Crawling enemy: how ticks get on a person. Video: ticks attack

PLIERS.

Ticks(order Acarina class Arachnida). Most famous ixodid ticks(Ixodoidea). Despite the significant number of species of ixodid ticks, real value have only two species: Ixodes Persulcatus (taiga tick) in the Asian and in a number of areas of the European part, Ixodes Ricinus (European forest tick) in the European part. Ixodid ticks carry human pathogens: tick-borne encephalitis, tick-borne borreliosis (Lyme disease), rash tick-borne typhus, relapsing tick-borne fever, hemorrhagic fever and Q fever, tularemia, ehrlichiosis, and many others.

Taiga and European forest tick - giants in comparison with their "peaceful" counterparts, his body is covered with a powerful shell and equipped with four pairs of legs. In females, the integument of the back is able to stretch strongly, which allows them to absorb large quantities blood, hundreds of times more than a hungry tick weighs.
Males are slightly smaller than females and only suck on a short time(less than an hour). The sense of smell of ticks is very acute: studies have shown that ticks are able to smell an animal or a person at a distance of about 10 meters.

Where are you most at risk for ticks?

Ticks are moisture-loving, and therefore their number is greatest in well-moistened places. Ticks prefer moderately shaded and moist places with dense herbage. While in the forest, one should try to avoid damp, shady places with dense undergrowth and herbage, without the need not to climb into young aspen growths, into raspberry forests, where ticks are most common. There are especially many ticks on the sides of paths and roads, where they wait for their prey, sitting on overhanging branches of small, up to a meter high, bushes and on grass stalks. Studies have shown that ticks are attracted to the smell of animals and people who constantly use these paths when moving.

How do ticks get into the garden?

Ticks do not move far on their own. Ticks get on the site on animals(dogs, cats, rats, mice, hedgehogs, etc.), birds and even amphibians(frogs). After drinking their blood, they can fall off on your site.

Destruction of ticks.

Most effective method- continuous treatment with acaricidal preparationsThe concentrate is diluted in required quantity water and sprayed with a conventional garden sprayer or a petrol (battery) sprayer. When processing Special attention it is necessary to give places along the paths, thick grass, shrubs. The drugs last 1.5 - 2 months. Every spring and the first months of summer, without waiting for the attack of ticks, it is imperative to carry out preventive measures to combat ticks.

Attention! Currently, for the treatment of ticks, they began to offer drugs - which are absolutely not intended for this! The remedy should not just be insectoacaricidal (for example, the same “Paragraph” or “Delta-Zone” - insectoacaricides, but from rat mites !!! You need a remedy for ixodid ticks !!! This must be looked at in the instructions !!!)

When, where and how ticks bite.

According to statistics, less than 20% of cases occur in forests, about 43% in the forest park zone, and suburban areas in about 30% of cases.

Ticks are most active in early summer. The first active adult ticks appear in early or mid-April, when the sun begins to warm and the first thawed patches form in the forest. The number of ticks increases rapidly, reaching a maximum by the beginning of the second decade of May, and remains high until the middle or end of June, depending on the weather. Ticks sit on overhanging branches of small, up to a meter high, bushes and on grass stalks. Ticks lie in wait for their prey, sitting on the ends of blades of grass, blades of grass, sticks and twigs sticking up. It is a common misconception that ticks "jump" at humans from trees. A tick attached to clothes crawls up, and it is often found already on the head and shoulders. This creates the false impression that the pincers have fallen from above.

When a potential prey approaches, ticks assume an active waiting position: they extend their front legs and move them from side to side. On the front paws there are organs that perceive odors (Haller's organ). Thus, the tick determines the direction to the source of the smell and is made to attack. Ticks are not particularly mobile; in their lifetime they are able to overcome on their own no more than a dozen meters. A tick waiting for its prey climbs a blade of grass or a bush to a height of no more than half a meter and patiently waits for someone to pass by. If an animal or a person follows in the immediate vicinity of the tick, then its reaction will be instantaneous. The paws of the tick are equipped with claws and suction cups, which allows the tick to hook securely. No wonder there is a saying: "clung like a tick."

With the help of hooks that are located at the very end of the front legs, the tick clings to everything that touches it. Ixodid ticks (European forest tick and taiga tick) never pounce and never fall (do not plan) on the victim from above from trees or tall bushes: ticks simply cling to their prey, which passes by and touches the blade of grass (stick) on which it sits mite.

