Ticks. The invisible threat
connected by one chain. N.M. Zhirmunskaya
In this case, we mean not a real iron chain, but the so-called food chain. Although this chain is invisible, its iron grip inexorably guides many biological processes and allows you to maintain the balance in nature.
Equilibrium is the main law of nature. But we just violate it when we plant gardens and vegetable gardens and forget that with all our technical and chemical achievements, we cannot escape from nature, which means that, whether you like it or not, you must comply with its laws.
Consider one of the food chains that exists in our garden. It consists of the following links:
The first is plants that serve as food for herbivorous insects (phytophages);
The third is entomophages, which feed on phytophages and themselves serve as food for birds, amphibians, etc.
In this chain, phytophages are in the most advantageous position, the very ones that, in our view, are united by one name - pests.
Their food is always available in abundance. Since the amount of food is unlimited, they could also reproduce indefinitely, but this does not always happen, since, in addition to food, the ability to reproduce depends on many other conditions, including climatic, space, and also on the presence of natural enemies. But since these conditions are constantly changing, the number of phytophagous pests varies from season to season. We see this in our garden. One year we breathe a sigh of relief: no aphids, no weevils. Another year, if in autumn and winter favorable conditions develop for laying eggs and overwintering these and other small creatures like them, then in spring we see with horror our fruit trees and berry bushes covered with hordes of pests.
Entomophages are not in the best position either. True, our joys turn into grief for them, and vice versa. When there are few pests, they have nothing to feed their young, and then their numbers are greatly reduced. When there are a lot of pests, they are created for them excellent conditions for breeding and their population is increasing.
At first glance, everything looks quite safe: the mass reproduction of pests is accompanied by the mass reproduction of entomophages. The second eat the first and bring their number to an acceptable level.
Everything would be so if it were not for a certain delay in the reproduction of entomophages in comparison with the reproduction of pests. It is late / exactly at the time it takes for the larvae and adult insects to develop from the laid eggs, and this is usually 2-3 weeks.
In early spring, in April, we can observe the first stage of confrontation between predators and their prey. As soon as the sun begins to warm, the first predators wake up - spiders and bedbugs.
Spider and prey
Spiders and Spiderlings different sizes live both in the ground and on the branches of shrubs. They prey mainly on adult insects that have not yet left the stage of winter dormancy.
In April, predatory anthocoris bugs awaken, which move to apple trees and begin to suck out the contents of wintering eggs of red and brown fruit mites, aphids, suckers and leafworms.
Both adult bugs and their larvae are equally voracious. In the spring, they eat the eggs of the pests mentioned above.
An adult bug can destroy a thousand individuals of a red apple mite in one day. At the same time, without harming either plants, or humans, or the same predators as himself.
During the day, the larvae of the predatory bug anthocoris destroy up to 300 eggs or up to 250 larvae of the currant gall midge, and in an hour - 50 - 60 spider mites.
When adults emerge from eggs in summer, they also eat adults. Bed bugs do not miss aphids, or suckers, or leafworms, but fruit mites and especially their eggs remain their favorite food.
At first, there is not much of it and it does not have a strong damaging effect on the shoots, but aphids have an unlimited ability to reproduce. Over the summer, they give 11-13 generations and, if nothing interferes, their number grows like an avalanche. Aphids breed especially intensively in the second half of summer after June 24, when the composition of plant sap changes (the content of carbohydrates increases in it, and this stimulates the feeding and reproduction of aphids). And they would multiply indefinitely if not for their many natural enemies.
Several species of predatory spiders and 21 species feed on aphids. predatory insects, including ladybugs, lacewings, predatory bugs, syrphid flies, predatory gall midges. The faster the aphids reproduce, the more active the predators that feed on them.
Syrphid flies lay their eggs directly in the colony of aphids, and the larvae of flies that degenerate from eggs eat aphids from late May to August.
In June-August, aphids are eaten by the larvae of the silver fly. By the joint efforts of predators of different species, the number of aphids in the second half of summer, as a rule, decreases to an acceptable level.
As a result, a trichogram comes out of the egg instead of the codling moth. They learned to breed Trichogramma artificially, and if it is released in the garden early in spring, then damage to apples by codling moths can be significantly reduced.
Others lay their eggs in the body of caterpillars or larvae. So do most ichneumonid riders, tahini flies.
Then she lays an egg on the caterpillar, closes up the entrance to the mink with a pebble and flies away with a calm soul. After hatching from the egg, the larva will find a sufficient supply of food.
Ground beetles are active predators, everything that lives on the surface and shallow under the soil surface becomes their prey. Several hundred species of ground beetles have been found in central Russia, but only five species are the most common and numerous.
