fact I decided to go to the ER. Well as it turns out I had a plumbing problem.. as it it wasn't working so I was given some rotor router stuff and sent home. 24 hours later, nope no change... back to the ER. They decided I needed to get a more serious treatment. Well um hmm... I must say by then I was really messed up and in significant pain. Well next thing I know I start feeling all woozy start seeing the milky way and bam I'm out cold. I come to however much time later to being on laid out a bunch of people running around and I hear somebody yelling some stuff, then "got to hit him again" ... clear... BAM - (yes I was fully conscience by then) um what the hell is going on here.

Doc says to me hey you with us? I look up at him and say yeah what the heck just happened? He says you just had a heart attack. Say what? I'm a very fit and healthy young guy, active, eat well, the whole nine yards, how the heck can I have a heart attack? I get moved into ICU and put on observation. Over the course of the next week I have a bazillion tests done to me. Docs can't find a thing wrong with me and are bewildered by why this could happen when my heart is perfectly fine. My case is referred to some specialists in Boston, they look my case over and can't find a thing wrong either.

Well while I'm there, I am also tested for Lyme. I pop positive. I'm immediately put on antibiotics to treat it. Lucky for me they determine that it's a fresh case so they were able to eradicate it.

I had very lengthy conversations with my doc about why this happen and if it's possible that Lyme caused it. In his opinion he says that my symptoms did not match others who have had heart related problems tied directly to Lyme, yet, they never and still to this day have no explanation as to why this occurred. I did have an ICD implant done just to be safe, yet in all the time post this happening there have been no anomalies observed...which by the way is not usually the case - so what to make of it, beats me.

Now on to Lyme. I had very lengthy discussions about it with the infectious disease doc that was treating me at the time. She tells me there is a chance that my heart attack could have been caused by Lyme, but there is so little information out there it's hard to say. She did say that it effects people in different ways and thus far due to lack of case studies they simply have little to go off of. As more research is done they are finding that it is a far more complex disease than they first thought it was. In fact... and this is an important thing to note... the reason why that vaccination is not available is because it only treated a certain type of bacteria but science has shown that there are different and more numerous strains so in a sense it is ineffective and therefore no longer produced. This also can be said for the treatments for pets. More science is needed to study this, but progress is slow mostly because there is little money to be made yet in treating this. In fact in most cases simple antibiotic treatments will get rid of it, but not always. Some people have had it far to long and have to live with the lingering effects the rest of their life. Sometimes, but not always treatments can be done to keep it under control. It can attack your joints, nervous system, heart, etc.. and in rare cases be fatal.

The sad thing is many are misdiagnosed, the symptoms are often times misread or are easily explained away as something far less sinister, in fact it can stop showing signs of infection for a period of time then come back. Even the tests to diagnose it can be inaccurate. It really is pretty scary if you think about it.

Thankfully for me, I'm fine but now have a little life insurance just in case. I'm sure as time goes on more will be done to study this disease and it's effects but for now there isn't much out there. Although this has happened it's certainly not going to scare me out of the woods, or get all freaked out if I find another tick on me, but be aware that if you do get one inbedded and start to feel a little funny it may be worth getting tested for it. While it may or may not catch it, it's a good idea to go back regularly to check especially if you spend a lot of time outdoors where you could be exposed.

This part of your ordeal exactly mirrors mine, though thankfully in my case, without the heart attack.

About a week of the run down, fever, chills cycles, the thing that finally sent me to my doctor was when my left hand inexplicably swelled to almost twice it's normal size. Thankfully one of his first thoughts was to test for Lyme. I was positive and the course of antibiotics seemed to take care of things. This was 2 summers ago. No recurrence... so far.

That is excellent advice. I did the same thing and we have not had a single tick on us or our pets this year even though I am working in my yard, the woods and wood pile. We cleared the underbrush right down to the pine needle cover, trimmed small lower branches and just left the larger trees....like they do in parks.
At my business, however, we are surrounded by woods that aren't cleared as well as long grass around the perimeter. The other day, after working outside, I found more than a dozen ticks all over me......even a day or two later I found a couple.

I thought we were clear . . .
 

http://www.prevention.com/health/hea...mentsonhorizon

Here's an article about Lyme disease and a new treatment.

Ick....
 

Just found my 1st tick on me since I was a KID (and that was a WHILE ago :rolleye1:).......we just moved to NH from MA and I was out just walking the dog around the yard, came in, felt an 'itch' on my leg and low and behold, this tiny little bugger.....and that posting on FB from the 'nurse' about dish soap, put it on the cotton ball, yada yada yada, well that only made it bury it's head in further....now the DOG on the other hand, haven't found a one on her, but faithful ALL year round with K9 AdvantixII......(can't they make that for people please?)

BUT now that I read your post, I will itch now for a few hours, look at every little itch to make sure lol...even though i KNOW I just sprayed myself about an hour ago before I went outside to the garden and the yard! LOL....

lymes
 

I am so sorry to hear of your troubles. My daughter lives in Boston and had lymes. The doctors thought at first it may be a brain tumor, if not for her professor who insisted on a lymes test she may of had permanent problems. Time is important because damage to nerves may not heal. Hers surfaced as lymes meningitis. I still say she was very fortunate because of the treatment she seems fine today (two years later) but time will tell. I wish you well, and we all need to think outside the box when we have weird systems.
Mary

I had a tick on my neck after a group of us from the Moultonborough Women's had just finished planting by the town offices. A tick check is very important.

