On a note!
Life cycle features
After their birth, the larvae begin to look for their first host. They become wild animals, rodents, birds. They drink blood and disappear after a few days. In well-warmed soil they molt and turn into a nymph. This happens either at the end of summer or autumn. In the first case, the pest looks for the owner again, in the second -.
When are ticks dangerous for people?
The period of tick activity directly depends on the life cycle. They awaken after hibernation at the end of March and April. But pests become especially dangerous a little later. The peak of activity is observed in May and continues in the first or second decade of June. Everything depends on climatic conditions.
On a note!
In July, tick activity decreases, which is facilitated by several factors.
- Arachnids are eaten by birds and animals, reducing their numbers.
- Females who have already exhausted their energy potential die; the younger generation of pests is at the development stage.
- Air temperature rises and humidity decreases.
The tick season ends with the onset of persistent cold weather. When this happens, it is difficult to predict in advance. If the first frosts begin in September, the pests will rush to take cover, will no longer emerge from their shelters until spring, and will not become active. In stable warm weather, ticks disappear at the end of October and disappear completely in November.
On a note!
If you describe tick activity by month, the picture looks like this:
- March-April – low;
- May-mid-June – high;
- July, August – average;
- September-October – low.
The acceptable time of day is day, but if you stay in the wild at night, the likelihood of tick infection increases. The reason is prolonged contact with grass, thickets, and bushes.
Danger to humans
Pests feed on blood and are... This leaves a blister, a red spot, itching, irritation, and an allergic reaction. In the absence of the virus, the effects of activity disappear on their own without special treatment within a week. Once the virus enters the bloodstream, the development of a terrible disease begins; the incubation period lasts from several days to 2 months.
Carry:
- theileriosis;
- hematozoonosis;
- for cats, dogs;
- tick paralysis;
- fever;
Feasibility of vaccination
In Siberia, the issue of protection from dangerous pests is acute. Resist mass disease. People who plan to visit Siberia in the next six months are subject to mandatory vaccination. In this way you can protect yourself from encephalitis. 3 vaccinations are provided with an interval of 1 month. and other cities, public and private clinics.
On a note!
Once a tick appears on a human body, it does not immediately show activity. Absorbed into the skin after approximately 2-3 hours. In a simple way you can protect yourself from a dangerous disease.
Fighting methods
You can scare away with cologne with a strong smell, Tsifoks, Sinuzan, Executioner, Forsyth.
Ticks are not poisoned en masse, as this increases the chances of death of natural enemies - birds, animals, insects. This explains the fact why there are a lot of ticks. Initially, after using chemicals, pests disappear, but along with them, natural enemies. Over time, the population of pests increases, but there are no “exterminators” of them. A situation arises when people say, before there were no ticks, now there are a lot of them.
Pests can become active at the end of March and end their activity in November. Therefore, you should always remember about safety, but you should not be afraid of panic. Not all ticks are contagious; if you consult a specialist in a timely manner, the risk of the disease is reduced or the disease proceeds without complications. You should protect yourself in advance by wearing clothing and getting vaccinated when visiting dangerous areas or areas.
The number of victims of tick bites is growing; 9,810 cases of measles have been registered since the beginning of the year.
Four tourists died in Spain after spa treatments.
Doctors strongly recommend that Ural fans be vaccinated against measles.
A HOLY PLACE IS NEVER EMPTY.
Due to the warming of the global climate and active human intervention in nature, the fauna and flora of forests, meadows, and steppes are changing everywhere. Forests are cut down, deliberately burned and trampled. Floodplain meadows are also trampled and mowed down. The soils of forests, meadows, and fields are becoming compacted everywhere. The planet's atmosphere changes its gas composition. In nature, the natural circulation of moisture, atmospheric gases and natural organic matter is disrupted. The natural biological balance is disrupted
Some plants, insects, and animals that have not adapted to changes in the natural environment reduce their species composition or die out completely. As a result, more aggressive and smaller organisms survive, quickly adapt and reproduce, taking the place of extinct plants, insects, and animals.
These changes are happening before our eyes; we are witnessing a catastrophic change in the natural environment of the planet, a change in the biosphere of the planet for the worse..
In the last ten years, we have seen an increase in the number of ticks everywhere in forests and even meadows.
People were practically defenseless against this threat.
The number of people bitten by ticks and infected patients is increasing everywhere.
Mass media, radio, and television conduct explanatory programs for the population. They urge people to be vigilant and protect themselves from tick and mosquito bites.
Many urban and rural residents are in panic. City dwellers are afraid to go to their dacha or simply go out into the forest again.