Ground beetles are rather large beetles with rigid elytra, which, depending on the species, have a color from blue-black to copper-red. Ground beetles have such properties that make them very effective entomophages - gluttony, aggressiveness, high fertility, abundance and long life expectancy.
Their victims are eggs, larvae and adults of a wide variety of insect species, but it is very important for us that the ground beetle eats the larvae of the Colorado potato beetle, which even birds refuse because of their disgusting taste.
The Colorado potato beetle produces two generations during the summer. Larvae of the most harmful first generation at the beginning of summer are not very accessible to ground beetles, as they sit high on potato bushes, and ground beetles run mainly on the ground. But after heavy rain, wind or hilling, many larvae fall to the ground and become victims of a predator. Ground beetles destroy from 30 to 70% of the larvae of the first generation.
The second generation of Colorado potato beetle larvae develops in the second half of summer, when potato tops grows and falls to the ground. At the same time, the period of the greatest activity of ground beetles begins. One ground beetle can eat an average of 26 Colorado beetle larvae per day.
In total, ground beetles eat from 60 to 100% of the eggs and larvae of the second generation of the Colorado potato beetle.
Accordingly, the number of the beetle that leaves for the winter and attacks the potato fields in the spring of the next year decreases.
In the fight against Colorado potato beetle ground beetles are helped by ladybugs, lacewings and predatory bugs.
In addition, it turned out that this bug can be bred in artificial conditions and released into potato fields at the right time. But best of all, he proved himself on eggplant.
Slugs and flies are the favorite food of lizards.
It is not so difficult to choose a place on the garden plot, the lizards will be comfortable eating. It should not be sunny, but not without sunlight, the site is wet. A few stones, an old stump will help the lizard brought from the forest to take root with you.
The toad has neither sharp teeth nor wings to chase insects like a bat.
And yet, she is one of the gardener's best friends. The toad hunts only at night. And this is the favorite time of slugs.
Over the summer, 100 worms on one square meter of soil make kilometers of passages, making it loose, water and breathable.
On land where there are a lot of worms, and this is determined by holes in the soil surface, you can grow everything without fertilizing.
Predatory entomophagous insects make a great contribution to curbing the reproduction of harmful insects. The value of this contribution varies greatly depending on certain conditions. Among these conditions, not the last place is occupied by the availability of food, just something that the gardener has the opportunity to influence in a certain way and thereby contribute to an increase in the number of entomophages. Here we again for the umpteenth time mention hedges.
In hedges there is always a large number of various insects: both harmful and beneficial. There they are in balance. The latter eat the former and thus do not allow them to multiply uncontrollably, but at the same time they never completely destroy them, thus maintaining their food and, accordingly, their numbers at a sufficiently high level.
If mass reproduction of pests suddenly begins in the garden, the entomophages will be ready to move to cultivated plants and help the gardener cope with this disaster. In this case, the sequence of events that is typical for a garden without hedges is violated:
Without top dressing, they live 2-3 days, and with top dressing, 9-15. This significantly increases the time during which the riders infect the pest caterpillars.
It is known that beneficial insects prefer small flowers of plants from the family Umbelliferae, Compositae and Cruciferae. V the best option through successive sowings, a permanent conveyor of nectar-bearing plants should be organized, supplying entomophages with food from spring to autumn.
anise flowers
Predatory wasps and flies are attracted by flat open flowers of daisies, chamomile, as well as mint, savory.
daisies
Savory garden Argonaut
It is important to provide predatory hoverflies with early flowering plants.
Hoverflies, or Flower Flies (Syrphids)
When in the spring they wake up from hibernation, they need food at the same time. If they do not find the necessary food at this time, their larvae, active aphid eaters, will appear too late, only in August.
In addition to feeding, beneficial insects require sun-protected, shady, moist habitats and plants suitable for oviposition.
Spiders and ground beetles prefer to live and lay their eggs in tall grass under hedge bushes, from where they make hunting raids on garden beds at night.
Ground beetles overwinter in the soil. Scientists have found that their number can be increased by 1.5 times if they create favorable conditions for overwintering, loosening and preparing the ridges for planting potatoes in the fall.
For oviposition, lacewings choose thickets of ferns and evergreen shrubs. In the garden, it is desirable to keep a certain amount of wild flowering plants, for example, tansy, chamomile, yarrow, on which the ladybug likes to lay eggs.
Tansy
Daisies
yarrow
Another technique is hanging bundles of straw or reeds in places sheltered from the rain. This convenient places for
laying eggs of many beneficial insects.
