TICKS!

After writing about container gardens on Saturday and how much enjoyment they give me blah blah blah...my son comes upstairs and says "Mom, what is this on my neck? I think it's a tick". Sure enough it's a tick. That insect has got a firm grip on his neck too! I was thoroughly grossed out and freaking out...where oh where did this tick come from? How long has it been sucking my boy's blood? Does this thing have any diseases or parasites? I have no clue how to get this thing off so I call my friend Cindy thinking..."hey Cindy has 3 boys and a couple of dogs she's probably been though this dozens of times". Knock on wood, but Cindy and her hubby have not had that experience (yet) with their children and pets. She called another friend to see if she knew (her husband had worked for the forest service once upon a time) and there was a big no there as well. Meanwhile I'm trying all kinds of things to get this blood sucker off of my child's neck. I went to the internet and looked up "how to remove ticks" and came across this little gem of a site http://www.anapsid.org/lyme/removingticks.html
let me tell you it helped me a great deal! I was able to safely remove the tick and he's in a zip lock bag properly labeled and in the freezer. I took a picture of this but alas...I still have not been able to locate my camera dock. I suppose that I could just use the cable and load pictures from my camera onto the computer but where's the fun in that?