how to know if you've contracted it in time to prevent serious long term consequences let's ask dr joe alton who with his advanced nurse practitioner wife amy has authored among other books the survival medicine handbook the essential guide for when medical help is not on the way their website is doom and gloom dot net it has over a thousand posts and podcasts and videos doctor welcome well thanks for having me obviously the best way to avoid lyme disease is not getting a tick bite so wear long pants when hiking in the woods and look real closely all over yourself in your clothes afterwards but doc what to do if you spot a tick on your skin. well first i want to say congratulations because even though having it sick on your skin isn't the best news you could possibly get by being observant you've just reduced your chances of getting lyme disease exponentially now here's how to remove that tick use a fine tip tweezers like what i have here and grab the tick as close as you possibly can to your skin your goal is to get the entire tick including the head and the mouth parts then what you do is