Bloodthirsty and patient, they constantly keep an eye on humans and animals. They can wait for their prey for years. Evolution has made them great hunters. They are always hungry and ready to attack. Their tenacious paws will not let go of anyone who gets too close. They are ticks.
With the onset of warm spring days, we want to go to the forest in nature, sit on the grass, sunbathe, clean the garden area of last year's grass and dry debris.
Green grass, the sun, all this is conducive to peace of mind. But we must not forget that we are constantly being targeted by these little arachnids. The same age as dinosaurs.
470 thousand people, bitten by ticks, turned to medical institutions for help. according to official data, until August 2017. And how many have not yet applied? Summer is not over yet!
Ticks do not have natural enemies and can adapt to any conditions.
Ixodid ticks
These ticks (family Ixodidae) are classified as arthropods (Arthropoda), a class of arachnids. They do not belong to insects,. Distinctive feature is the presence of four pairs of legs, not three. That's why. this family of arthropods includes more than 650 species distributed throughout the world.
V different regions There are different types of ticks. Different ticks carry different diseases. In everyday life, the concept is often used "Pasture mite"... This is the name of ticks that live mainly in wildlife not only in the area of pastures, but also flood meadows, forest edges, meadows, river banks, roadsides and other places where you can become a victim of a tick bite.
It is worth noting that although such a definition is accepted, it does not exist in the official classification of the huge class of arachnids, this is an exclusively popular name that has stuck with ticks of the ixodid family.
Lack of sight and hearing does not prevent ticks from sensing potential prey. 
The tick gropes for a puncture site with special processes - palps Types of ticks
Most cases of bites in Russia are associated with two types of ticks of the genus Ixodes: canine(Ixodes ricinus) and taiga(Ixodes persulcatus) with ticks.
These species, along with some ticks of the Dermacentor genus (for example, D. silvarum), are the main vectors of tick-borne encephalitis, tick-borne borreliosis (Lyme disease) and some other diseases. In common people there is a frightening name "encephalitic", i.e. ticks that carry encephalitis.
A male dog tick may not feed even once. However, they also crawl onto their "hosts" since mating most often occurs on their body. Here, there is a higher probability of meeting a female drunk with blood.
This tick is dangerous to humans in that it is able to transmit the tick-borne encephalitis virus during a bite, which is often observed in conditions middle lane continent from Baltic Sea to Kamchatka, as well as anaplasmosis, babesiosis, borreliosis and other severe diseases.
A dog's ear covered with sucked ticks. 
A female dog tick (left) that has drunk blood, grows to the size of a bean and outwardly resembles a castor bean seed, for which the tick got its specific name "ricinus" - castor oil plant. A satiated taiga tick looks exactly the same. Taiga tick
If earlier the taiga tick lived only in dense forest thickets, now it can be found in pastures near settlements and in park areas. It turns out that almost everyone is at risk, therefore, precautions are necessary.
At the dachas, you need to mow the grass not only inside the site, but also around it, thus, you will deprive the tick of its habitat. Going into the forest, wear pants made of dense fabric, tapered to the bottom, boots, a jacket or windbreaker with ties and a hood. Every 10-15 minutes you need to examine yourself.
As an example, you can take the competition takes place in a hard-to-reach forest area, where the likelihood of being bitten by a tick increases. Therefore, you need to know how to protect yourself from a tick bite in addition to vaccination.
The habitat of ixodid ticks is almost the entire Earth, therefore, you need to know what a tick looks like, since a meeting with it is quite real, both in the city limits and in the taiga area.
Females are usually somewhat larger than males. The length of the female is 3-4 mm in a hungry state (it increases to 10 mm in a pumped female, the color of which changes to light gray). The back integument of the female can stretch strongly, allowing it to absorb blood in an amount exceeding its weight by more than a hundred times.
Males up to 2.5 mm. In males, a rigid dorsal shield covers the entire body, in females a third. In all ixodids, only females feed on blood. They need it for the successful completion of fertilization. Males eat only plant foods. 
