Hello little dude

By Anonymous - 19/05/2012 22:54 - United States

Today, I was about to get in the shower, when I felt an odd itch in my navel. I saw what I thought was bellybutton lint, so I pulled on it, and quickly realized what I had between my fingers was a still-squirming, headless tick. FML
I agree, your life sucks 32 564
You deserved it 2 861

Same thing different taste

Top comments

I hope you realize....... The head's still in there somewhere, and it will re-grow its body eventually.

Comments

Yea really that's a whole new level of disgusting.

Girlybanana 2

For some reason that scene from the matrix, when they take that thing out of the guy through his naval, came to mind.

mbusey 20

I agree, that is absolutely disgusting. I'm checking my belly button for tics now

Truly and utterly disgusting.... I'd have screamed... and I would've had panic attacks everytime I had an itch in my nose after that...

CallMeMcFeelii 13

It's really not that disgusting. To bad you didn't get the head out though. That's gonna be rough to get out now.

That is ******* disgusting-- the exact words that came out my mouth.

Well I will be odd one out. I hate ticks as much as anyone but living in the country I have come to just realize daily body checks are a necessary thing. With the mild winter we had even people that don't normally have to check themselves should make it a habit at least every other day. They are already out in droves this year and have been since march were I live.

^BOO, GET OFF THE STAGE! *Throws popcorn.

Tali147 16

When I visit my friends in the souther United States, we must to check for ticks everyday. So, it's not pleasant, but not the most disgusting thing in the world.

Haha this made me check my belly button, I love cottage life!

71, you do know that the naval is the belly button, not the nose?

Naval actually has to do with the Navy.

starman02 12

SO HAPPY I've never had to deal with tic's! Sorry OP! Eeep!

MerrikBarbarian 9

92- same here. Have you done the pant less run to the house because you stepped on a tick nest and have like 50 crawling up your pants and just prayed no one pulled into the driveway yet? I know I did. oh joys of country living! :p

I went camping once and woke up with one attached to my neck. Needless to say, I wasn't very calm.

113 - I'm sorry I meant the naval. I had actually just sneezed and I made a mistake. I'm sorry!!

True 124. I was amazed that I seemed to be the only person that did not find it disgusting, but rather just one of things that can easily happen in summer. I have heard of people having ticks in much worse places.

MerrikBarbarian 9

I'd be one of them 159. Nothing like feeling a tick in your underwear while in church. Stupid sucker bit me before I could slip off to the bathroom to remove it. God that hurt too

desireev 17

Thank goodness! I was hoping that I wasn't the only dang person on this site that has to do daily tick checks to me and my son! Well chiggers too! Gotta love Oklahoma!!! :)

Tali147 16

181 - It is so weird that you are from McAlester! I was just there last weekend!

kittykat1501 31

121 it's ticks, not tic's. I usually don't care, but seriously?

I was eating....and so that means the tick's head is still in your belly button? Excuse me. *throws up*

sylvienoir 18

Naval is belly button, not nose.

What else would op do kindly ask it to leave?

Tick killer? ... Is that the best you could come up with? Yes, I'm pretty sure you could just kindly ask it to detach itself and leave. +_+

2, actually that doesn't kill the tick. Its head stays latched onto your skin, sucking your blood. Get some Vaseline in there and suffocate the sucker!

Well it's practically the transcontinental highway of the human body

Ticks go for warm places. Belly buttons are exactly the kind of spot a tick would go. I'm going to go throw up now.

I woke up with one on my neck once. Let's just say I was less than calm.

I hope you realize....... The head's still in there somewhere, and it will re-grow its body eventually.

haycassidy 7

Hopefully OP realises this before he has to pull a whole family out of there.

21 - Or before he gets lyme disease...

Wrong. If you pull the head off a tick, it is dead and therefore cannot "grow its body back". The only problem with leaving the head in is that it can result in a nasty infection.

If a ticks body is pulled off, and nothing but the head remains, then the tick is dead and therefor cannot heal or regenerate any part of it's body. Hard ticks (if still alive, of course) are able to regenerate sensory organs and limbs. It's necessary for the head of a tick to be removed from the hosts body (particularly if the host is a person), because it's very possible to cause Lime Disease, or other numerous diseases. -thank you google-

51 - Since you seem to be so inclined to tell me I'm wrong while offering no resources explaining why, I'll state my point yet again. I'm just going to copy what I wrote to you earlier: "37 - Speaking from personal experience working at an animal shelter for three years, they do indeed regrow their bodies. Although, I have yet to see a tick on a HUMAN and while it's possible there could be many varieties of ticks, you failed to mention so as you contradicted my statement."

57 - thank you for the explanation. I'm assuming that ticks are able to regrow if a little more than a head is detached, for example if the body was torn on an angle. Maybe it only looked like "just the head" from what I saw.

rseilicki 0

If you remove it's head it's dead and will not regrow. If a limb is ripped off its still alive and will grow back

Roflsauruz, I am not going to write a full-blown bibliography and references for some teenage girl on the internet who believes myths. These are comments on an FML and not a debate forum. Do keep that in mind. A quick google on your part will reveal the same answers that ShyAnn29 and I have given you. I have noticed that not one page I found supported your false opinion. Working at an animal shelter does not give you some sort of ultimate opinion on the subject. It's quite probably the "regrowing ticks" you may have seen are actually different ticks. Unless you sat there for a few weeks straight and watched them regrow, you don't have a lot of evidence. I'd believe you if you studied ticks in a biology lab, but you don't. Moreover, I have seen ticks on a human. More specifically, myself. The heads and mouthpieces were embedded in my skin for a good month after they were removed, and not one of them "grew back".

starman02 12

That's crazy #87! I don't live where tics are around but my fam always told me they "regrow" if you don't pull the whole thing out of your skin.. Good to know they infact do not grow back :) learn something new everyday.. Even on FML! :)

While I don't mind and usually find amusing Roflsauruz's comments, she went a bit overboard with the whole cite sources thing, but... Way to ******* go #87!!!!

