Many of these old fashioned techniques were not bad ones in the days before tick borne diseases, especially Lyme Disease. But the problem you need to be concerned with now is not the tick, it is the microorganism living within it. Anything you apply to a tick that is nasty enough to make it back out of your skin can also make it regurgitate its stomach contents into you bloodstream. That is why you also have to be careful when physically removing it. If you squeeze it’s body while pulling it out you are essentially treating it like a hypodermic needle, injecting yourself with whatever is inside it. These are the reasons for the current recommendations for removal, which is grasping it where it enters your skin with tweezers, long fingernails, or one of the tools designed for the purpose.