Having settled on the victim, the tick chooses a place to feed. In humans, sucking mites are usually found in the armpits, in the groin and on the scalp. The tick immerses its mouthparts (the so-called proboscis) into the skin and, cutting through it, reaches the subcutaneous blood vessels, from where it sucks blood. The teeth on the proboscis, pointing backwards, and the first portion of saliva, which quickly hardens and sticks the oral organs to the skin, like cement, help him to securely gain a foothold.

"PUMPED" mite

Female ticks feed for about 6 days, while absorbing an incredible amount of blood, its covers become dirty grey colour with a metallic tint, and the weight increases more than a hundred times compared to the weight of a hungry individual. Males stick for a short time in order to replenish the supply nutrients and water in the body, they are mainly busy looking for feeding females with whom they mate.

Development cycle of ticks. In May-June, having fed on blood, the female lays 1.5 - 2.5 thousand eggs, from which, after a few weeks, larvae hatch, they are no larger than a poppy seed and have only three pairs of legs.
The larvae attack small animals and birds, having sucked, they suck blood for 3-4 days, then leave their hosts and go to the litter. There they molt, turning into the next phase of development - nymphs, which are larger and already have four pairs of limbs. After wintering, the nymphs similarly go out to "hunt", but they choose larger victims for themselves. After a year, a nymph that feeds becomes either a female or a male. Thus, the tick development cycle lasts at least three years, and can be delayed for four to five years. During this time, ticks eat only three times. For humans, only adult females and males are dangerous, while larvae and nymphs do not pose a threat.

How does infection occur in humans?

The sucked tick begins to secrete saliva into the formed wound. The salivary glands of ticks are huge, occupying almost the entire body along the length. Together with this saliva, the virus enters the body of an animal or a person, and if the dose of the virus is large enough, then a disease can develop. Studies have shown that the "cement secret" mentioned above can contain up to half of the total amount of virus contained in the tick. Therefore, even if you remove the tick almost immediately after it sticks, you can still get infected, in this case, the source of infection will be the “cement” remaining in the skin. It has also been proven that the infection is transmitted by the bite of males. A short-term and painless bite of a male may not be noticed, especially when the forest is full of mosquitoes and midges. Most likely, quite common cases of tick-borne encephalitis, when patients deny a tick bite, are associated precisely with the attack of males.

Paradoxical as it may sound, the risk of infection tick-borne encephalitis is an integral and natural property of our forests. Critical role in maintaining natural foci of infection belongs to small forest animals - voles, mice, shrews, squirrels and chipmunks. In addition, the virus multiplies in the body of the carrier - the tick. In tick-borne encephalitis virus-infected ticks, the pathogen is able to multiply in many tissues and organs, and very often it is present in the salivary glands.

When bitten by a tick, the virus immediately enters the bloodstream. It penetrates into the central nervous system due to hematogenous dissemination and vipemia. The virus is found in the brain tissue a couple of days after the bite, and its maximum concentration in the brain is noted by the fourth day. The incubation period lasts from 1 to 30 days (usually 7-14 days). Tick-borne encephalitis begins suddenly with fever, intoxication. Body temperature quickly rises to 38-39 °C. Patients are worried about strong headache, weakness, nausea, sometimes vomiting, sleep is disturbed. characteristic appearance the patient - the skin of the face, neck, upper chest is hyperemic, the sclera is injected.

Prevention. Security measures.

Thirty to forty days before departure, it is advisable to make anti-encephalitis vaccination.

For safety reasons, it is preferable to choose light groves without undergrowth and shrubs, dry pine forests, open glades and similar places where it is windy and sunny for movement. There are few ticks here. In addition, we must remember that ticks are most active in the morning and evening. In heat or during heavy rain ticks are inactive, which reduces the risk of their attack.

Wearing the right clothing can go a long way in protecting you from ticks. It is best if outerwear is made of bolognese and similar smooth fabrics, on which it is more difficult for a tick to hold on than on rough ones. The outer jacket, shirt or T-shirt must be tucked into the pants under the elastic band or belt. Protect your head with a hood, but it is better to wear a tight-fitting hat, since it is extremely difficult to find a tick that has got there in your hair. In the presence of repellent ointments, they should be smeared with cuffs, collars and other holes and crevices in the material through which the tick can penetrate clothing. When a tick gets under clothes, it does not bite right away, but moves around the body for some time, looking for a comfortable place. If you are attentive enough and listen to yourself, then a tick crawling on the skin can be felt and removed in time. Every two or three hours it is advisable to inspect open areas and twice a day at a large halt and in the evening to conduct a thorough examination of clothing and body. At the same time, it must be remembered that it is impossible to remove a tick from a tissue by simple shaking. In places of mass accumulation of ticks, inspection has to be carried out almost every half an hour.