NH also has a law protecting doctors who are treating chronic lyme patients with long term antibiotic treatment.

A family member has been in treatment for chronic lyme for five years. The doctor believes she was infected years before her diagnosis. Deer ticks, the tiny ones, are the ones that carry the disease. Lyme is not the only problem, there are other diseases passed on by ticks that are also very difficult to treat. Unfortunately, my family member us dealing with two of these in addition to lyme, babesiosis and bartonella.

Guinea hens will eat ticks too, that's why you see a lot of free roaming chickens where they are allowed.

There are about 110 of us that work in the woods at our office and even the office workers get ticks, we assume that they get the ticks shed off our clothing. We are all nervous about the effects of the tick diseases but it is our job to go out every day. Some of us use a chemicals, dress appropriately, or do manual tick checks. I just had the tiniest little nymph ever embedded in my arm Thursday, took a while to get it out it was so tiny but the site where I pulled it from looks like I got stung by bees. For us getting attention to get the tick diseases studied, getting proper medical treatment and tests that are supported by insurance and doctors are goals of everyone in our office. We have discussions on ticks nearly everyday and keep a record of how many we have crawling on us and how many are embedded and it is staggering.

Our dog got Anaplasomosis this year, I had seen her limping and she normally goes upstairs with us but when she climbed them that night she collapsed and started to roll down, I caught her and we took her to the vet and she was on antibiotics for two months and is doing good now. The lab across the street from us got Lyme a few years ago and passed away. Some breeds are more susceptible to acute Lyme according to our vet. This year we are pulling more ticks off the horse than ever before too and he is on short grass with no trees in his corral but just outside the fenceline.

So Lyme disease is the most prevalent and talked about tick disease, symptoms can mimic many other diseases, if you get the bull's eye though it is definitely Lyme, other symptoms include fatique, secondary rashes, pain in joints, bell's palsy symptoms, pancarditis, atrioventricular nodal block, myopericarditis, migratory arthritis and more.

We have had employees with Babesiosis too that is fatigue, fever/chills, myalgia, depression, dark urine, cough, sore throat and more.

The Anaplasmosis our dog had can also be picked up by people it includes most of the same as above and can include gastro intestinal problems, stiff neck and confusion.

There are a few others from the deer tick too such as Tularemia, and besides the dog tick and deer tick we now have the Lone Star Tick in some areas of the northeast and that can cause Ehrlichiosis from a tick bite. This really sucks and it is not a pun intended. It hurts both mentally, physically and financially.

There are several good websites out there on tick diseases, but until recently there hasn't been strong voices. There is also a documentary called "under our skin" this documentary is very pro Lyme disease testing and not having doctors that treat patients disbarred. I guess you could consider it an activist documentary but it really awakens you to the damages done by ticks. There are several celebrities that promote tick disease awareness. One that comes to mind is Darryl Hall of Hall and Oates. They had to cancel performances a few years back cause Darryl came down with Lyme disease and couldn't even remember the lines of the songs before he got treatment.

Sorry this is so long but my occupational field has kept me outdoors all my life and ticks are number one enemy. I would like to point out though that just because it is called the deer tick, you could kill all the deer in the world and still have them. White footed deermice are a huge carrier of the tick. Right now the thinking is 24 hours or more that a tick is embedded your chances go up for a tick disease.

Hope this helps some.

Tick Removal
 

A couple weeks ago I found a wood tick embedded in my upper arm. Following the CDC guideline on how to remove them, I went on the attack armed with tweezers. Unfortunately, the body broke off from the head and I could not remove the head. CDC instructions say if that happens to leave it there - it would heal over and eventually be absorbed. It has healed over well, but I still have a rather hard lump on the spot where it dug in.

Two nights ago while checking my cat, I found one lodged in her neck. I grabbed it between my fingers, held it tightly with my fingernails and pulled. Ah success! This time the whole beast came out in one piece. Tweezers didn't do it for me.

You are a bigger person . . .
 

than I. I would have a hole in my arm. Be well.

The problem, as I understand it, is you are likely to squeeze the tick's body by doing this and this pushes the bacteria and parasites from the tick into your or your pet's body. This is exactly why they recommend why you don't grab and squeeze the tick's body, from my understanding.

This is one reason everyone has a hard time pulling ticks out. This photo was taken by a co worker after he had pulled an embedded tick out and popped it under the microscope.

This is exactly right.

They are bad down here in NC this year. I have pulled out at least 3 and found another few crawling on me.

My removal: Swab with rubbing alcohol (they seem to hate it) and then with tweezers, I clamp down their head right at the skin. I pull gently as to not rip them apart. And swab the heck out of it again with alcohol just for a peace of mind thing.

From WebMD:
What to avoid

Do not try to:
Smother a tick that is stuck to your skin with petroleum jelly, nail polish, gasoline, or rubbing alcohol.Burn the tick while it is stuck to your skin.

Smothering or burning a tick could make it release fluid—which could be infected—into your body and increase your chance of infection.