For catchers of aphids and codling moths - earwigs on apple trees are hung upside down small flower pots stuffed with dry grass and all sorts of rubbish.
Earwig
There the earwig hides during the day. because it leads a nocturnal lifestyle. She also lays her eggs there.
Consider another type of beneficial insects - pollinators. hedges with flowering bushes is one way to attract them.
Another way is to create living quarters for wild bees. For this purpose, an old log with large quantity holes drilled in it. It is strengthened in a vertical position and covered with a cap on top to protect it from rain.
After all of the above, it is hardly worth convincing gardeners to abandon the use of pesticides. Pesticides destroy the living chain and create all the conditions for the uncontrolled reproduction of pests.
First of all, useful insects die - predators that live openly and do not hide, like pests in various secluded places: under the bark or lumps of soil. By using pesticides, you are captured by them, as you destroy your allies and are left with the problem of protecting your garden one on one.
The tick (lat. Acari) is one of the most ancient inhabitants of our planet. Contrary to the erroneous opinion, ticks are not insects, but are representatives of the arachnid order.
Description of ticks. What does a tick look like?
In size, these representatives of arthropods rarely reach 3 mm; in general, the size of mites ranges from 0.1 to 0.5 mm. As befits arachnids, ticks lack wings. Adult ticks have 4 pairs of legs, while pre-pubescent specimens have three pairs of legs. Having no eyes, ticks navigate in space with the help of a well-developed sensory apparatus, thanks to which they can smell the victim 10 meters away. According to the structure of the body, all types of ticks can be divided into leathery, with a fused head and chest, and hard (armored), in which the head is movably attached to the body. The supply of oxygen also depends on the structure of the body: the former breathe through the skin or trachea, while the armored ones have special spiracles.
What do ticks eat?
According to the way of feeding, ticks are divided into:
Blood-sucking predatory mites wait for the prey, settling in ambush on blades of grass, twigs and sticks. With the help of paws, equipped with claws and suction cups, they attach to it, after which they move to the place of nutrition (groin, neck or head, armpits). Moreover, the victim of a tick can be not only a person, but also other herbivorous mites or thrips.
A tick bite can be very dangerous, as ticks are carriers of diseases, including encephalitis. Ticks can go without food for up to 3 years, but at the slightest opportunity they show miracles of gluttony and can increase in weight up to 120 times.
Types of ticks. Classification of ticks.
Ticks have more than 40,000 species, which scientists have divided into 2 main superorders:
Description of the main types of ticks:
. It is absolutely harmless to birds, animals and humans, as it is a complete "vegetarian" and feeds on plant juices, settling from the bottom of the leaf and sucking the juices out of it. It is a carrier of gray rot that is detrimental to plants.
It feeds on its relatives, therefore, sometimes it is specially settled by a person in greenhouses and greenhouses to combat spider mites.
Barn (flour, bread) mite. For a person, in principle, it is safe, but for stocks of grain or flour it is a serious pest: products are clogged with waste products of the flour mite, which leads to its decay and mold formation.
lives in the southern part of Russia, in Kazakhstan, Transcaucasia, the mountains of Central Asia, in the south of Western Siberia. It mainly settles in forest-steppes or forests. Dangerous for animals and humans, can be a carrier of encephalitis, plague, brucellosis, fever.
harmless to humans, but dangerous to dogs. Lives everywhere. It is especially active in coastal areas and on the Black Sea coast.
Where do ticks live?
Ticks live in every climate zone and on all continents. Due to the fact that ticks prefer wet places, they choose forest ravines, undergrowth, thickets along the banks of streams, flooded meadows, overgrown paths, animal hair, dark warehouses with agricultural products, etc. as their habitat. Separate types adapted to life in the seas and reservoirs with fresh water. Some mites live in houses and apartments, for example, house mites, dust mites, flour mites.
Spread of ticks.
How long does a tick live?
The lifespan of a tick depends on the species. For example, ticks house dust or dust mites live 65-80 days. Other types such as taiga tick live up to 4 years. Without food, ticks can live from 1 month to 3 years.
Reproduction of ticks. Stages (cycle) of development of ticks.
Most mites are oviparous, although there are some viviparous species. Like all arachnids, ticks have a clear division into females and males. The most interesting life cycle is traced in blood-sucking species. The following stages of tick development are distinguished:
- Larva
- Nymph
- adult
Tick eggs.
In late spring or early summer, the female tick, having saturated with blood, makes a clutch of 2.5-3 thousand eggs. What do tick eggs look like? The egg is a rather large cell in relation to the size of the female, consisting of the cytoplasm and nucleus, and covered with a two-layer membrane, which is painted in various colors. Tick eggs can be completely different shape- from round or oval, to flattened and elongated.