If bitten by a tick

The tick bite is almost invisible: the insect injects an anesthetic into the wound. Therefore, a tick is detected, as a rule, not immediately. The sucked-in tick should not be tried to crush or pull out sharply. This will only increase the likelihood of infection with encephalitis!

First you need to fill the tick and the skin around it with fat, oil or kerosene and wait a bit. Very often, after such treatment, it disappears by itself. If not, then the tick must be grasped with tweezers or fingers wrapped in gauze, and removed from the skin with slow, smooth movements so that the proboscis does not break off. If the proboscis is still broken off, it must be removed with a needle calcined on fire. In another case, the head of the tick is tied with a thread loop at the point of contact with the skin. The ends of the thread are stretched to the sides, and gradually the loop pulls the tick out of the skin.

Sometimes, after filling the tick with oil or kerosene, it is permissible to pry it under the proboscis with a needle and, slowly squeezing it out, pull it out. After removing the hand and the bite site, it is necessary to disinfect, since infection with encephalitis is possible through gastrointestinal tract when food is handled with dirty hands. Do not touch the eyes and mucous membranes of the mouth and nose with untreated hands.

For emergency prevention tick-borne encephalitis use anti-tick immunoglobulin (after a tick bite, no more than 96 hours have passed), antiviral drugs.

How wonderful it is when nature awakens, the first leaves bloom, the first flowers bloom, wild garlic, strawberries appear. And it's so wonderful to walk through the forest, enjoying fresh air, warm sunbeams, pick the first greens of fragrant wild garlic or wild strawberries - fresh vitamins. But with the awakening of nature, ticks awaken and also go for walks to get enough of fresh blood.

Who are ticks?

We have known since school that ticks are small arthropod arachnid creatures belonging to the animal kingdom. There are more than 48 thousand species of ticks on Earth. Some of them live in the forest and in the taiga, sucking the blood of small rodents and animals - hares, mice, and other inhabitants of forests and taiga. They are not averse to drinking human blood, and as soon as the summer season begins, summer residents and their pets, lovers of forest walks, tourists and people going on a picnic become victims of ticks.

Other types of mites live in the soil in our gardens and orchards. They cause great harm by sucking the juices from plants, destroying crops, for example spider mite, which also harms indoor plants.

There are also dust or bed mites that live in our homes. They live in sofas, in carpets, in pillows and in blankets. They are completely small size, they are impossible to notice, but they bring great harm, causing itching and red spots on the skin, as well as allergic reactions.

And there are also ticks - meadow, steppe, dog, scabies, eye, ear and others. But today we will turn our attention to ixodid ticks, typical carriers of encephalitis and borreliosis (and other equally dangerous diseases) - this is the taiga tick (also called the deer tick) and the European tick ( vernacular name- encephalitic mites).

Where do encephalitic mites live?

Ticks live in forest and taiga areas. They live under a layer of fallen leaves and grass and attack their victims by crawling from bushes, from leaves, from grass, as well as from the ground. But from the trees, as many believe, ticks do not jump off.
As soon as the sun begins to warm, and the earth is freed from snow cover, ticks go hunting. They attach their tenacious limbs to the leaves of plants, move closer to the paths along which a person moves, and wait for their prey. Ticks have a well-developed sense of smell, and they smell fresh blood. But ticks cannot see, because they have no eyes. But they are able to distinguish day from night. Once on a person or animal, ticks look for appropriate place on the body to suck.

Ticks are especially active and aggressive in early spring, after hungry winter they need food. So you can pick up a taiga tick from April to June, and even in July, and a European tick is fierce from April to September.

What do mites look like?

The body of the tick consists of two sections - the body and the head. There is a hard shield on the back, and the male has it Brown and covers the entire back, while in the female only a third of the back is covered with a shield. The rest of the back is red-brown.

Ticks have four pairs of limbs, which consist of six segments. At the ends of these segments are claws with a sucker. With the help of suction cups and claws, the tick clings to plants, human clothing, and animal fur. Behind the fourth pair of legs, ticks have respiratory plates.

On the head of the tick is a proboscis, which has a complex structure and is adapted for suction and retention on the body of the victim. On the proboscis is a mouth with which the tick bites through the body and sucks blood. The saliva of the tick has an analgesic effect and the person does not feel the bite of the tick. The virus of encephalitis and other diseases enters the human blood with the saliva of the tick when the tick sucks blood. The tick itself does not suffer from encephalitis.

The female is larger than the male. It is believed that only females stick to the body and can suck blood for up to several days. The body of the female increases when she drinks blood, becomes ovoid and changes color to gray. Males only bite a person and are not able to suck blood for a long time.

