A couple of weeks ago my son, my nephew and I went on a hiking trip. The trip was about 6 - 8 miles, maybe more and took about 8 hours. During this time we stopped next at a stream and the 2 boys went swimming. While my son and my nephew were swimming, Hunter (my nephew) saw a tick attached to his chest. I got him out of the water, broke out the first aid kit and was able to remove the tick with a special pair of tweezers. These tweezers are in my first aid kit just for tick removal - they have a fine point on the end. How many people here are do activities outdoors where they might become exposed to ticks. Have you ever had a tick attach to you and most important do you know how to safely remove a tick?
Ok, I'm gonna answer your question. I'm a country guy , and I know about ticks. The most important thing is, if you pull that tick off with your tweezers, make darn sure the head comes out with it, otherwise you are wasting your time, the heads have a tendency to break off at the neck when pulled off and it doesn't harm the tick at all as it just grows a new body as it keeps on sucking blood. The first thing you can do is touch the tick with a hot (blown out) match or the heated end of a bic lighter and hope the tick backs out. Failing that, coat the area with any kind of thick oil (mineral oil, 30 wt. motor oil, etc) this will smother the tick, cut off its air supply, and it will either die or back out where you can pick it off.
I heard that lighting a match, blowing it out, then touching the hot end of the match to the back of the bug will cause it to de-burrow itself and you are good.