Oribatid mites can most often be found on plants and flowers.
The Argas mite looks completely flat
Only female pasture ticks feed on blood, while males prefer plants
The red mite has eyes on stalks
Danger to humans and animals
Tick-borne diseases
Ticks transmit pathogens of certain diseases:
- spotted fever;
- tick-borne encephalitis;
- tularemia;
- babesiosis;
- borreliosis (Lyme disease);
- spirochetosis (relapsing fever).
Tick-borne infections in animals
An animal becomes infected not only from a bite, but also when it accidentally swallows an arthropod. Here is a list of possible diseases:
- bartonellosis;
- hepatozoonosis;
- ehrlichiosis;
- borreliosis;
- piroplasmosis.
What to do after a tick bite
If a tick bites, first aid should be provided immediately
First aid
You need to pull out a live tick, and this should be done carefully so as not to crush it, as it can release infectious agents into the body. It is advisable to use tools purchased at a pharmacy (tick gun, tongs, lasso handle), but thread or tweezers will do. The person removing the tick needs to wear gloves and prepare a container with a lid or a small plastic bag with a zipper. The procedure is carried out as follows:
Pharmacies sell special tools for removing ticks. 
To remove a tick, the thread is tied into a knot as close to the proboscis as possible. 
When removing a tick with tweezers, it is important to grasp it correctly.
It happens that saliva that gets into the wound causes allergic reactions. People with weakened immune systems and children are especially susceptible to them. Signs of allergies:
- weakness, drowsiness, fever;
- aching joints and headache;
- dizziness and nausea;
- itchy rash around the bite and on different areas bodies.
The listed signs appear with a moderate allergic reaction and disappear after taking antihistamines. But a bite can have more serious consequences:
- difficulty breathing and loss of consciousness;
- hallucinations;
- Quincke's edema (swelling of the face, limbs or throat).
If the following symptoms appear after the bite, you should urgently call an ambulance.
Where to go if bitten by a tick
Symptoms of diseases
Signs of diseases resulting from a tick bite can be varied.
Tick-borne encephalitis
A severe viral disease that affects Gray matter brain. Characterized by fever and intoxication, which leads to damage to the central nervous system (central nervous system). Severe encephalitis can cause mental retardation, paralysis and death.
Initial symptoms (appear within 1–2 weeks):
- loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting;
- temperature rise to 39ºC;
- fever;
- headache and muscle pain.
Later, temporary relief occurs, but soon the disease begins to progress.
Tick-borne encephalitis can cause muscle atrophy
Relapsing fever
This is a group of life-threatening infectious diseases accompanied by difficulty in consciousness. A period of normal body temperature alternates with attacks of fever. Initial symptoms appear after 3 days:
- cardiopalmus;
- sudden fever;
- headache and muscle pain;
- nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain;
- rash in the form of cherry-colored papules;
- enlarged liver and spleen.
The duration of symptoms is 3–6 days, after which a two-day remission occurs, and after a few days the second stage is observed, which has similar manifestations. In total, 4–5 such exacerbations occur during the course of the illness. With proper treatment, complete recovery occurs.
Relapsing fever, among other symptoms, is characterized by the appearance of a rash
Lyme disease
A disease that affects the joints, nervous and cardiovascular systems, and skin. Symptoms appear 2 days after the lesion:
- bone and muscle pain;
- fatigue, headache;
- fever;
- a specific rash in the shape of a circle.
If treatment is started in time, the development of pathogens will be suppressed and the patient will quickly recover. Otherwise, a few months after the first signs appear, the nervous system, heart and blood vessels, as well as joints are affected, which leads to disability.
With borreliosis, a circle-shaped rash appears
Babesiosis
A severe infectious disease. Initial symptoms appear a week after the bite:
- fatigue, loss of appetite;
- chills, fever, excessive sweating;
- muscle pain.
A severe form leads to the destruction of blood cells, anemia, jaundice, and enlargement of the liver and spleen. With complications, acute renal failure occurs, affecting the lungs, heart and brain, which leads to death.
Babesiosis affects red blood cells, which is clearly visible in laboratory analysis
Tularemia
Acute focal infection affecting the skin, lungs and mucous membranes. Symptoms begin to appear in the first 2 hours after the bite:
- sudden increase in temperature to 41ºC;
- headache, chills;
- nausea, vomiting;
- hardening of the lymph nodes;
- purulent ulcers at the site of the bite.
Heart rhythm disturbances and enlargement of the liver and spleen are also possible. Treatment is carried out only in a hospital.