Rospotrebnadzor notes an abnormal increase in the incidence of tick-borne encephalitis, a viral infection that affects the central and peripheral nervous system, and tick-borne borreliosis (Lyme disease), which affects the skin, nervous and cardiovascular systems, and the musculoskeletal system.
Where did so many ticks come from in the middle zone?
People began to die from encephalitis in those regions where they had never heard of it before. It is not surprising that panic has arisen, which is intensified, and not unreasonably, by pet owners. “In our Moscow department, we now diagnose 5-7 dogs a day with piroplasmosis, and in the regional department - 40,” says Ilya Vilkovysky, chief physician of a large veterinary clinic. - A real emergency! Last year, even in the region, at least two times fewer complaints about this issue were registered, and in the city they were generally rare. This year, even dogs that only walk near the house are falling ill with piroplasmosis.”
THE RESCUE OF DROWNING PERSONS IS THE WORK OF THE HANDS OF DROWNING PERSONS THEMSELVES.
CHAIRMAN of Rospotrebsoyuz, Onishchenko, speaking on Radio Russia, in a program about the threat of tick-borne encephalitis, suggested that Russians should be more careful and not put ticks on themselves.
Anyone going into a forest, field, or dacha must know:
Ticks watch their victims on the grass and bushes, so if you are going into the forest, you should tuck your trousers into your shoes, your shirt into your trousers, and the cuffs should fit tightly around your wrist. Clothes must be treated with repellents. In nature, you need to periodically examine yourself and your children. You should not bring flowers and branches home from the forest - ticks can also hide in them.
One of the ways to combat ticks is to treat forest areas with special insectoacaricidal agents. “They stay on the forest floor, destroying ticks, for about a month and a half,” explains Natalya Shashina. “It is necessary to treat the territory with preparations annually, and in some areas – several times per season.” However, it is completely unclear who should carry out such processing. “Several years ago, all issues of territorial processing were brought down to the regional level, and funds for this matter are also allocated from regional budgets,” explains Rospotrebnadzor press secretary Lyubov Voropaeva. According to some data, the area of acaricidal treatments in 2011 across the country amounted to 70,680.2 hectares. This is approximately 12 thousand times less than the area of all Russian forests. The administration of the Taldomsky district of the Moscow region reported that the processing of forests should actually be handled by Rosselkhoznadzor. In Rosselkhoznadzoe, press secretary of Rosselkhoznadzor Alexey Alekseenko. Pleased:
“Since monitoring of the number of ticks is not carried out today, the scale of the threat is not fully understood; we currently only treat livestock against ticks during the period of their activity. But that's a completely different story. In addition, there were and still are no standards for the quantity and frequency of forest processing. And it is impossible to spray all forests. For example, a significant part of the forests near Moscow are privately owned. Only the owners can process them.”
So, today there is no unified state system for tick control. It turns out that in such a situation, all anti-tick treatment falls mainly on the shoulders of commercial structures. “This year, the demand for services from summer residents and private entrepreneurs has at least doubled,” says Dmitry Lopatin, an employee of one of the pest control services. - However, before spraying your area, you need to assess the real danger of ticks. Still, the drugs are toxic. It is best to treat your summer cottage with them in the spring, before vegetables and fruits begin to ripen. People are not recommended to stay in the treated area for 24 hours after completion of work. Then the drug becomes harmful only to ticks, but is safe for people and pets.”
Probably the best forms of protection today remain vaccinations and self-control. “Only people from epidemic regions for encephalitis, to which Moscow does not belong, can count on free vaccination.
In Moscow and the Moscow region, local authorities allocate funds for this from the budget for vaccinations. Sometimes it’s for everyone, but sometimes it’s only for children or people who often visit the forest for work.”
The rest will have to pay for vaccination from 400 to 1000 rubles, depending on the vaccine, and also follow precautions.
In general, as experts advise, you need to get used to living next door to a new dangerous enemy. Nature gave us this new test for some reason.
What to do if you find a tick on yourself?
Remove it from the body immediately. The main thing is to try not to tear off the proboscis (hypostome) immersed in the skin. It is through it that the causative agent of the virus enters the blood. It is better to remove a tick using special devices. If they are not there, use a thread (tie it around the proboscis and, rotating or swaying, pull it up). You can use fine-tipped tweezers or grab the tick with your nails as close to the skin as possible by the proboscis. You should not drop anything on the tick and wait for it to fall off on its own. During this time, pathogens will continue to enter the bloodstream. The wound must be disinfected with iodine solution.