What do tick eggs look like?
In the fight against ticks, ground beetles and ants can be used, which willingly eat them.
One of biological methods The natural protection of plants in the garden involves the use of beneficial insects as natural enemies of harmful organisms, their study and assistance in settling in the garden and life in it.
ladybug
A well-known beneficial insect in the garden. In total, we have about 70 species of large ladybirds, among which about 50 species feed on leaf aphids, and the rest on shell aphids and spider mites. Ladybugs, along with other leaf aphid killers, are essential garden helpers. It is especially important that both the larvae and the beetles themselves belong to the species of predatory insects and feed on aphids. The seven-spotted ladybug known to us destroys up to 150 aphids per day, smaller species - up to 60. Even as larvae, insects devour a total of up to 800 aphids. So, the female beetle destroys about 4 thousand adult aphids in her life.
Gallica
Various species of the gall midge family are better known to amateur gardeners as harmful insects (the larvae of a number of species develop in plant tissues, causing the formation of galls), but among them there are also useful ones that help in the fight against the pest. The body length of gall midges varies from 1 to 5 mm. Known pests in the garden include, for example, pear gall midge.
Useful gall midges feed at the stage of aphid larvae. The most important view is Aphidoletes aphidimyza. The female (about 2–3 mm in size) lays 50–60 eggs in one life span, equal to the 1st week, not far from the aphid colony. Orange-red larvae hatch on the 4-7th day. The latter bite the aphids by the legs and inject a paralyzing fluid. The bitten aphid dies and is used by the larva for food. After 2 weeks, a fully formed larva falls to the ground and turns into a cocoon on the ground. After 3 weeks, a second brood hatches, whose cocooned larvae overwinter on the ground and hatch in the spring as adults.
ground beetle larvae
They feed on eggs of vegetable flies, small insects and their larvae, worms, slugs. These beetles are rarely seen in the garden during the day, they hide in shelters. The length of the ground beetle is up to 4 cm, it is very mobile. Many species cannot fly, which is why ground beetles are active at night. The color of the ground beetle is the most varied: large black and completely yellow shimmering species are known. Along with ground beetles, which live mainly on the ground, there are also arboreal and flying species. They feed on small insects and worms, and therefore live in decaying organic matter, such as compost.
Pesticides are the most terrible enemy of ground beetles!
Hoverflies
They are of great importance in horticulture, as their larvae feed on aphids. The larvae develop in different conditions- in soil, slurry or on plants. Visually, the hoverfly looks like a wasp, length adult- 8-15 mm. The peculiarity of hoverflies, reflected in their name, is that in flight they can, as it were, hover in place, while making a sound that vaguely resembles the murmur of water.
To hunt for aphids, hoverflies use their hook-shaped jaws, with which they firmly hold prey, sucking it out. The development of the larva to the pupal stage lasts 2 weeks. During this time, the larva eats up to 700 aphids. Hoverfly larvae are active mainly at night and do not go hunting until dusk. The hoverflies themselves feed on flower and honeydew, as well as aphid secretions.
lacewing
As well as ladybugs is an enemy of aphids. In our gardens, the most common species is green with yellow eyes. The beetle got its name precisely for these eyes. The larvae feed on small insects, especially aphids. Individual individuals are capable of destroying up to 500 aphids during development. After 18 days, the larvae hide in a protected place, wrap themselves around and turn into a white round cocoon. After the lacewing emerges from the cocoon, the next generation begins.
In total, two generations can appear in a year. Adults feed, as a rule, on honeydew and pollen, on occasion they do not disdain small insects. The adult lacewing hibernates in secluded corners, so sometimes it can be found in residential areas. During the wintering period, the insect may acquire a yellow or brown color, but in the spring it turns green again.
The use of lacewing for targeted biological plant protection in greenhouses and protected ground has been tested with good results. For this, it is necessary for each square meter surface, place 20 lacewing eggs, which can be purchased at special biological laboratories.
Riders
earwig
Belongs to the order Leatherwing, well known to gardeners and gardeners. The earwig hunts mainly at dusk and at night, and during the day it hides in dark narrow crevices.
By exterminating harmful insects, such as dahlia woodlice, earwigs can damage delicate young dahlia plants.
Well, as a bonus, I dare say that ticks do not live in places where anthills are present! Ants are the real orderlies of the forest, they eat small ticks, not even letting them grow. Therefore, if you, walking through the forest, see huge anthills, you should know that ticks should not be here!
