Woman Wakes Up to Tick Embedded in Her Eye After Spending Hours Cleaning Her Yard

Alexis Christine was spending time at her second home in Kansas when a normal day turned into something unexpected.

The 34-year-old told PEOPLE that she and her husband had spent the day clearing their yard, which hadn’t been treated for insects. Ticks, which are common in the Midwest, were a big concern.

“In Kansas, ticks are pretty normal outdoors…wildlife like deer and fox are commonly spotted in our yard, which means more ticks,” Christine explained. “You really can’t avoid them if you plan to spend time in nature, and I’m very outdoorsy!”

After finishing their work, she found and removed nearly 20 seed ticks from her body. She realized too late that she hadn’t used bug spray that day.

“These are the ‘baby’ stage of ticks. They’re about the size of a pinpoint and hard to see, usually smaller than a freckle,” she said. “I made the mistake of not wearing long pants because it was so hot.”

A few days later, Christine woke up and removed her sleep mask, only to feel something strange on her lower left eyelid.

When she looked closer, she discovered a seed tick stuck between her eyelashes, which caused immediate panic.

“I’ve had many ticks over the years growing up in the Midwest, but never near my eye,” Christine shared. “I almost didn’t record it, but I just couldn’t believe a tick made it to my lash line.”

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Removing this tick was more difficult than usual because of the location. During the process, she accidentally pulled out a small chunk of her eyelashes.

“Normally, when we get a tick off with tweezers, it’s still crawling. We grab them as close to the skin as possible and pull them up without squeezing too hard. I always try to make sure I get the head out,” she explained. “With this one, I killed it before I managed to get it out with the tweezers.”

Afterward, she flushed the tick down the toilet and carefully cleaned the skin around her eye.

“In the Midwest, I don’t go to the doctor for tick bites unless I have a reaction,” she said. “It happens so often here that I’d end up at the doctor every few weeks.”

Instead, she watches for warning signs like a bullseye rash, fever, pain, or feeling unwell. If any of those happen, she goes to the doctor right away.

“Every time after we do yard work or go on trail walks, we do at-home ‘tick checks’ where we look over every inch of our bodies,” Christine added.

Because seed ticks are so small, they’re easy to miss until days later when they’ve fed and grown larger.

She and her husband also test for Lyme disease once a year after any tick bites, even if they don’t have symptoms. She last tested negative in early 2025 and plans to test again in 2026.

While she isn’t a doctor, Christine advises people to be very careful when removing ticks. Pulling them out the wrong way can raise the risk of disease.

“It’s been a week and I haven’t found any more,” she said. “But I still feel creepy-crawly sometimes, like something’s in my hair, even though I know it’s just my imagination.”