What diseases does the tick carry?

The number of people bitten by ticks is increasing every year. It is increasingly possible to pick up a tick not only in the forest, but also in summer cottages, in city parks and squares. Summer residents carry them on their clothes in trains, buses, in bouquets of flowers, with the harvest. From the clothes of people who visited the forests, ticks crawl onto passengers of public transport, and a person with horror discovers a bloodsucker that has stuck to his skin.

Of the diseases that ticks carry, the best known are tick-borne encephalitis, hemorrhagic fever and Lyme disease or borreliosis.

Symptoms of tick-borne encephalitis

Tick-borne encephalitis is transmitted by bite encephalitis tick. Encephalitis is dangerous viral disease, which affects the central nervous system and the brain, can lead a person to disability and even death.

There are the following forms of encephalitis: feverish, meningeal, meningoencephalitic, polio.

The first symptoms of the disease appear within 1-2 weeks after the tick is sucked, the disease begins with a sharp increase in body temperature to 39-40 degrees. Heat keeps for several days. At the first stage of the disease, the virus multiplies in the blood and intoxication of the body occurs.

All forms of the disease begin with a rise in body temperature to 38-40 degrees, are marked by fever, general malaise, headaches in the forehead, temples, neck, lethargy, weakness, lack of appetite, nausea.

In severe cases, cells of the brain and spinal cord are affected. A person has problems with the psyche, with vision and hearing, there is a violation of consciousness, numbness of the hands, convulsions, paralysis. The last two forms of tick-borne encephalitis lead to disability and death.

In febrile form headaches, nausea, weakness are noted, the temperature lasts for several days, then the fever stops and the person recovers.

With meningeal form encephalitis in humans, severe headaches, dizziness, photophobia and pain in the eyes, nausea and vomiting, lethargy are also noted. The fever lasts one to two weeks.

With meningoencephalitic form, hallucinations, loss of orientation in time and space are added to the symptoms characteristic of the meningeal form. A sick person may experience epileptic seizures, convulsions, and loss of consciousness is possible.

With poliomyelitis there is fatigue and severe weakness and pain in the neck, shoulders and arms, decreased skin sensitivity, twitching of the muscles of the arms, hanging of the head on the chest, a feeling of numbness in the tissues of the arms, legs, and muscle atrophy and paralysis of the limbs.

You can get encephalitis not only from a tick bite, but also by crushing a tick with your fingers. The danger of catching an infection is the raw milk of domestic goats, sheep, cows infected with a tick bite. Boiled milk is not dangerous.

You can watch a video about the effects of a tick bite.

Borreliosis or Lyme disease

Borreliosis is an infectious disease that, like encephalitis, is transmitted to humans through the bite of a tick. Lyme disease has early period(consists of two stages) and the late period (the third stage).

Symptoms of borreliosis

The disease begins with fever, chills, and headache. A person has fatigue, weakness and muscle aches. Many develop a cough, sore throat, runny nose, and some experience nausea and vomiting. On the skin where the tick has stuck, a red spot appears - migrating annular erythema, which appears on the 6th - 23rd day. The spot has the shape of a circle or oval and increases to a diameter of 10-20 cm, sometimes it can reach a larger size. The stain persists for 2-3 weeks, there is pain, severe itching. Depending on the treatment, the first stage can last from 3 to 30 days and will end with recovery.

Without treatment, after 1-3 months, the causative agent of Borreliosis penetrates with blood into internal organs, in the human brain. Patients have severe throbbing headaches, dizziness, chest pain, shortness of breath. There is a defeat of the cardiovascular system, heart disease develops, pain in the heart is noted. Damage to the nervous musculoskeletal system. Patients may experience facial paralysis, serous meningitis, pain in the spine (cervical, thoracic, lumbar).

At the third stage (develops from six months to two years), joint pains appear (most often in knee joints), arthritis, polyarthritis, osteoporosis and other diseases develop. Skin lesions often occur.

Lyme disease varies from person to person: some have only the first stage, while others have the disease starting in the second or third stage. But if not treated, the disease becomes chronic and leads to disability. You can also get borreliosis from unboiled milk of domestic animals.

We offer to see small video Video about Lyme disease.

What should I do if bitten by a tick?

What to do if you find a tick stuck on your body? First of all, you need to seek help at the emergency room, where a tick will be removed from your body and there you will be given immunoglobulin against tick-borne encephalitis. If you are insured - free of charge, and if you do not have insurance, you will have to pay a tidy sum (the higher your body weight, the more you will have to pay for the vaccine).