It is necessary to keep the tick as intact as possible, preferably alive. To do this, place it in a tightly closed container (for example, a glass bottle) and create high humidity there. To do this, just place damp cotton wool or a fresh blade of grass into the bottle. A live or dead tick in a container must be taken to the laboratory. In Moscow and the Moscow region, analysis for the presence of infections in ticks is carried out by the Center for Molecular Diagnostics (FBUN Central Research Institute of Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor) and the Federal Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology of Rospotrebnadzor.
If the causative agent of one or more infections is detected in a tick, you should contact an infectious disease specialist, a therapist in a clinic, or specialized medical institutions that will be recommended based on the test results.
If you were unable to get a tick tested, and your temperature has risen within a month, or the red spot at the site where the insect was attached has increased, then you should immediately consult a doctor.
If ticks have attached themselves to a dacha or garden plot, it is advisable to find out the genus and type of insects at a diagnostic center or any other competent organization (hygiene and epidemiology centers). This is important to understand whether the area needs to be treated with acaricides. To date, 14,385 residents of the Sverdlovsk region have sought medical help for tick bites. 154 people were hospitalized in medical institutions in the region with a preliminary diagnosis of tick-borne encephalitis, and doctors suspect Lyme borreliosis in another 135 Urals residents.
The number of victims of tick bites in the Moscow region since the beginning of the 2012 epidemic season has increased 1.5 times compared to the same period last year, to more than three thousand people, the regional department of Rospotrebnadzor reported. RIA Novosti 25.05.12 16:00
In 2012, the microbiological laboratory of the Federal Budgetary Institution of Health "Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology in the Tver Region" examined a total of 1,225 ticks taken from people and 241 ticks collected in natural biotopes. The causative agents of tick-borne infections were found in 188 ticks (12.8%). Two cases of tick-borne borreliosis were registered in residents of the Bologovsky district and the city of Tver (the infection occurred in the Kalininsky district).
When noticing a tick bite, people behave differently. Someone removes the tick and forgets about the bite. Someone gets hysterical. Both of these approaches are wrong.
On the one hand, a tick bite poses a certain risk of various infections, so you need to consult a doctor and, if necessary, receive prevention. But at the same time, there is no need to focus on the bite; ticks bite tens of thousands of people per season. At the same time, people get sick several orders of magnitude less. A tick bite does not mean that a person will get tick-borne encephalitis and/or borreliosis. Even if a causative agent of any infection is found in a tick, this does not mean that a disease will develop. And tick-borne encephalitis does not always end in death or disability.
If you notice a bite, you can remove the tick yourself or go to an emergency room, clinic, or a center for the prevention of tick-borne infections.
For specialized prevention of tick-borne encephalitis, you need to contact a special point. After removing the tick and examining a doctor, in the absence of contraindications, adults are prescribed iodantipirin, which is given free of charge. Seroprophylaxis with immunoglobulin is provided free of charge only to children, since iodantipyrine can only be used from 14 years of age. It is administered to adults for money; the cost of the drug, depending on body weight, ranges from 3,000 rubles. and more. At the same time, the effectiveness of immunoglobulin differs little from iodantipyrine. And in some cases, the administration of immunoglobulin is not only useless, but also dangerous. Therefore, you do not need to buy immunoglobulin yourself; it is not a panacea for tick-borne encephalitis.
Remantadine (often used to prevent influenza) also has some antiviral effect against the tick-borne encephalitis virus. To prevent tick-borne encephalitis, rimantadine is prescribed (no later than 2 days from the moment of the bite) 100 mg 2 times a day at 12-hour intervals for 3 days.
Prevention should be sought in the first 4 days after a tick bite (jodantipirin). Prophylaxis with immunoglobulin is carried out in the first 3 days. If the bite lasts for more than 4 days, prophylaxis is not carried out with either immunoglobulin or iodantipyrine.
Both iodantipyrine and immunoglobulin are drugs for the prevention of tick-borne encephalitis. They do not protect against tick-borne borreliosis and other infections. To prevent borreliosis, a course of antibiotics may be prescribed.
A tick can be examined for money for the presence of tick-borne encephalitis virus and Borrelia. There is no strict need for such a study. Tick examination is desirable, but not necessary. Prevention of encephalitis is carried out regardless of the results of the tick test. The presence of a pathogen in a tick does not mean that the bitten person will develop encephalitis or borreliosis. And a negative result does not always guarantee that the disease will not develop (the tick is poorly preserved, the sensitivity threshold of the test system, there have been other bites). If Borrelia is detected in a tick, you can prescribe a course of antibiotics (if not previously prescribed) to prevent borreliosis.