OP, you'd better get your ass over to the doctor or pharmacy. Leaving the head of a tick in your skin can cause some terrible infections and sicknesses, like Lyme Disease. And NO, ticks can NOT grow their bodies back. I don't even know why anyone would think that.. It's a really odd assumption. When a tick's head is left in, it can cause some really nasty infections, but it won't do anything supernatural or amazing like grow its whole frickin body back. Learn your stuff people.

Recent studies have shown that leaving the head in or squeezing the body when removing ticks doesn't actually increase the chances of getting Lyme's disease (although the head might indeed cause other infections if left in). They adjusted the educational material here in the netherlands so that it says "just remove the tick as fast as possible, even when you don't have a tick remover". (in case anyone worries about my sources - I used to study veterinary medicine, this was brought up in a lecture about external parasites)

thiscrazything 1
Laura1804 2

Me to it gave me Lyme disease

I thank God I've never had a tick in my life so far.

Tic Tock On The Clock (Or In Your Belly Button)

CaramelMacchiato 13

Ke$ha could not prepare OP for THIS.

I bet Ke$ha has worse things than tics on her body.

CaramelMacchiato 13

*shudders* Ke$ha is like a drunk version of Taylor Swift.

koolkat27 13

22- a *better* version of taylor swift

If by "better" you mean "uglier, less talented, horrible voiced, drunken puddle of a woman" then yes, she's better.

22- At least Taylor Swift still sings with meaning and her real voice. All Ke$ha does is sing about partying and getting drunk, gets auto tuned like hell, and wears nothing but sparkles.

Just thinking about it makes me grimace. That's some seriously twisted shit right there. Quick question, did you look in deeper? Maybe the tick laid some eggs?

Ticks don't lay eggs. They burry their head into your skin and suck your blood. If you pull them out, most of the time their bodies will come off and the heads will regrow it. Yeah.

Umm I'm pretty sure ticks can lay eggs...

Maybe they do lay eggs actually, but what I meant was, that's not all that the OP should be worried about. :/

Yeeeaaah, pretty sure I just saw my own mistake and corrected it...? :/. You can only post every 120 seconds.

True. I suppose now is a bad time to clarify that my comment was a reference to a previous FML. The one where the OP's dog shit out spider eggs.

Wrong. Ticks cannot regrow their bodies. Decapitation from the head means that the tick is dead. Ticks lay eggs, but they are not laid on the body. They usually drop off the body when fat enough to lay eggs, and the miniscule baby ticks will attempt to find a new host by waiting on plants, shrubs, trees anything. Their new host is generally a human or animal wading through thick vegetation. PROTIP: Don't do this!

37 - Speaking from personal experience working at an animal shelter for three years, they do indeed regrow their bodies. Although, I have yet to see a tick on a HUMAN and while it's possible there could be many varieties of ticks, you failed to mention so as you contradicted my statement.

Everyone arguing saying they grow eggs or no they don't grow eggs... There is a thing called google that will tell you what you need to know. Don't assume you are right when you don't know your facts. First, there are 2 kinds of ticks, Ixodidae & Argasidae Ixodidae ticks's life cycle takes at least 1 year to complete & up to 1,000 eggs are laud in the ground by a female adult. After feeding, they detach from their host and molt to nymphs on the ground, which then feed on larger hosts and molt to adults. Female adults attach to larger hosts, feed, and lay eggs, while males feed very little and occupy larger hosts primarily for mating. Argasid ticks, unlike ixodid ticks, may go through several nymphal stages, requiring a meal of blood each time.[17] Their lifecycle ranges from months to years. The adult female argasid tick can lay anywhere from a few hundred to over a thousand eggs over the course of her lifetime. Larvae feed very quickly and detach to molt to nymphs.

Roflsauruz, Working at an animal shelter does not give you some sort of ultimate opinion on the subject. It's quite probably the "regrowing ticks" you may have seen are actually different ticks. Unless you sat there for a few weeks straight and watched them regrow, you don't have a lot of evidence. I'd believe you if you studied ticks in a biology lab, but you don't. Moreover, I have seen ticks on a human. More specifically, myself. The heads and mouthpieces were embedded in my skin for a good month after they were removed, and not one of them "grew back".

Find your self a Parasitologist at your local University and have a long discussion about Ticks-various species. Said conversation with parasitologist talking and you listening.

MerrikBarbarian 9

Also on the fun and CORRECT facts about ticks... Unlike most bugs which will die if you freeze them, ticks simply hibernate. You have to freeze a tick for a year abouts before it dies... Not from freezing but starvation from being in hibernation too long. Ah the joys of having friends who study them. You learn way more then you ever want to about them! But yes, they do lay eggs and if you are unlucky enough to step in a nest of hatched ticks you will find dozens of ticks crawling up your pants... Like a solid wall. I usually throw my pants off in the field and pray I don't hit another nest while pant less... Or a neighbor drops over. :p

The head is still attached to your body? Well, time to douse yourself in gasoline and light a match.

agm77 9

Oh dear god. That is absolutely terrifying.

Wow, that would really tick me off. ...What ? Someone was gonna say it.

LO388 7

Yeah, I was gonna if you didn't.

LO388 7

Although I wouldn't have felt very good about it.