Found a tick in your house?

Ticks are typically found outdoors, in wooded or grassy areas. If you’ve found a tick in your home, it’s probably dropped off a pet or person who’s been walking around a grassy or vegetated area. The good news is it’s unlikely to have been there too long. Most UK-native ticks can’t live indoors. There’s one exception to this – the brown dog tick, Rhipicephalus sanguineus, which can survive and reproduce in our homes. However, thankfully this is uncommon and is only usually found in homes where a dog’s been on a trip overseas.

It’s important we never kill ticks by popping them between our fingers – this can lead to diseases such as Lyme disease being transmitted to us or our pets. The best method is to carefully pick up the tick with a tick remover while wearing protective gloves and put it in a sealed bag or container. You should never use tweezers as it can leave the tick’s mouth parts behind, leading to infection or you can stress the tick which can increase the risk of it spreading disease to your pet.

Carefully. Remove ticks that are attached to the skin using a tick remover tool while wearing protective gloves. Gently twist the tick out to help prevent infection being squeezed into the skin or part of the tick staying in the skin and causing problems.

Never apply alcohol, oil, heat, petroleum jelly or squeeze a tick, as this increases the risk of them passing on any infections they may be carrying.

Those of us who have found a tick once certainly don’t want to find one again. So how can we stay safer? To help keep our furry family members protected, it’s important to use a flea and tick treatment on a regular basis, however, it's important to remember to treat your pet according to its lifestyle. Pets who visit areas where wildlife can roam generally need more regular protection than those who don’t. Left untreated, ticks will typically stay on pets for up to 10 days, feeding on their blood and increasing the chances of more serious illness. FRONTLINE TRI-ACT^® for dogs kills new ticks within 6 hours and repels them, which helps to prevent them from biting your dog in the first place. FRONTPRO^®, FRONTLINE PLUS^® and FRONTLINE^® SPOT ON all kill ticks within 48 hours, helping to prevent more serious issues, such as illness and disease. FRONTPRO^® makes treating your dog even easier by being in the form of a tasty chewable beef- flavoured tablet. 

We can also protect ourselves by covering up with long sleeves, trousers and socks during walks and checking ourselves for signs of ticks when we get home. And if our dogs or cats go in a vegetated area, we need to check them over afterwards too.

Taking these steps will help keep all the family safe after enjoying the great outdoors, so you can focus on having fun!.