Tick Twister Tick Removal Tool Review

How to remove ticks? This is the best tick removal method I have found. Some folks say not to twist the tick, and I agree. If you want to remove an embedded tick, completely intact, just use these tools - without twisting.

I have tried alcohol (ineffective), cotton balls with liquid soap to smother the tick (mixed results, mostly negative), hot matches (bad idea - causes the tick to inject more bad stuff into you), tweezers (tends to tear the tick apart), and bare hands (generally mashes the tick and squeezes bad stuff into you). The Tick Twister isn't perfect, but it's the best method I've found.

How to remove a tick? Some folks say that twisting it is a terrible idea - and I have come to agree with them. And despite the name, you can use the Tick Twister to remove ticks without actually twisting it. Just hook the tick and pull it out, as if you were using the handy little tools like crowbars, pulling nails.

This tick removal tool is the only reliable method I've found that removes the entire tick, no matter how deeply embedded it is.

Folks, I seem to be a tick magnet. Many's the tick I've detected hiking across my hide, before it ever gained purchase... but I've also had many that anchored themselves right to me, and dug right in. And I've tried a whole lot of ways to get the suckers off.

And the Tick Twister beats them all.

Alcohol doesn't work. Liquid detergent on a cotton ball? Doesn't work. Hot matches are a terrible idea, makes every bite that much worse and you still have to remove the nasty sucker. Tweezers? They suck. Sources that recommend tweezers tell you not to squeeze the tick or its head... but how the heck are you supposed to grab without squeezing? Duh. Tweezers tend to tear the tick apart and/or squeeze more bad stuff into your hide.

The bottom line is that after a few decades of deer hunting in tick country, the Tick Twister represents a sort of revolution to me. It's just so simple - and it works.

The worst experience I had with this item was with a tiny tick, which I found on the inside of my lower leg. I used the small Tick Twister tool, but I had to re-grab and re-twist the little sucker a few times before I got him out. He was really in there. But, I don't believe I would have had any better experience with any other method, and probably not as good.

I have decided, though, that twisting is not the answer. Use this tool, for sure, to hook the tick and pull it out. But don't twist it!

Bottom line: Tick Twister is the best there is, as far as I know. I will certainly keep a set handy at home and in the woods.

- Russ Chastain