At the time of a tick bite, redness and swelling may develop at the site of the bite. This is a reaction to a bite. Borreliosis erythema (redness) appears a few days after the bite (usually not earlier than a week). The reaction to the bite goes away within a few days after the tick is removed. If you take antiallergic drugs (suprastin, tavegil, claritin, erius), the reaction to the bite disappears faster.
There is no need to take blood tests immediately after a bite; in case of infection, the examination gives results no earlier than 10 days later.
With the onset of spring, you want to get out into nature, but many people put off such a vacation due to fear of ticks. Is meeting with these representatives of arachnids so dangerous? Is it possible to relax in nature and not be afraid of being bitten?
I had the opportunity to “communicate” quite closely with ticks since 1998, when I became interested in traveling. I have already removed hundreds of ticks from myself, but I was bitten only once, and it was completely unexpected in time and place. Fortunately, there are no health consequences.
For travel lovers, ticks, of course, are an irritant, and I have not yet met tourists who would ignore the presence of ticks and would not be afraid of their bites. But if you avoid them completely, you can lose almost half of the summer season.
Therefore, real travelers simply know the “habits” of ticks and follow simple safety rules - this helps to travel during tick-active seasons and not be nervous about it.
The best prevention is proper clothing and regular checkups.
An important feature of ticks is that they only crawl upward. Having caught on the tourist's shoes, the tick crawls up the leg in search of open areas of skin. Our minimum task is to prevent him from biting between the toes and from crawling under his pants and T-shirt. To do this, we switch to “village fashion” mode: we make sure to put on socks (even if we’re wearing flip-flops), tuck our pants into our socks, and tuck our T-shirt into our pants. Accordingly, no shorts or short T-shirts.
Ideally, the sleeves should also have elastic cuffs, so that ticks that get on your hands cannot crawl under the sleeves.
If you dress correctly, you have 1-2-3 hours while the tick travels through your clothes. Just take a quick look at each other and everything will be fine. Ticks crawl slowly but constantly, so they are easy to spot when examined. By the way, ticks are much more noticeable on light-colored clothes. And khaki color will only help ticks.
There are also special “encephalitis” suits that take into account the characteristics of ticks - with folds on the legs and sleeves, as well as cuffs with elastic bands. Ticks crawl under the folds and remain there because they cannot crawl down.
Consider seasonality
Ticks appear at the end of April and actively search for prey until mid-June. You must understand that blood is not food for the tick, but part of the reproduction system. Only females bite, and they need blood for offspring.
In July, August and September, encounters with them are extremely unlikely, and ticks are almost inactive. Which is precisely explained by the breeding season. If in May they are not particularly picky and bite into the first suitable place, then in the summer they travel for a long time along the skin and look for the most tender place, which means you will have a lot of time to detect.
Consider the weather
According to my personal observations, ticks are most active in moderately warm spring weather. You won't find ticks in chilly cold weather, just like in hot weather. The most optimal: +12,+18 C.
"Ticks don't go to mountains"
It turns out that ticks are sensitive to pressure, and they are not found in large mountains. Somewhere from 1000-1300 meters above sea level, they practically do not occur. Just don't forget about this when descending big mountains. For example, in Altai, on the Ulagansky pass, you won’t find ticks, but when you go down to the Chulyshman valley, you can remove dozens of them.
Where are they found?
They can be found both in the field and in the forest. Ticks are focal arthropods. There may be hundreds of them in one place, and you will begin to panic because they are coming at you from all sides. But move 50 meters away and you may not see a single tick there all day. This is explained by the fact that they live where they were born and do not crawl far.
Do they live in trees?
No. They usually live in the grass and cling to the legs of passing animals. You can also find them in low bushes, up to about half a meter in height. They don’t jump from trees above, that’s absolutely certain.
Insurance? Graft? Pills?
The most dangerous disease carried by ticks is encephalitis. Neither vaccination nor an immunoglobulin injection provides 100% protection against it. But they protect against critical consequences, and the course of the disease is simplified. One of my friends had encephalitis and had no serious consequences. According to doctors, thanks to the vaccine. The disease was not even immediately recognized.
Tourists really respect vaccinations, but they must be given in the fall; in the spring they are already useless. It is undoubtedly important to give an injection of immunoglobulin in case of a bite. Previously, it was installed for free, but now it is better to have insurance, it costs 200-300 rubles. Without insurance, you will have to pay 5,000-10,000 rubles for an injection.
Tourists do not respect various tablets like yodantipirin and consider them ineffective.
Sprays, pencils?
According to my observations, various sprays and pencils that are used to treat clothes help a lot and reduce the chance of encountering ticks. Just remember that these are poisons, they are applied only to clothing, and not to the naked body. And these clothes are not for home or tent. In addition, it is advisable to repeat the treatment every day.