With tularemia, the bite site thickens
Spotted fever
It affects blood vessels and causes kidney failure. A stroke may occur. The first manifestations of symptoms occur 2–3 weeks after the bite:
- sudden increase in body temperature;
- nausea, vomiting;
- headache, joint and muscle pain;
- a rash of purple or red spots that begins to spread from the extremities and spreads to the rest of the body.
In the future, pneumonia may develop. If you apply in a timely manner medical care the treatment will be quick.
Spotted fever rash appears first on the extremities
Animal diseases
Ticks carry diseases that are dangerous to animals:
Unfortunately, even with timely treatment, all these diseases lead to damage. internal organs and destruction of the nervous system. If you notice any of the listed signs, you should immediately contact a veterinary clinic.
How to protect yourself from tick bites
To avoid bites, preventive measures should be taken.
In the forest
The following rules must be observed:
There are various drugs that paralyze and subsequently kill the bloodsucker. Clothes, tents and other items are treated with an acaricidal-repellent agent, for example, Medilis Comfort. The bare integument of the body is sprayed with repellents that protect against the bites of blood-sucking insects, for example, DEFI-Taiga. For children under 7 years old, special creams are used: Kamarant, Off, etc.
If you don't have it at hand special drugs for protection against ticks, then suitable folk remedies. This essential oils cloves, lavender, eucalyptus and tea tree, as well as garlic and star balm:
- garlic is taken orally before going outside (going to the forest);
- Star balm is applied to the wrist, neck and ankles, as well as behind the ears;
- Essential oils are diluted with water: for 15 drops you need to take 50 ml of water. The resulting mixture is poured into a bottle and shaken. A little product is placed on the palm, rubbed and applied to the neck, hair and limbs. After a walk, clothes and shoes are sprayed with the remainder of the solution.
To repel ticks, you can use well-known means, for example, Zvezdochka balm
In the apartment
Vaccination is the most effective protection. Unfortunately, if we are talking about humans, then vaccinations are not available against all diseases carried by ticks, but only against tick-borne encephalitis. For this purpose, FSME-Immun and Encepur injections are used. Children are prescribed Encepur for children and FSME-Junior. Vaccinations take place in 3 stages and are carried out in two ways:
- standard;
- accelerated (shorter intervals between vaccinations are made).
Vaccinations against encephalitis using Russian drugs are allowed from the age of three. Some foreign vaccines are suitable for children from one year of age.
Video: vaccination against encephalitis
Vaccination plan against tick-borne encephalitis for adults and children over 12 years of age
Standard vaccination with Encepur is carried out in several doses. The interval between the first and second vaccinations is 1-3 months, between the second and third - 9-12 months.
With the accelerated method, vaccinations are done at intervals of 7 days. 3 years after the last one, revaccination is carried out.
Injections with the drug FSME-Immun are also carried out in several stages. Between the first two vaccinations, 1–3 months should pass, the second and third provide a break of 5–12 months. With accelerated vaccination, only two injections are given at an interval of 2 weeks. Revaccination is carried out after 3 years.
Vaccination plan against tick-borne encephalitis for children under 12 years of age
With standard vaccination with Encepur injection, the interval between the first two vaccinations is 1–3 months, the third is carried out after 1 year. With the accelerated scheme, the break before each subsequent procedure (there are three in total) is seven days. A year later, the first revaccination is given. Subsequent injections - once every 3 years.
The method of vaccinating children with the FSME-Junior injection coincides with the plan for vaccinating adults with the FSME-Immun injection.
Ticks have no eyes, but a well-developed sense of smell. They sense the warmth and smell of an animal or person at a distance of 10 meters, which gives them the ability to quickly find prey. Unfortunately, the best period for forest walks coincides with the time when these arthropods are active. Therefore, in order to avoid troubles, you need to think about preventive measures in advance.
Photo of ixodid tick
Among the many thousands of species, we can name several when the activity of ticks turns into aggression towards humans and animals: ear tick, argas tick, cat tick, gamas tick, etc. A small animal can cause great damage to health, crops, and sometimes is a direct threat to human life , infecting it with relapsing fever, Lyme disease, encephalitis, tularemia, Q fever, etc.