About ticks
The wasp lays several tens of very small eggs in the body of female ticks, from which its larvae develop. The latter feed on the internal contents of their mite host, leaving only covers from it. It was found that riders infect mainly females and less often nymphs. Each individual tick develops 30–50 adult wasp insects. So, in the Khabarovsk Territory, the natural infection of ticks by the rider is about 15 percent.
In the fight against ticks, ground beetles and ants can be used, which willingly eat them. Ticks in the mass die from various pathogenic fungi.
All these living organisms play the role of biological regulators of the natural abundance of disease carriers in natural foci. Insects, like other living organisms, can be affected by diseases. The causative agents of such diseases are various microorganisms: bacteria, fungi, viruses.
In our country, preparations are made that destroy many harmful insects, for example, entobacteria, dendrobacillin to combat caterpillars of harmful butterflies, etc. The advantage of bacterial preparations is their relative harmlessness to humans, warm-blooded animals, beneficial insects and plants.
Beneficial microorganisms are also used against fungal plant diseases. So, to combat American gooseberry powdery mildew, an infusion of cow dung or rotten hay is successfully used. It develops bacteria that destroy the mycelium (mycelium) powdery mildew. Of particular interest are studies aimed at studying the possibility of using antibiotics (phytobacteriomycin, trichothecin) in the practice of plant protection to combat bacterial and fungal diseases fruit, berry and other plants, as well as bacterial preparations for the control of mouse-like rodents.
Bloodthirsty and patient, they constantly watch over man and animals. They can wait for their prey for years. Evolution has made them first-class hunters. They are always hungry and ready to attack. Their prehensile paws won't let go of anyone who gets too close. These are ticks.
With the onset of warm spring days, we want to go to the forest to nature, sit on the grass, sunbathe, clean garden plot from last year's grass and dry garbage.
Green grass, sun, all this is conducive to peace of mind. But we must not forget that we are constantly under the gun of these little arachnids. Peers of dinosaurs.
470 thousand people bitten by ticks turned to medical facilities for help. according to official data, until August 2017. How many haven't applied yet? Summer isn't over yet!
Ticks have no natural enemies and can adapt to any environment.
ixodid ticks
These mites (family Ixodidae) belong to the phylum Arthropoda, a class of arachnids. They do not belong to insects. Distinctive feature is the presence of four pairs of legs, not three. So. This family of arthropods includes more than 650 species distributed throughout the world.
V different regions inhabit different types ticks. Different ticks carry different diseases. In everyday life, the concept is often used "pasture mite". This is the name of ticks that live mainly in the wild, not only in pastures, but also in flood meadows, forest edges, clearings, river banks, roadsides and other places where you can become a victim of a tick bite.
It is worth noting that although such a definition is accepted, it does not exist in the official classification of a huge class of arachnids, this is an exclusively popular name that has been assigned to ticks of the Ixodes family.
Lack of sight and hearing does not prevent ticks from sensing potential prey. 
The tick gropes for a puncture site with special processes - palps Types of ticks
Most cases of bites in Russia are associated with two types of ticks of the genus Ixodes: canine(Ixodes ricinus) and taiga(Ixodes persulcatus) ticks.
These species, along with some ticks of the genus Dermacentor (for example, D. silvarum), are the main carriers of tick-borne encephalitis, tick-borne borreliosis (Lyme disease) and several other diseases. In the common people there is a frightening name "encephalitic", i.e. ticks that carry encephalitis.
The male dog tick may never feed. However, they also crawl onto their "masters" since mating most often takes place on their bodies. There is a higher probability of meeting a blood-drinking female.
This tick is dangerous to humans in that it is able to transmit the tick-borne encephalitis virus during a bite, which is often observed in conditions middle lane continent from Baltic Sea to Kamchatka, as well as anaplasmosis, babesiosis, borreliosis and other severe diseases.
A dog's ear covered in mites. 
The blood-drinking female dog tick (on the left) grows to the size of a bean and outwardly resembles a castor bean seed, for which the tick received its specific name "ricinus" - castor bean. A satiated taiga tick looks exactly the same. taiga tick
If earlier the taiga tick lived only in dense forest thickets, now it can be found on pastures near settlements and in park areas. It turns out that almost every person is at risk, so precautions are necessary.
In dachas, you need to mow the grass not only inside the site, but also around it, so you will deprive the tick of its habitat. Going into the forest, wear trousers made of dense fabric, narrowed to the bottom, boots, a jacket or a windbreaker with ties and a hood. Every 10-15 minutes you need to examine yourself.
As an example, you can take competitions in a forested, inaccessible area, where the likelihood of being bitten by a tick increases. Therefore, you need to know how to protect yourself from a tick bite in addition to vaccination.