If bitten
Don't panic or worry. Every year, ticks bite thousands of people in every region. And encephalitis is detected quite rarely.
The first thing to do is remove the tick and save it. The second is to get to the hospital within 24 hours and get a preventive injection. Unfortunately, even if you want to, it’s problematic to take immunoglobulin with you on a hike—it needs to be stored at a certain temperature.
How to get a tick? The most convenient way is to use pedicure tongs. You grab him by the head and, rotating left and right, pull. Various ideas - lubricating the tick with oil, alcohol, according to my observations, do not help at all.
Do not burn or cut anything with fire - this will only make the situation worse.
So, when going out into nature in the spring or early summer, you just need to follow the safety rules: dress “country style”, look around once every one or two hours and take into account the behavior of ticks in order to collect fewer of them from yourself.
And there is no need to be afraid when you see a tick crawling across your clothes. This is normal - all tourists take them off, and sometimes dozens a day. And once you noticed, it means you did everything right. Take them and burn them.
The tick is a representative of the class of small arachnids, the most common in nature today. Science knows more than 54 thousand species. The animals were able to achieve development of such a scale thanks to their microscopic sizes (0.2 – 0.4 mm), which made it possible to colonize the top layer of soil. Some individuals reach 5 mm. The main difference from their class counterparts (spiders) is the body being solid or divided into two parts. At the end of the legs there are claws or stalk-like suckers, thanks to which the tick is held on the victim.
In this article you will learn the following details about ticks:
The tick carries a danger to humans, which consists of transmitting various diseases:
- rickettsiosis;
- spirochetosis;
- viral fever;
- tularemia;
- encephalitis, etc.
Among all the species diversity, the most aggressive towards humans should be highlighted:
- encephalitis;
- bedding;
- subcutaneous;
- ixodidae;
- scabies, etc.
Types of ticks dangerous to humans and animals
People and animals are subject to aggressive attacks from representatives of the following families:
- ixodidae;
- ticks - red mites;
- gamasaceae;
- ixodidae;
- agras.
Understanding the species difference, differences and characteristics will help when detecting an animal on yourself or on a pet.
Ticks of the Hyalomma family carry various diseases, including Crimean fever. Distributed in the southern regions of Russia. Their peculiarity is that the transformation of a larva into a nymph occurs on the same carrier. The adult moves to the next host. The habitat spreads across the steppe southern regions, the Crimean Peninsula and along the Mediterranean coast. This species is resistant to acaricides (special chemicals designed to control pests).
Another dangerous representative is the meadow tick, which lives in open areas (meadows, lawns, forest clearings). Easily survives in flooded areas and flooded meadows. The peak of activity occurs in spring. Distributed in areas of mass livestock grazing.
Typical types of ticks for Russian regions
In addition to the described varieties, Russia is characterized by a wide distribution of pasture ticks. Its habitat is steppes, forest-steppes, and ravines of the European part of the country. The Haemaphysalis family breeds in warm, humid regions. Activity begins in the summer, and they suffer from tick-borne rickettsiosis and encephalitis. 
The most popular species for all regions is deservedly the brown dog tick. A small individual of brown color. Particular activity is observed in the coastal areas of the Black Sea. They carry canine piroplasmosis, the causative agent of Marseilles fever. The main owner is always dogs, but sometimes it clings to humans. From several ticks in a booth or house, an entire colony can easily develop. The female can lay eggs in genital and wall crevices. Within a couple of months, the egg develops into a mature individual.
Another example of single-host mites is Boophilus. The larva leaves its host only to lay eggs.
This species is worthy of special attention. They only live close to humans. They are difficult to destroy due to their structural features (suction cups and claws reliably adhere to soft materials). An adult reaches 0.5 mm and is therefore invisible to the human eye. They are present in almost every home, where they get on animal fur and through rubble dust. Favorite habitat:
- bedding (blanket, pillow, mattress);
- carpets, rugs;
- indoor shoes, etc.
Important:
The difficulty of combating the linen mite lies in its ubiquitous presence (public transport, crowded places, hairdressers, office premises). In 1 gram of dust there are up to 100 representatives of the class at the same time. Life expectancy reaches 2.5 months, even during this time the female lays more than 300 eggs.
This type of tiny animal does not feed on blood and does not even live on humans. Their main food is dead tiny epithelial cells. Despite this, the results of the mite's vital activity (feces) cause an allergic reaction, a rash, and cause scabies. Skin rashes that are mistaken for bites are actually a manifestation of an allergy. 