Struggle for existence
To survive in a world of dangers and harsh realities, you need to reproduce your own kind as often as possible. In ticks, this process directly depends on the environment of existence: how comfortable the conditions are there and the presence of sufficient quantity food. Ticks are of different sexes. Animals mate, depending on the species, on a warm-blooded host, others - in external environment. As a rule, a male that has fertilized several females dies. To begin laying eggs, the female ixodid tick must gain strength: feed on blood for a whole week. When full, it lays eggs: at one time their number can range from one to 5 thousand. From the larva to the adult there are several stages. The larva turns into a nymph only after the first stage of molting. At this stage, sexual characteristics are not yet expressed. Only after the last molt does the transformation into an adult occur. How ticks reproduce cannot be clearly determined full cycle evolution from larva to adult.
The “inner world” of ticks
The digestive tract is capable of processing semi-liquid, liquid food. This explains the sucking appearance of the pharynx. Special glands produce saliva, which has an anesthetic effect: a person or animal may not immediately feel the bite. Ticks breathe through lungs and have tracheas (they have the shape of holes on the sides of the body). The circulatory “motor” is a heart with cavities or, in other species, there is no circulatory system at all. Blood feeding for arachnids of both sexes is necessary for reproduction.
How long a tick lives is impossible to answer unequivocally, because... the full period of its development can vary from a year to several years. Blood-sucking animals, having drunk blood, accumulate energy, maintain viability for a long time in unfavorable conditions for themselves, even starve until they find “prey” again.
By the way, adult females, preparing to lay eggs, suck 100 times more blood than their own weight. This explains that the male leaves the bite victim before the “girlfriend”. The waiting period can last up to 10 years. The tick is hardy, so it can live a long time.
Habitat
The places where ticks are found are the most unpredictable. These are desert sands, water, grass litter, plants, calorific animals, humans. Comfortable conditions is created not only by nature (global warming, warm or hot weather, humidity), but also by humans. Cutting down conifers and planting in this area deciduous trees- a fertile environment for reproduction. This is what all the invasions are connected with. more ixodid bloodsuckers. Traces of ticks are found throughout the forest-steppe and forest zones of Russia, in public gardens and city parks.
Argas mite
The main time of a tick's life is waiting. It settles on a branch, in a mattress, folds of linen, etc. Seeing a “target”, it tries to fall and cling to the body with its paws, which react to the heat and smell of the body. This is the answer to the question, do ticks fly? No, they swoop or crawl towards a potential food source. In nature, a tick larva cannot rise higher than 0.3 m above the ground, and an adult bloodsucker overcomes only 1.5 m.
The period of tick activity ranges from May (although the first bites were recorded in April) to the end of June. At this time, the ground temperature is more than +7 degrees, the sun's rays are warm, and there is sufficient humidity. Then there is a slight decline, after which in August-September, in areas where ticks live, there is a surge in bites, especially on animals. Demotion outside temperature air below 5°C is a signal to stop activity, entering a state of stupor.
For your information. IN Lately in connection with global warming these time boundaries have expanded. Today, even in November, cases of tick bites are recorded.
The natural environment and ecology are changing on the planet and by no means better side. Ticks also adapt to external changes. They easily adapt to them, demonstrating an example of survivability and adaptability to survive in the harshest conditions.
Ticks are a large subclass of arthropods, which includes more than 54 thousand species. These are mainly creatures up to 5 millimeters in size with six pairs of appendages and characteristic mouthparts. What are the types of ticks that pose a danger to humans?
Harmful representatives are distinguished by a variety of forms with a relatively small number of species. Ticks cause the greatest harm not through their bites, but through their consequences. The mouthparts of these arthropods carry a large number of dangerous diseases - encephalitis, Lyme disease, plague, typhus, hemorrhagic fever and Q fever. Other species are provocateurs of skin diseases - scabies, demodicosis.
Dermancetoids can be distinguished from other mites by their characteristic coloring with brown stripes on the back.
If you find a large tick that has already drunk blood, it is recommended to carefully remove it and take it for analysis to any sanitary unit. This precaution will help you recognize diseases that may come with a bite in time.
Ixodes
In the literature you can find another name - the armored mite, so named for its strong chitinous coverings.
The arthropod is active in the spring and summer. It is rarely possible to avoid ixodid tick bites, so doctors recommend using special vaccines against encephalitis. You should worry about using it in advance - immunity appears only two weeks after the injection. But such a small precaution can protect you and your loved ones from a fatal disease.
Morphologically, several varieties of ixodid ticks are distinguished. The black mite loves dark, damp places. The characteristic color of its integument, as well as its small size, distinguishes it from other arthropods of this group.
The white ixodid tick has a creamy, whitish abdomen. The closely related gray ixodid tick is best recognized. This is the type of tick that people most often find on themselves.