Habitat ixodid ticks- almost whole Earth, therefore, you need to know what a tick looks like, since a meeting with it is quite real, both in the city and in the taiga.
Females are usually somewhat larger than males. The length of the female is 3-4 mm in a hungry state (increases to 10 mm in a pumped female, the color of which changes to light gray). The back of the female can be greatly stretched, allowing her to absorb blood in quantities exceeding her weight by more than a hundred times.
Males up to 2.5 mm. In males, the dorsal hard shield covers the entire body, in females a third. In all Ixodes, only females feed on blood. They need it for the successful completion of fertilization. Males eat only plant foods. 
As befits arachnids, ticks lack wings. Adult ticks have 4 pairs of legs, while pre-pubescent specimens have three pairs of legs. Having no eyes, ticks navigate in space with the help of a well-developed sensory apparatus, thanks to which they can smell the victim 10 meters away.
According to the structure of the body, all types of ticks can be divided into leathery, with a fused head and chest, and hard (armored), in which the head is movably attached to the body. The supply of oxygen also depends on the structure of the body: the former breathe through the skin or trachea, while the armored ones have special spiracles.
Reproduction and development
Female ixodid ticks lay up to 17 thousand eggs in the ground, but due to the complex development process, only a few “survive” to the adult stage. The larvae hatched from the eggs feed once, usually on small mammals (rodents, insectivores, mustelids).
A well-fed larva falls to the ground and after a while turns into nymph. The nymph, after feeding and molting, turns into an "adult" stage - into imago. Sexually mature females of ixodid ticks feed once and mainly on cattle.
Hatching from an egg, a forest mite goes through three stages of development:
larva (0.5 mm);
nymph (1.5 mm);
an adult (about 3 mm - male, 4 mm - female).
Ticks prefer moist, moderately shaded places: the bottom of ravines, dense grass on the edges of forests, undergrowth, thickets along the banks of streams, flooded meadows, overgrown paths, animal hair, dark warehouses with agricultural products, and the like. Ticks hibernate in dry bedding.
In the Eastern regions of the European part of Russia, both types of ticks are found.I. persulcatus, whose distribution covers the territory from the Baltic to the Far East. Where do ticks bite?
Many believe that ticks can fall on a person or animal from trees. In fact, this is not so, because these insects almost never rise to a height of more than half a meter. However, getting on the body of the victim, the tick becomes active and deftly climbs up, reaching the most “delicious” areas in its opinion.
The tick is attached to the human body with the help of a hypostome. This unpaired outgrowth performs the functions of a sensory organ, attachment and bloodsucking. The most likely place for a tick to stick to a person from the bottom up:
- groin area.
- belly and waist.
- chest, armpits, neck.
- ear area.
How long does a tick live?
The lifespan of a tick depends on the species. For example, house dust mites or dust mites live 65-80 days. Other species, such as the taiga tick, live up to 4 years. Without food, ticks can live from 1 month to 3 liters.
Period of tick activity?
In general, ixodid ticks become active as soon as the temperature reaches +6 ° C and above, so tick infections are characterized by a clear seasonality.
The period of activity of ticks for months looks like a double sine wave - from April there is a rise, a peak at the end of May, then a decline and a new rise already in September. Spring is the time when tick larvae and nymphs emerge from the litter to feed, as well as the breeding season for adults, which is why the end of spring and the beginning of summer are the most dangerous times.
The autumn peak falls on the period of the release of larvae from eggs, which just happens after 10 weeks. Taking into account the time for the development and laying of eggs, the second peak occurs at the end of summer - the beginning of autumn.
Who eats ticks
Ticks are eaten by birds, lizards, toads, dragonflies, ants, spiders, and ground beetles. The main enemies of ticks are ground beetles and ants.
How to protect yourself from a tick
- When going to nature, wear clothes that fit snugly to the body. Outerwear should have as few folds and places as possible through which ticks can crawl onto the naked body. Trouser legs need to be tucked into the tops, or better, pulled over them.
- The color of outerwear is better to choose neutral pastel colors.
- You can not sit or lie down on the grass, ticks cling to clothes and always crawl up;
- Use substances that repel ticks (repellants), which can be purchased at any pharmacy or supermarket. If there were none at hand, you can use a concentrated solution of confectionery vanillin.
- Every 10-15 minutes, conduct self- and mutual examinations for the presence of ticks, inspect clothes, paying attention to the seams, the collar, where ticks can hide.
- Examine pets after walks in nature, on adjoining territory. For these purposes, it is convenient to use a hair dryer.
- When you get home, take a shower using a washcloth.
- In case of a tick bite, seek medical help at a clinic or emergency room.
