Ten Myths About Lyme Disease: How to Properly Remove a Tick and When You Really Need a Doctor

After the recent heatwave, Czechia has settled into weather that's practically ideal for ticks — 20 to 25 degrees Celsius, post-rain humidity and lush vegetation, all combining to create near-perfect breeding conditions. According to the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute, tick activity will be very high across most of the country in the coming days, sharply raising the odds of bringing home an uninvited "guest" from a walk, a picnic, or even just a trip to the train station.

According to the State Health Institute (SZÚ), Czechia recorded 5,320 cases of Lyme disease (borreliosis) in the first half of 2026 — 4,000 more than during the same period last year. The institute itself notes, however, that the spike has less to do with an actual surge in infections and more with the switch to a digital case-reporting system. Still, as case numbers climb each year, so does the pile of myths about ticks and Lyme disease that keep resurfacing season after season.

Myth 1: Ticks aren't the only carriers of Lyme disease. Modern medicine recognizes ticks of the genus Ixodes — in Europe, above all the sheep tick (Ixodes ricinus) — as the only proven vector of Lyme disease for humans, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). In June 2025, the journal Parasites & Vectors published a joint study by the Bioptic Laboratory in Pilsen, the Biology Centre of the Czech Academy of Sciences, and the University of South Bohemia, which ruled out mosquito transmission of borreliosis: out of roughly a thousand insects examined, not a single one carried the bacteria.

Myth 2: Ticks prefer "sweet blood." In reality, ticks choose their target based on a combination of signals — carbon dioxide in exhaled breath, body heat, moisture, and chemicals released by the skin. Scientists are also studying whether the composition of a person's skin microbiome might influence their individual scent.

Myth 3: You must pull out the tick's "head" whole. In fact, a tick's head isn't separate from its body, so if something detaches during removal, it's usually just the mouthparts with tiny hooks (the hypostome). This poses no real danger — the body will gradually push it out on its own, much like an ordinary splinter. The bacteria that cause Lyme disease concentrate in the gut and salivary glands of a live tick, so infection risk depends mainly on how long the tick has been attached.

Myth 4: You need to twist the tick out. Ticks don't have threads, so there's no biological logic to twisting. The real danger is squeezing the tick's abdomen: the harder you press, the higher the risk that its contents — including any bacteria — get pushed into the wound. Grip it with tweezers as close to the skin as possible.

Myth 5: Covering a tick in oil will suffocate it. Irritants like oil actually do the opposite — they make the tick regurgitate its stomach contents into the wound, which, if it's infected, only increases the risk of transmission.

Myth 6: Infection can't happen within the first 24 hours. This is one of the most stubborn myths out there. The risk of Lyme transmission does rise the longer a tick stays attached, and a threshold of roughly 24 hours is often cited — but ticks don't come with a built-in timer, and nobody can guarantee infection won't occur sooner. The one solid rule: once you find a tick, remove it immediately.

Myth 7: No red spot means nothing to worry about. The classic bull's-eye rash (erythema migrans) isn't the only possible scenario — the mark can be uneven, barely visible, or absent altogether. That said, a characteristic expanding red patch can, on its own, be enough grounds to start antibiotic treatment even without lab tests — as SZÚ explains, "in clinically obvious cases of Lyme disease, such as erythema migrans, serological testing is not required to begin treatment."

Myth 8: Every tick should be sent to a lab for testing. Testing ticks is valuable for science — it helps track which pathogens are circulating in the Czech tick population, and this work is systematically carried out by SZÚ's National Reference Laboratory. But for an individual person, the result of such a test tells you very little: whether or not the removed tick was carrying bacteria neither confirms nor rules out infection, which is why professional medical bodies advise against basing treatment decisions on this kind of testing.

Eva Richtrová, deputy head of the National Reference Laboratory for Lyme Disease, added two more common misconceptions.

Myth 9: Ticks fly or jump down from trees. Ticks are arachnids, not insects — they can't fly and don't leap from heights. They patiently wait on grass and shrub leaves for a warm-blooded host to pass by.

Myth 10: The best thing to do with a removed tick is crush it. This is strictly off-limits — every tick should be treated as though it's infected. It's best to wear rubber gloves, then wrap the removed tick in a tissue and either burn it on a non-flammable surface or flush it down the toilet.

A tick bite by itself is no reason to panic. But you should see a doctor if a red spot starts spreading around the bite site, if your temperature rises or flu-like symptoms appear with no other obvious cause, if you experience joint or muscle pain or pronounced fatigue, if you notice numbness, facial nerve paralysis or other neurological issues, or if the bite site becomes severely inflamed or starts oozing pus. The good news is that with timely medical attention, the odds of dealing with the aftermath of a tick bite without complications are very high.

Read also: Smoke, coals, and a blanket on the grass: 9 places in Prague where you can legally grill and picnic

Source: flowee.cz