Do ticks survive water?

You can go to a swimming pool, take a shower, or sit in a bathtub and any tick on your body is going to survive just fine. Ticks cannot swim at all. Their little bodies and tiny legs are not built for swimming. Still though, being submerged under water is not a problem for them at all. It has been rumored that deer ticks can survive being submerged underwater for up to two to three days. That is a long time to spend sitting in the hottub.

Still though, even if water was effective at killing ticks, you don’t want to kill the tick. If a tick has embedded itself into your body, you don’t want to kill it. Killing the tick increases the risk of diseases being transmitted from the tick into your body. Using either tweezers or special tick removal tools, grab the tick as close to your skin as possible and then pull it out. Once the tick has been removed, you might have an urge to send it out of your life forever by flushing it down the toilet. Avoid and ignore this urge.

Go and grab a plastic sandwich bag and set the tick inside. If you want to kill it, you can through in a cotton ball soaked in rubbing alcohol. However you kill it, just make certain you keep the tick. If you develop a fever, headache, rash, nausea, or a stiff neck you will want to pay a visit to your doctor. If you can bring the tick that bit you into the medical professionals, it will aid them with a diagnosis.