- Be sure to hand over the removed tick for analysis to the laboratory.
- Follow the annual tick-borne encephalitis vaccination schedule. In this case, the symptoms of the disease may be most smoothed out or absent altogether. It must be remembered that you need to use only the vaccine that is assigned to a certain region of residence or location.
The detection of a sucked tick on a human body is, of course, the very first and most important sign of a bite. The tick usually bites in places with delicate skin, with a developed capillary system. It is possible to suck mites of two age stages - imago (adult form) and / or nymph (one of the forms of the larva). Visually, they are distinguished by the number of limbs:
imago - four pairs of legs;
nymph - three pairs of legs.
Tick removal methods
A sucked tick is tied with a thread, closer to the proboscis, and carefully, pulling its ends in opposite directions and up, pull it out. You can use tweezers, grabbing the tick at the surface of the skin and pulling vertically with uniform movements. There are also special tools to remove ticks. The procedure is carried out in special protective gloves.
Removing a tick with a thread.
Removing the tick with tweezers. 
Removing a tick with a special ticker. (Similar to a nail puller). 
Removing a tick with a special device with a loop at the end. A kind of plier remover. The use of ointments, oils, creams, hot soaks, nail polish and other similar products is not recommended, as it is believed that such methods increase the salivation of the tick, increasing the risk of infection.
But the tick must be pulled out as quickly as possible, so most of the population uses what is at hand - various creams, petroleum jelly, birch tar. I also somehow used petroleum jelly and tar to remove the tick, which can be said - it helps. Without access to oxygen, the tick begins to climb out. With the help of a thread, tweezers or other improvised means, you gently help him to come out.
If the head of the tick remains in the wound, you need to seek help from a surgeon or wait for it to come out spontaneously.
The removed tick is stored in the refrigerator, placed with a piece of damp cotton wool in a glass bottle with a tight lid. For microscopic examination, a live tick is delivered to the laboratory no later than two days from the moment of the bite. If this is not possible, then it is best to simply burn the tick.
Symptoms and signs of a tick bite
- The temperature rises to 37-38 degrees.
- Redness of the bite site.
- Drowsiness and weakness, itching, chills, aching joints.
- Photophobia.
- Quincke's edema (swelling of the eyelids, lips and other parts of the body), swollen lymph nodes.
- Headache, nausea and vomiting, difficulty breathing, hallucinations may also be present.
Tick-borne encephalitis
Tick-borne encephalitis (spring-summer tick-borne meningoencephalitis) is a natural focal viral infection characterized by fever, intoxication and damage to the gray matter of the brain (encephalitis) or the membranes of the brain and spinal cord (meningitis and meningoencephalitis). The disease can lead to persistent neurological and psychiatric complications and even death of the patient.
According to statistics, six ticks out of a hundred are carriers of the virus (at the same time, from 2 to 6% of bitten people can get sick from an infected individual).
Often this disease is disguised as a cold or a common malaise. Also, often the symptoms of encephalitis begin to appear only 30 days after infection. These include the following conditions: - weakness in the neck, as well as in the arms and legs; - an increase in body temperature. Often the fever cannot be brought down within a few days. - the appearance and intensification of headaches, nausea, vomiting, dizziness; - development of photophobia, the appearance of hallucinations, stunning consciousness; - numbness of the limbs, weakness and pain in the muscles, the occurrence of convulsions, epileptic seizures and even paralysis.
Symptoms of tick-borne borreliosis
Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease in the Northern Hemisphere. The bacteria are transmitted to humans by the bite of infected Ixodes ticks belonging to several species of the genus Ixodes.
Early manifestations of the disease may include
- Headache.
- Fatigue and a characteristic skin rash called erythema migrans (lat. erythema migrans).
- In some cases, in the presence of a genetic predisposition, the tissues of the joints, the heart, as well as nervous system, eyes.
In most cases, symptoms are treated with antibiotics. The outcome of the disease largely depends on the timeliness and correctness of the diagnosis and early treatment of the infection. Untimely and inadequate therapy can lead to the development of "late stage", or chronic Lyme disease, which is difficult to treat and can result in disability or even death of the sick person.
As a rule, in the first 20 days after infection, there are no symptoms of the disease. But after that, some signs may appear: - The bite mark changes color and increases in size. - Appearance of nausea and vomiting. The occurrence of fever and pain in the joints. - The appearance on the body of characteristic spots, rashes, knots. - Violation of cardiac activity, the development of muscle weakness and convulsions. - After a few months after infection, disturbances in the functioning of the nervous system may begin.