How to pull out a tick?

If you are unable to seek help from medical institution, you can remove the tick yourself. Pull out the tick carefully so as not to damage it. You can pull it out with tweezers, picking up the tick with tweezers at the proboscis, closer to the skin where the tick stuck. It is not necessary to pull sharply, you need to carefully pull the tick, swinging it to the side and pulling it up.

If tweezers are not at hand, you can use a strong thread. A loop of thread should be thrown closer to the proboscis of the tick, tighten and pull the thread up, swinging the tick from side to side.
After the tick is removed, smear the bite with iodine or alcohol.

The tick should be wrapped in a wet cotton swab or cloth and placed in a vial with a lid or a box. And take it to the sanitary and epidemiological station for examination for the presence of encephalitis, borreliosis and other diseases. The next day, you need to call the SES and find out the results of the tests. If a tick is infected with tick-borne encephalitis or Lyme disease, this does not mean that you have caught the infection. Not always the bite of an infected tick causes disease. You will simply be sent for examination to the clinic, where they will do a blood test. If viruses are found in the blood, you will be prescribed treatment.

If you do not want to take the tick to the SES, you need to destroy it, it is best to burn it. Remember to wash your hands and tweezers well.

If you do not want to seek medical help, monitor your condition carefully, and if you feel unwell or have symptoms of the diseases described above, do not postpone a visit to the clinic. Timely treatment will help you avoid terrible complications.

What to do if the tick broke off during self-extraction? You just need to gently pick it up with tweezers and pull it out. If the head or proboscis of the tick is deep in the wound, and you are afraid to pull it out, you can contact the clinic. Or you can simply lubricate the wound with iodine and after a while, the remnants of the tick parts will be on the surface of the skin along with the abscess and come out like a splinter.

It is believed that a sucking tick can be forced to crawl out of the skin by lubricating it with oil. But experts do not advise doing this, since the tick will suffocate from the oil and die, burping the contents of its stomach into the wound, and the infection will quickly enter the human body.

Tick ​​bite prevention

Tick-borne encephalitis vaccinations

In order not to catch such a dangerous disease as tick-borne encephalitis after a tick bite, vaccinations are provided. The course consists of three vaccinations, immunity from tick-borne encephalitis lasts up to three years.

Proper clothing

If you are going to the forest or your cottage is adjacent to the forest, you must dress properly. Clothing should cover your body. Outerwear tuck into pants, and tuck pants into socks or boots, boots, jacket sleeves, sweaters, shirts - with buttoned and tight-fitting cuffs, put a hood or hat on your head. On the light clothes the tick is more noticeable, so it is advisable to wear light-colored clothing.

Every 15-20 minutes, inspect your clothes, your fellow travelers, and if you find a tick, remove it, but do not press it with your hands, it is better to burn it with a lighter or a match. After the hike, carefully examine your entire body, pay special attention to the auricles, armpits, groin, neck. Just carefully inspect your clothes and things that you took with you to the forest, to the country.

Chemical protection

Use chemicals to prevent tick bites. creams, aerosols that are sold in stores, in pharmacies are repellents (repel ticks), acaricidal agents (kill ticks), as well as insecticidal-repellent agents (repel and kill).

Process chemicals clothes - cuffs, collar, belts at trousers, as well as clothes around the ankles, knees, lower back, waist, open areas of the body - face, neck, hands.

The garden plot can be processed by special means that kill ticks.

Medical insurance against tick-borne encephalitis

Annually insure yourself and your children against tick bites. Price insurance policy not great from 200 to 250 rubles. If you are bitten by a tick, then health care free of charge (examination by a doctor, removal of a tick, administration of immunoglobulin, treatment in case of illness). Without an insurance policy, you will have to pay for all medical services and treatment.

Be careful when walking in the forest, working or relaxing on suburban area. Take care of yourself and take care of your health!

How to prevent attack and sucking by ticks? What to do if you find a tick on yourself?

The memo was prepared on the basis of the materials of Dr. biological sciences N.I. Shashina, Research Institute of Disinfectology

Why are ticks dangerous?

Ticks are bloodsuckers. When bloodsucking, they can transmit pathogens of such diseases as: tick-borne viral encephalitis, ixodid tick-borne borreliosis, Crimean hemorrhagic fever, tick-borne rickettsiosis, human granulocytic anaplasmosis, human monocytic ehrlichiosis.

To medical and preventive organizations Kostroma region Every year, on average, about 6,000 people who have been bitten by ticks are treated. From 5 to 15 percent of all examined ticks are infected with tick-borne encephalitis virus.

Where are ticks found?

