Tick bite? Remember, tweezers are squeezers

Queensland Scenic Rim region resident Kirsty Hayward, of Kooralbyn, said she found a tick on her neck while gardening.

"I felt something crawling on my neck and it had obviously just started to dig in so I pulled it out straight away," she said.

"It just left a little lump and I didn't think anything of it but about 10 hours later the swelling started and during the night I could feel the pressure on the back of my throat.

"I'm lying in bed thinking 'oh my God it's getting hard to swallow or breathe'."

Ms Hayward said she had some medication in the house to reduce swelling until the local doctor's surgery opened the next day.

"They put me on a steroid tablet to ensure the airway stayed open," she said.

"It had just hooked in when I pulled it off but it took me two goes to pull it out. I know I should have gone inside and used the proper tools rather than pulling it out with my fingers."

Kooralbyn real estate agent Melissa Weir also collected a tick while she was gardening on October 4.

"I had a hat on and I reckon when I was brush cutting it's dropped on me and burrowed in at my hairline," she said.

"I was in the kitchen a couple of hours later and felt it there. I took it out with some tweezers like I usually do because I've had hundreds of them but I did notice that with this one, as soon as I pulled it out hurt and instantly began to swell."

Ms Weir said the swelling at first was only the size of a 10 cent piece.

"Then it got bigger and travelled all the way down my face over the next week," she said.

"When it got to my eye that was the worst because my hearing, my eyesight and the pressure on my temple was really painful.

"It happened on Monday, a public holiday. I went back to work on Tuesday and we were laughing about it, Wednesday I went to the doctor and by Thursday it was really bad.

"On Friday I got really sick, I was driving my car and I suddenly got vertigo, I felt dizzy, disorientated and my speech was not great."

Ms Weir said she returned to the doctor, who prescribed antibiotics.

"He said it was a paralysis tick because on the second or third day my face drooped," she said.

Kooralbyn resident Janis Nicklas also ended up on antibiotics for a tick bite.

"I was petting my dogs before heading into Beaudesert for shopping," she said.

"When I got in the car and grabbed the steering wheel I felt something hard on the palm of my hand and realised it was a tick," she said.

"I screamed for my husband to come and help me. Looked for the tick remover, which I do have but couldn't find so I ran and got some tweezers."

Ms Nicklas said when her husband removed the tick she heard a popping sound.

"There was excruciating pain all through my hand and up to my elbow," she said.

"I called the doctor and he said to ice it, but that didn't make it any better so I went to the surgery and they checked it had all been removed.

"I had antihistamines which helped with the itching but eight days later the doctor said I had a delayed reaction, which has caused infection."

Beaudesert GP Dr Michael Rice said it was important to remove ticks as soon as possible - but not with tweezers.

"There's this old saying 'tweezers are squeezers' and if you squeeze a tick, more of its venom goes into your body, which may play a role in things like tick allergies," he said.

"If we see ticks at the surgery, we have access to liquid nitrogen so we can freeze them and pull them out with a pair of fine forceps."

Dr Rice said some people used things like wart solutions as well as car engine products Start Ya Bastard and Aerostart to freeze ticks before removing them.

"The trouble with these things is they are ether sprays and if they are not precisely applied they can cause more trouble than they're worth," he said.

"The wart killers are probably the most precise but even there I've seen people with significant blisters from DIY tick freezing."

Dr Rice said tick removal devices available at chemists and vets were a good way to safely remove a tick.

The Australasian Society of Clinical Immunology and Allergy (ASCIA) says ticks are arachnids (spiders).

Some people who experience a tick allergy also develop a condition called Mammalian meat allergy and need to avoid eating any type of meat as well as any food or medication containing gelatin.

ASCIA recommends wearing light coloured clothing, a wide-brimmed hat and using a DEET-based insect repellent to reduce the risk of tick bites.

Freezing an embedded tick, either at home or at a medical clinic and allowing it to drop off on its own is the best response.