Tick Remedy
If you are afraid of ticks, do not go into the forest. Unfortunately it's true. Everyone at least once in their life met with this small, ugly arachnid creature. Even those of us who do not suffer from acarophobia and are not afraid of small insects are frankly afraid of ticks. The fact is that some representatives of this species of arthropods can be carriers of diseases dangerous to humans. Where ticks live and what threat they can pose to people, we will try to find out in this article.
Habitats of ticks, distribution area of different species
Ticks are small arachnid creatures that reach a length of no more than 0.5 cm. They live on almost all continents and in different climatic zones. They belong to the class Arachnida, subclass - Arthropods, numbering more than 50 thousand species that differ in lifestyle and diet. Most ticks prefer moist forests, grassy glades and shrubs. But there are those that live in residential areas with people. These are the so-called saprophytes, or dust mites, which live in house dust and feed on dead cells of the epidermis. Some species live under human skin and in hair follicles.
Endemic territories of the Russian Federation in terms of the spread of tick-borne encephalitisIt's important to know! Scientists have developed vaccines against viral encephalitis, but there are still no vaccines against such dangerous diseases as borreliosis and Crimean hemorrhagic fever.
Habitats of ixodid ticks, periods of their activity
- well-heated slopes, densely overgrown with grass and low shrubs;
- forest edges and adjacent glades;
- fern-covered places in the shade of trees;
- banks of rivers, lakes and streams.
Ticks do not rise to a height of more than 1–1.5 m, despite the popular belief that they fall on their victims from trees. The main danger is low shrubs and dense herbage.
Ticks love wet places, for example, near forest streams, where animals often visit. The maximum activity of ticks occurs in April-May, that is, during mating and egg laying. By mid-July, it decreases and then resumes again in the period from August to September, but with less force. In the cold season, individuals that can harm a person are practically not found.
Ticks living in nature
From the way of life of ticks and their biological features depends on what they eat.
ixodid ticks
There are many types of ixodid ticks. They are common in both tropical rainforests and desert areas. They feed on the blood of vertebrates: mammals, reptiles and birds.
For humans in our latitudes, the most dangerous are two types: the European forest and taiga ticks. The first is widespread in Europe (except for its northernmost part), North Africa and the European part of the Russian Federation. lives in the middle and southern zones of the taiga.
These two species are the main distributors of such dangerous diseases as viral tick-borne encephalitis, borreliosis (Lyme disease), hemorrhagic fever. It is most likely to get Lyme disease due to tick bites in the Moscow region, Moscow, Krasnodar Territory. In the Rostov and Volgograd regions, in the Caucasus region of Russia, there is a risk of contracting hemorrhagic fever. The situation with the spread of viral encephalitis is no better. These are the Northwestern District of the Russian Federation, Karelia, the Volga region, many regions of the Central District, the entire Far East. In the easternmost part of the country, Vladivostok occupies a leading position.
It has been established that this species of arthropods is dangerous at almost all stages of its development. Nymphs and larvae already after their birth are looking for a host. The larva waits for its prey on the ground. As a rule, these are small rodents. The nymph prefers larger animals.
Life cycle ticks: larva, nymph, male and female (from left to right) Demodex, or iron
Scientists have not exactly established how this subcutaneous mite spreads among people. There is an opinion that with close contact, the general use of personal hygiene products and cosmetics, the disease passes from a sick person to a healthy one. It is worth noting that outwardly the carrier of demodex can be absolutely healthy.
There are two types of demodex, one of which settles in the hair follicles, and the other in the sebaceous glands. scabies mite
It is also called scabies itch. It is the cause of such an unpleasant disease as scabies. It spreads from a sick person to a healthy person after close physical contact (handshakes, skin-to-skin touches, intimacy). Animals do not get human scabies, but they can carry it.
Similarly, the female scabies mite makes moves in the subcutaneous tissues of the body and lays eggs. House ticks
dust mites
The ideal conditions for their living and active reproduction are darkness and warm weather. wet air(relative humidity over 70% at 23-25°C). The favorite habitats of dust mites are carpets, rugs, upholstered furniture and toys. Especially many representatives of the species are in the vacuum cleaner, namely in the dust bag.
Dust mites are completely invisible to human eyes, but are found in almost every home. Video: dust mites habitat and ways to deal with them
bed mite
It lives in pillows, duvets, mattresses - for a comfortable stay, such a tick needs fluff and feathers, so it is important to clean bedding at least once every few years.
House ticks can be dangerous to humans, as they often provoke allergic reactions and asthma attacks.
The good old tradition of drying down and feather pillows has proven to be very effective in the fight against bed mites Ticks safe for humans
Many types of ticks are dangerous only for animals, plants and other types of ticks. These include the following types.