Ticks are found throughout the Kostroma region, tick-borne viral encephalitis carriers prefer moderately humid coniferous-deciduous forests. Ticks are found in forested areas of cities, in cemeteries, summer cottages.

When do ticks occur?

Ticks "wake up" in early spring - in April-May, as soon as the snow melts. The number reaches its peak at the end of May - June. In July, ticks become less, and in August there is a second slight rise. Despite the fact that there are relatively few ticks in August-September, there are many cases of their attacks on people, since during this period people often go to the forest to pick berries and mushrooms.

What do mites look like?

The most dangerous are taiga and forest mites. The size of female ticks is 3 - 5 mm, the front of their body and 4 pairs of legs are dark brown, and rear end brick red. The body of all phases of development of ticks is oval, in front there is a cone-shaped dark protrusion (often called the head), which consists of three parts: the central part (proboscis), which, when bloodsucking, is immersed in the skin of a person or animals, and 2 side parts remaining on the surface. Males are smaller than females and darker. The saliva of ticks, which contains pathogens, enters the body of the victim.

Only a specialist can accurately determine the genus and type of ticks.

Therefore, ANY TICKETS SUCKED SHOULD BE CONSIDERED POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS.

How do ticks attack?

Ticks wait for their prey on grassy vegetation, less often on bushes, but they never crawl into trees, do not fall or jump from them. It is worth being next to a tick to be a person, like a tick, clinging to the skin, clothes, crawling up until it finds a secluded place under the clothes to stick to the body. This takes an average of 30 minutes. Ticks always crawl up, so they are found under the armpits, in the groin, on the back, on the neck and head.

Self- and mutual examinations for the detection of ticks should be carried out every 15 - 20 minutes.

How to protect yourself from ticks?

When going into a forest, park, or any area where ticks are found, dress in such a way as to prevent ticks from crawling under clothing and to facilitate a quick inspection to detect attached ticks.

The effectiveness of protection is greatly increased when clothing is treated with special aerosol chemicals - acaricidal (killing ticks), repellent (repelling ticks) or acaricidal-repellent (repelling and killing at the same time).

These products should never be applied to the skin!

Be sure to read the instructions for the tool!

The correct use of special acaricidal or acaricidal-repellent products provides a level of protection up to 100%.

The use of special protective clothing that combines mechanical protection (knitted cuffs, special fasteners and traps, etc.) with chemical protection(inserts made of fabric treated with special chemical compounds).

In such clothes, you can safely walk through the forest, but you can’t lie down and sit on the grass, since in this case, ticks, bypassing the processed clothes, can immediately get on the body and stick.

Such clothes will be useful primarily for foresters, loggers, geologists, tourists, people professionally associated with the forest, but can also be used by other people, including children.

How to remove a tick?

Ticks attached to the body should be removed as soon as possible. The sooner this is done, the less likely it is that the causative agent of a dangerous disease will enter the bloodstream.

Try not to tear off the proboscis immersed in the skin; after removal, be sure to disinfect the wound with a solution of iodine, alcohol, etc.

It is better to remove stuck ticks using special tools: PLIERS, LASSO HANDLE, TWEEZERS. Having captured the tick in any way, it should be rotated around its axis by 360º and pulled up.

With absence special devices you can remove ticks with a thread (tie it around a proboscis immersed in the skin and, rotating or shaking, pull it up).

You should not drip anything on the tick and wait for it to fall off on its own.

The tick will not fall off, but will continue to introduce pathogens into the blood.

What to do with a tick?

Removed sucked mites with a piece of damp cotton wool or a fresh blade of grass should be placed in a tightly closed container (for example, a glass bottle).

Dead ticks should also be placed in a container.

Ticks should be delivered to the laboratory as soon as possible for testing.

Before delivery to the laboratory, store them in a cold place at a temperature of plus 4 - 8ºС (refrigerator, thermos with ice, etc.). If ticks have stuck to several people, then ticks from each person must be placed in a separate container, signing the name of the victim.

The study of the tick is necessary to assess its danger and, if necessary, prescribe treatment.

If the tick is not preserved

If you failed to submit ticks for analysis or if the results of the analysis were negative, and within a month after sucking the ticks you felt changes in your health, noted an increase in temperature, an increasing red spot (erythema) at the site of suction, you should immediately consult a doctor, informing him of the fact of sucking a tick or ticks.

The problem of encephalitic ticks appears annually with the onset of spring, when they are the most dangerous, however, in summer and autumn there is a chance of getting a tick bite. Today I want to talk about where you can meet a tick, how to protect yourself from this insect and what to do if the tick is still bitten.

