I've been mountain biking for around 13 years and I have never knowingly had a tick or ever worried about it. The other day I managed to pick one up in Leigh Woods in Bristol and today I found two of the little buggers on me.

Is there anything I can do to keep them off me? Just use some kind of repellent? Any recommendations? Also, how do I get them out? I've read that you need a special tool and you shouldn't use your fingers (which is what I've done up until now!).

Give it some heat with a lighter then pick it out once it's loosened its grip. I guess the ones you don't notice must just drop out eventually once they've had their fill…

I read that burning them was bad too…

I think removing them with your fingers can work fine if you have reasonably long fingernails. You just have to make sure you don't squash it, and you remove it all, don't leave the head still attached.

Otherwise, it may be easier to use a proper tool. Pet shops usually sell them.
I use one of these, it works fine, and small enough to easily carry: http://www.tickinfo.com/protickremedy.htm

Buy a tick remover. Nice pictures 😕
http://www.bada-uk.org/defence/removal/removaltool.php

Deet repells then (or calendula oil for the eco warriers).

You need as tick remover as they need to be properly removed (i.e. not tweezers!).

See BADA for the proper info and to buy removers/repellants

Grasp as low as you can with fine forceps. Don't squeeze the body or burn it or cover it with stuff. Pull it straight out no twisting.

Pulled the first of the year out the front of my knee yesterday. Yuk!

I doubt i'll get lyme disease.

+1 for the otom tick remover, i pull em out of my dog maybe once a day (long grass in the woods behind our house) and the tool makes it easy and with no worries about squishing its guts into the dog. they dont cost much and can be bought from any good vet, i wouldn't try the lighter trick or the vaseline or the tweezers etc etc there is nowt more satisfying than the right tool for the job!!!

When I lived down in the SW I'd regularly find them. My tip would be to check for them in the shower, they're the flecks of mud that don't come off. Just pull them out with tweezers.

vaseline etc gets em off, but only after they puke a bellyful of Lyme bugs into you – not so sure about burning

hooks are good as you don't get squeezing/trauma to the tick (so no vomming)

good reason to wear lycra undershorts though – they like "warm" bits best 😳

tick removal with tweezers

yeah number two today was dangerously close to my manhood. These things are tiny though, nothing like the size of those in the pics. Do the removal tools work on real tiny ones?

The tools work great with even the little ones. By far the best way

If you do not get em quick Lymes desease is not nice 😥

Hence I feel like SHITE and I am on anti biotics as we speak with blood test to look forward to do 😥

I will be using our citroenella soap in future when out on my bike

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT USE ANYTHING OTHER THAN TWEEZERS OR BETTER STILL A REMOVAL TOOL – YES I'M SHOUTING!

Lymes disease is a nasty debilating potentially lifelong illness. A study by the University of Bath found 10% of ticks in the area carry it. Removal them quickly and properly and you stand a much better chance of avoiding it.

http://www.lymediseaseaction.org.uk/ticks.htm

phototim, the life cycle has at least 2 feeding stages, one of which is larvae (and they are very little). I think they're incapable of spreading Lyme at this phase.
some life-cycle guff

I'll stick with my Shepherd Grandfather's method of hot match to the back of their head and tweezers.

Tick removal tools are supposed to work very well though.

Tools are good but if you don't have one handy you are better using fine tweezers than waiting to get a tool.

i hold cotton wool in my mouth then get in a hot bath and slowly submerge and the ticks all run up out of the water onto the cotton wool then i set fire to the cotton wool

trust me

lol Jedi.

Leigh woods? Bollocks.

Does skin so soft put the little buggers off?

Yeah I went to the mendips a few weeks ago and sat in the long grass for an hour, didn't get bitten at all. Then I had a 2 hour ride in leigh woods and got two of them. All this reading of lyme disease is giving me the heebie geebies.

Interesting that someone said don't twist them. We use tick twister on the dog and always "unscrew" them. As an extension of this, has anyone given any thoughts to the risk of TBE when riding in the Alps?

As far as I can tell you twist them with the tool but pull them straight out if using tweezers.

the 2nd best way is to stab them with a big screwdriver and douse them in beer!

simples

twisty tool, no pulling required. never ever left anything behind with the tool, its awesome.

I've been riding for about the same length of time and got my first one a couple of weekends ago on the SDW. I just pi led it out as it didn't have any an exploded body at that point so presumed the head wasn't to buried. Yank.

We used to use aseline on the dogs… Covering the ticks. That way they suffocated an came detached. Worked every time

o'tom tick twister from the vet's for a couple of quid for a small one and a large one for the monster ticks, job done.

Grab the bugger by the head, twist anti clockwise, ping it at a mate – job done. Twisting clockwise is a bad idea. Never left anything behind using this method.

This removes ticks of all sizes even the smallest easily.
http://www.misotrading.co.uk/
dont use chemicals on ticks, vaseline included.
They are easily removed without harming them, preventing them spewing disease into you, providing they are removed correctly.

The one that come off the dog we keen in a jar just in case he gets ill afterwards. Don't know if it would help diagnosis but I think it's something I read somewhere suggesting that you should.

Really good article about the whole tick / lymes disease thing at UKClimbing here

Apparently burning, covering in vaseline, drowning and squeezing can all make them spew there infectious crap into you. Trouble is, the one on my leg came apart in my big fuggly fingers leaving what I assume was the head. I did manage to get this out with the next yank. I spose if in the unlikely event are start feeling ill I better go see the doc!

Jedi, do I use a phillips, posi drive, flat head or left handed screw driver for the stabbing?!

if in doubt, use a blunt chisel

Who'd have thought ticks had threaded jaws.

I thought that was odd, but it seems to work. What's even more amazing is that they all have them with a right handed thread!

++ for ivnickkate and the tick removal tools.
Bought one of these from the local vets, really quick, really easy, really cheap.

I've removed several tucks from our cats by gently running circles with my finger on the back end of the tick. Don't press hard at all or you'll squeeze guts into the wound, but after a few minutes of doing this they either get dizzy or they release for a better grip and just fall off without leaving anything behind.

Of course a tool is better, but in it's absence, I've found the above works.

Onzadog you have to watch for the italian ones though or you'll tighten them in further or even cross thread them. Do that and you knackered but a helicoil might fix them.

Heh, I've never, ever knowingly had a tick on me. Neither has our dog. I wonder if they're like gnats/mozzies and only like certain people.