Spring, is here! Everybody is itching to get outside and get some fresh air after a long winter of being contained inside and battling jack frost. The trade off with warmer weather is the re-emergence of ticks, insects and other pests which could put a damper on a great time outdoors. This week I’m going to talk about tick removal and a step you can take to have a virtually painless removal of these blood-sucking parasites which you can use on animals, kids and even yourself!

The morning of July 19th 2015 started off like any other morning, I got up, went to work, came home and did my ritual evening walk with Tom and Draco (my Jack Russell terrier) where we discuss our day and allow our fur baby to let off some excess energy. We counted on family bonding and staying out till the sun went down, even watching it on our front porch with stress free wonder. What we didn’t count on was the pest that followed us home that evening. While snuggling on the couch that evening playing with his soft ears, I felt a bump. Upon closer inspection, I noticed what I suspected from the moment I started moving his hair to find, a tick had struck on to him. Now if anyone has been blessed with sharing their home with a Jack Russell Terrier you’ll know they do not stay still long enough to take a set of tweezers and simply pull the offending pest out. That’s when I turned to Pinterest frantically for tips on how to get your dog to stay still long enough to pull it out or alternative options and found this very useful tip I’d love to share with you.

My Jack Russell Terrier: Draco Sirius (yes I’m a Harry Potter fanatic!)

How many of you have Vaseline (also known as white petroleum jelly) laying around your house? Well, so did I at the time. The tip suggested I take a dollop of Vaseline and cover the entire body of the tick and wait 10-15 minutes. After having unsuccessfully tried to hold Draco down with the tweezers several times, I was desperate. I waited for him to settle down and did just as Pinterest had recommended of me, once he calmed down and settled next to me on the couch and dipped my finger in Vaseline and rubbed it over the tick’s entire body and what happened next truly amazed me-the tick began backing out of Draco’s skin on its own until Tom was able to remove it with the tweezers from him (getting the entire body out, head and all!) and burn it over our kitchen sink.

So that prompted me to begin my next web search, why does Vaseline work so well? As it turns out the Vaseline which soaks into your skin within 10-15 minutes acts as a suffocating agent for ticks and the tick-realizing this-tries to back out of you, your child or your pet’s skin to avoid being killed. While this trick will assist you in removing pests, please get it tested if you think it could be a tick which could potentially carry Lyme’s Disease (such as Deer ticks) and don’t forget to dispose of the tick by burning it or flushing it down the toilet to ensure it is killed and prevent it from harming anything else.

Feel free to leave your comments, thoughts or experiences trying this method in the comments below, I love hearing from you!

Love you. Mean it.

Brittany

xo