The main thing to remember is that ticks can be active until the onset of frost, so you should be careful throughout the warm season, especially protecting children from them.

What does a tick look like?

To protect yourself from being bitten by an encephalitis tick, you need to know what it looks like. The tick resembles a small spider, because it belongs to their order. It has a small size, only up to 5 mm, however, when it gets drunk with blood, it greatly increases in size, most often then it is framed. It is easiest to detect it in open areas of the body, because it forms a tubercle under the skin, the head most often remains sticking out, and it is the most dangerous to human health.

Why is a tick dangerous?

By itself, it is harmless, an ordinary insect, like a small spider, however, it carries a dangerous disease - encephalitis. It is possible to distinguish an ordinary tick from an encephalitic one only in the laboratory, so you should always consult a doctor if you are bitten by a tick.

Where does the tick live?

Most often it can be found in deciduous (birch) forests, or coniferous (pine) forests, however, even in meadows with tall grass and shrubs, there is a possibility of ticks. A lot depends on weather conditions and tick populations in each area.

Worst of all, the tick can now spread in the city park area, maybe even in a summer cottage.

How does a tick get on a person or animal?

The tick can be on a tree, on the ground or grass, where it will wait for the victim. In a jump, he can even fly several meters, and he feels the approach of a person or animal from afar.

When a tick hits a person, it tries to find a place to bite, that is, an open area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe skin. Therefore, it is so important to walk into the forest in clothes tucked into shoes, in a headdress of this type, so that the tick could not sneak onto the skin unnoticed. It can also get into trousers, socks, bite on the back, chest, head, even on the genitals, which is the hardest thing to detect, therefore, the better you protect your body, the less likely it is to be bitten by a tick.

The main thing is not to let him bite you for three hours, after which his activity drops, and he will no longer bite you.

How does a tick bite happen?

The tick makes a very small hole in the skin, but large enough to inject painkillers into it, so you won't feel the bite itself. What is most terrible, if it all penetrates under the skin into the blood, then gradually over several days it can reach the heart, which will lead to death. However, since most often it stays on the body for at least three days, it can be seen and pulled out.

Most often, the tick sticks for several days and drinks blood, after drinking, it will fall off.

What to do if you were bitten by a tick and you found it?

First, do not panic, not all ticks are carriers of encephalitis. Therefore, try to pull it out, if you can’t pull it out completely, consult a doctor. If you pulled out a tick, put it in a jar and immediately go to the doctor, they will do the necessary tests for you, they may prescribe drugs, the tick will be sent for examination for suspected encephalitis.

If you pull out a tick on your own, you can’t leave even the slightest piece of it under the skin, very often the head comes off, this is extremely dangerous, and can lead to difficult treatment. It is best to pull out the tick with curved tweezers, grabbing it, rotate it and gradually pull it towards you, without sudden movements.

If you manage to remove the tick, treat the bite with iodine, and let the extractor wash their hands thoroughly. If you don't want to get infected dangerous disease, you should consult a doctor in the first three days, when there is still a chance to prevent diseases. There are drugs - immunoglobulin, iodatripin, which are prescribed for prevention, their action after three to four days is already useless. In the first days, it is impossible to detect the disease by blood, therefore prophylactic treatment is prescribed. After 10 days, a blood test will be taken, which shows the presence or absence of the disease.

Do not self-medicate, be sure to consult a doctor. If an animal is bitten by a tick, see a veterinarian. This is a dangerous disease that should be treated under medical supervision.

How to dress so as not to be bitten by a tick?

If you go into the forest, into the field, then you should not walk with your head uncovered, and with open areas body. It is best to have a jacket or cuffs with elastic bands so that they fit snugly against the skin, you can tie a scarf around your neck. Wear a cap or hood over your head. On the feet - sneakers or closed shoes, it is better to tuck the legs into socks.

After the walk, inspect the clothes, shake them off, and examine your body.

I wish you pleasant walks in the forest and good health to your family!

With the onset of spring warmth, pleasant walks in the park or forest planting can be marred by a tick bite, not only of the person himself, but also of the pet walking with him. To protect yourself and animals from tick attacks, it is better to have an idea where ticks live and how ticks breed.

What are ticks

Ticks are just small arachnids that have lived for millions of years and inhabited the Earth long before humans appeared on it. Therefore, it can be argued that as long as a person lives, so many bites of representatives of this family accompany him.

Ticks can rightly be attributed to faithful and constant companions of all living things - for millions of years, where there is vegetation or living creatures, these spiders can be found from hot Africa to the harsh taiga of the Eurasian continent, from deserts to humid forests. That is, it is difficult to find a place on the planet where ticks do not live.