Argasovy
Gamazovy
In the literature it is found under the name demodex. Demodex is a normal inhabitant of human skin. Problems begin when it multiplies excessively due to a weakened immune system, poor nutrition, or taking antibiotics. Uncontrolled reproduction of mites manifests itself in the form of demodicosis. It's spicy inflammatory process on the integument, accompanied by severe itching, acne, and large areas of redness of the affected skin. Dermatologists treat subcutaneous mites.
Scabies
Ear
It is extremely rare in humans. The main hosts of this arthropod are cats and dogs. In them, this arthropod causes acute inflammation of the middle and outer ear, which without treatment can develop into otitis media or even meningitis.
Bed
Arachnoid
The representative is not harmful to humans and animals. Plants, including cultivated ones, suffer most from it. In plants, mites not only damage the integument and suck out nutritious juices from the roots, but are also carriers of extremely dangerous diseases.
Predatory
It is a very large arachnid arthropod that feeds on ticks. It is common where there is a large amount dust mite. It is absolutely safe and even useful for humans. The predatory mite is a natural controller of populations of other microscopic arthropods.
Barn
Also found as flour or bread mites. Ingested with unprocessed grain or residues cereal crops in the granary, he eats both flour and finished products. The presence of eggs or adults in food can lead to allergic reactions and digestive disorders.
Ixodid ticks. A relatively small, taxonomically isolated group of ticks are obligate bloodsuckers. 680 species of these mites have been described by humans, and the fauna of Russia is represented by 55 species. They are distributors and keepers large quantity pathogens of natural focal diseases and participate in the circulation of bacteria, spirochetes, viruses and rickettsia. In the structure of tick-borne infections, the leading place is occupied by Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis.
Ixodid ticks spend a significant part of life cycle in the external environment. The key event in their life is contact with a potential host-provider. The taiga ( I. persulcatus) and forest ( I. ricinus) ticks. These animals are very small, but by looking at photographs of ticks you can see them magnified many times over.
The taiga tick lives in taiga and mixed forests, but appears in meadows and bushes. It lies in wait for a person in the grass along forest paths for 1-4 weeks. After moving onto the human body, it finds a suitable area and attaches itself. A engorged female lays up to 10 thousand eggs.
Argasid mites
Argas mites are one of the largest, their sizes vary from 3 to 30 mm. They are capable of fasting for up to 11 years, and therefore the development cycle reaches 25 years. Among the names of the species of ticks of this family, the most dangerous ones should be highlighted:
- Caucasian tick (carrier of the causative agent of endemic relapsing fever);
- village tick (transmits the Central Asian form of tick-borne spirochetosis);
- shell or pigeon mite (bites cause a severe allergic reaction, up to anaphylactic shock; it attaches itself to people only during severe hunger).
Adult argasid mites feed repeatedly, laying thousands of eggs over their lifetime, at yearly intervals. It wouldn’t hurt to study the descriptions and photos of tick species in detail. If necessary, this will help to understand whether the arthropod poses a danger or not.
Gamasid mites
The bites of these arthropods cause acute dermatitis in people (especially children), which is sometimes accompanied by fever. Mouse and rat mites are keepers and carriers of the causative agent of vesicular rickettsiosis. The possible participation of these species in the circulation of Ku-rickettsiosis and tick-borne encephalitis is assumed.
Localization of passages is most often found on the dorsum of the hands and interdigital spaces, in the armpits. The person experiences severe itching, which intensifies at night, and scratches the affected areas. The scratches get infected, suppuration and inflammatory processes occur.
Zheleznitsa
Zheleznitsa. Another human mite, the iron mite acne, belongs to the genus Demodex, lives in the skin. It is usually harmless and occurs in almost every person, regardless of skin color, gender and origin. Lives for several weeks, feeds on the contents of the epithelial cells of the walls of the hair follicles, and after death decomposes inside the follicle or sebaceous gland. When severely affected, the disease causes demodicosis. The incidence of ticks increases with age.
Ticks leave behind excrement containing the P1 antigen, which causes allergies in humans. By now in house dust About 150 species of ticks were found. The main source of allergens is considered to be the dominant mites of the Pyroglyphidae family. Of the 13 species living in houses, the most commonly found are D. pteronyssinus and D. farinae.
Most allergens are contained in fecal pellets with sizes of 10-40 microns, which easily rise into the air and settle in the human respiratory tract. During the day, a dust mite produces 10-20 such balls. They can be stored in house dust for up to 4 years.
This is how many types of ticks pose a danger to humans. Some of them cause allergic reactions, others spread infections and reduce immunity. That's why it's so important to know what they look like and where you can meet them.
