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by spacehome 3061 days ago
That's terrible advice. The flame will cause the tick to unlatch, but it can also cause it to vomit, giving you any pathogens it's carrying.

The correct way is to take tweezers, side on grasping the top and bottom of the head and pull gently straight up (perpendicularly from the surface of your skin). Be patient. Taking a few minutes to do it right is better than rushing; you have about 24 hours before any significant risk of infection. Make sure you identify the head first and grasp that, as sometimes the head is buried. If you grab the body, you'll just decapitate the tick by pulling.