The rest of the mites live in different kind vegetation, feed on plant components, organic matter, their relatives or their remains, without posing any threat to people.

What ticks are dangerous for humans and pets

• ear mites affecting the outer ear and ear canal;
• scabies itching that affects the subcutaneous layers;
• demodicosis, when mainly the face and the area around it are affected.

Prevention consists in strict adherence to hygiene rules, especially where such ticks and their carriers live.

Argas and ixodid ticks

It is their accidental bites that are possible during walks and trips to nature that people rightly fear, wanting to avoid the following unpleasant and sometimes dangerous moments:

• infection bitten by pathogens of formidable diseases;
• itching and allergic reactions;
• dermatitis and other skin lesions.

Argas mites

Not all representatives of argas ticks are capable of harming their attacks in our band, mostly residents of South America suffer from their majority.

Where do they live and how do ixodid ticks fall on the victim

As soon as the ground cover warms up over 5 degrees, bloodsuckers crawl out of last year's grass deposits on their patient hunt, waiting for a likely suitable victim from representatives of warm-blooded animals to pass by.

Ticks do not live on trees, as many people think, preferring grassy wet cover. Climbing on a blade of grass, a branch of a bush, a twig, bloodsuckers can wait as long as they like, sometimes for months, to wait for a source of food, so that with the help of claws on their paws they can catch on wool or clothes, and when they reach the skin, with the help of special suction cups, gain a foothold on it and bite.

How much a tick can climb, climbing up, depends on the stage of maturation - it is a larva, a nymph or an adult spider.

• The larva of the ixodid tick above 30 cm is not able to climb, therefore it feeds on the blood of small animals and birds. One "feast" is enough, which can last for several days, and the larva falls into the grass to continue the transformation. For humans, it poses an unlikely threat to stick.
• The nymph can already afford to climb higher to increase the chance of encountering potential warm-blooded prey. But still, she rarely manages to overcome more than a meter. A nymph is also satisfied with a one-time saturation, and a person may well become her probable accidental “breadwinner”.
• It is difficult to meet an adult tick above one and a half meters. This is the maximum height from which he can fall on the body of his victim. It is adult bloodsuckers that actively attack people and animals, including large ones.

Therefore, it is wrong to avoid places where trees grow. In fact, you need to be wary of thickets of grass and shrubs, try not to walk near the edge of the paths, do not choose wild grassy lawns for spending the night or a picnic. It is better to prefer “bald” clearings, and in a pine forest on a dry layer of fallen needles, where there is no grass, it is completely unrealistic to meet a tick.

Why are ixodid ticks dangerous?

The highest risk in tick bite transmission to the victim of the causative agent of encephalitis.

• With untimely treatment, a person is threatened with death. Statistics for Russia testify to 2,300 cases of infection with tick-borne encephalitis in 2015, 24 people died. The only protective effective measure is vaccination against encephalitis.
• The second danger is the transmission of Lyme disease, or borreliosis, through the bite of a bloodsucker, which, with inadequate or untimely prescribed treatment, leads to severe disability and even death.
• For pets, there is an increased risk of getting sick after a tick attack with piroplasmosis, as a result of which the animal dies if therapy is not started immediately after a tick attack.

Carriers in the northern hemisphere of these diseases in most cases are 2 types of ixodid ticks - taiga and canine.

How do ixodid ticks reproduce?

• A sexually mature female, drinking a lot of blood, lays a huge number of eggs in the grass, more than 15,000. But how many of them survive to the adult stage depends largely on environmental conditions. Usually a few dozen spiders become so lucky. The maturation process takes several weeks.
• The hatched larva feeds on blood once. Since heights are not available to her, she is forced to attack small warm-blooded ones. The “feast” can last for several days, after which it falls into the grass and, digesting the sucked blood, transforms to the next stage of the nymph. This process is often extended until autumn, and the nymphs remain to winter at this stage.
• In the spring, with the first warmth, the nymph is ready to hunt. She is already able to climb larger animals. Having eaten once, she will ripen to an adult for about a year.
• A mature male tick sucks blood from half an hour to several hours, which is necessary for him to mate.

Ixodid ticks, when biting the skin, inject an enzyme with an analgesic.

Measures to protect against tick attacks

Going to the park, forest, landing, use a repellent of any form, put on closed clothes, protect your pet with drops, spray or a collar. When you return, carefully inspect the body and, having found a tick, correctly remove it.

If you live in a hazardous area infested with ticks, or are planning a trip there, the best preventive measure will be vaccinated.