They say you don't need to worry about the ticks you find on your skin; you need to worry about the ones you don't find...
1. Try to avoid ticks latching (wear clothes/boots treated with Permethrin, wear repellant on your ankles and any exposed skin, tuck your pants or long-johns into your socks, don't brush against plants, do a thorough tick check when you get home, etc.)
2. Know what kind of ticks are a threat in your area. e.g.:
3. Take a thread (if the tick is very small, you may need to unravel it to get something thin enough), tie it in a knot around tick, as close to the skin as possible (you may need to have someone hold the tick perpendicular to the skin with their finger or with a drinking straw), and then gently pull until it comes off. (I've also heard that you can tape the ends of the thread to a pencil and then twist the pencil until the twists reach the tick and it lets go).
4. Learn about ticks more generally, and what you should do, given the type of tick and amount of time it was latched:
