Why is there a tick indoors and how long can it survive here?
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 of our 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.
How can I get rid of any ticks in the house?
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 pair of tweezers while wearing protective gloves and put it in a sealed bag or container.
Then do one of these things:
- Crush the tick while it’s in the bag or container, or wrap the bag or container with tape and dispose of the tick in the outside bin.
- Store the tick for 30 days in the event that anyone in the household has been bitten and starts to develop symptoms – the tick could then be tested for evidence of harmful bacteria or parasites to help determine what the illness is.
- If the tick has bitten a family member or pet, you can send it to Public Health England’s Tick Surveillance scheme to help with their work.
Should I check people and pets for ticks?
If you’ve found a tick in your home, it’s really important to check your pets and your family members for signs of ticks to be safe.
Ticks can be tiny before they feed – as small as a sesame seed – and they tend to be found in areas where they are hard to spot. On pets that’s around the ears and between the toes, whereas on children it’s often around the hairline. Ticks could also be around your feet and legs or even hand or waist if you’ve walked through grass or vegetation. Once a tick starts feeding on blood, it can grow up to 200 times from sesame seed size to the size of a coffee bean – making them far easier to spot.
If I find a tick, how should I remove it from people and pets?
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.
Find the right product for your pet
From advanced flea and tick treatments to household sprays, our products are developed by experts to help keep your pet and home protected.
How can I stay protected in future?
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, usually monthly. FRONTLINE PLUS® and FRONTLINE® SPOT ON kill ticks within 48 hours, helping to prevent more serious issues, such as illness and disease. FRONTLINE TRI-ACT® for dogs kills new ticks within 6 hours and also repels them, which helps to prevent them from biting your dog in the first place. 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.
We can also protect ourselves by covering up with long sleeves, trousers and socks during walks and checking over 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 go out there and have fun!