As befits arachnids, ticks lack wings. Adult ticks have 4 pairs of legs, while specimens that have not reached sexual maturity have three pairs of legs. Without eyes, ticks orient themselves in space with the help of a well-developed sensory apparatus, thanks to which they can smell the victim 10 meters away.
According to the structure of the body, all types of ticks can be divided into leathery, with accrete head and chest, and solid (armored), in which the head is attached to the body movably. Oxygen supply also depends on the structure of the body: the former breathe through the skin or trachea, while the armored ones have special spiracles.
Reproduction and development
Females of ixodid ticks lay up to 17 thousand eggs in the ground, but due to the complex development process, only a few “survive” until the adult stage. The larvae hatched from eggs feed only once, usually on small mammals (rodents, insectivores, mustelids).
A well-fed larva falls to the ground and after a while turns into nymph... After feeding and molting, the nymph turns into an "adult" stage - into imago... Sexually mature females of ixodid ticks feed only once and mainly on cattle.
Hatching from an egg, the forest mite goes through three stages of development:
larva (0.5 mm);
nymph (1.5 mm);
an adult (about 3 mm - male, 4 mm - female).
Ticks prefer moist, moderately shaded places: the bottom of ravines, dense grass at the edges of forests, undergrowth, thickets near the banks of streams, flooded meadows, overgrown paths, animal hair, dark storage rooms with agricultural products, and the like. Ticks overwinter in a dry litter.
Both types of ticks are found in the eastern regions of the European part of Russia. I. persulcatus, the distribution of which covers the territory from the Baltic to the Far East. Where do ticks bite?
Many people believe that ticks can fall on a person or animal from trees. In fact, this is not the case, because these insects almost never rise to a height of more than half a meter. However, getting on the victim's body, the tick activates and deftly climbs upward, reaching the most “tasty” areas in its opinion.
The tick is attached to the human body using a hypostome. This unpaired outgrowth performs the functions of a sense organ, attachment and blood-sucking. The most likely place for a tick to stick to a person from the bottom up:
- groin area.
- belly and lower back.
- chest, armpits, neck.
- ear area.
How long does a tick live?
The lifespan of a tick depends on the species. For example, house dust mites or dust mites live 65-80 days. Other species, such as the taiga tick, live up to 4 years. Ticks can live from 1 month to 3 liters without food.
How long is the tick active?
In general, ixodid ticks become active as soon as the temperature is set at + 6 ° C and above, therefore, a clear seasonality is characteristic of tick-borne infections.
The period of tick activity by months looks like a double sinusoid - from April to rise, peak in late May, then decline and a new rise in September. Spring is the time for the larvae of ticks and nymphs to emerge from the litter for feeding, as well as the breeding season for adults, which is why the end of spring and the beginning of summer are the most dangerous time.
The autumn peak falls on the period of hatching of the larvae from the eggs, which just happens after 10 weeks. Taking into account the time for development and laying of eggs, the second peak occurs at the end of summer - beginning of autumn.
Who feeds on ticks
Ticks are eaten by birds, lizards, toads, dragonflies, ants, spiders, ground beetles. Ground beetles and ants are considered the main enemies of ticks.
How to protect yourself from a tick
- When going into nature, wear clothes that are tight to the body. Outerwear should have as few folds and places as possible through which ticks can crawl onto a naked body. The legs need to be tucked into the bootlegs, or better, pulled over them.
- It is better to choose the color of outerwear in neutral pastel tones.
- You can not sit or lie on the grass, ticks cling to clothes and always crawl up;
- Use an agent that repels ticks (repellents), which can be purchased at any pharmacy or supermarket. If there are no such at hand, you can use a concentrated solution of confectionery vanillin.
- Every 10-15 minutes, conduct self-and mutual examinations for ticks, inspect clothes, paying attention to the seams, collar, where ticks can hide.
- Inspect pets after walks in nature, in the local area. For these purposes, it is convenient to use a hair dryer.
- When you come home, take a shower using a washcloth.
- In case of a tick sucking, seek medical help at a clinic or emergency room.
- Be sure to hand over the removed tick to the laboratory for research.
- Observe the annual tick-borne encephalitis vaccination schedule. In this case, the symptoms of the disease can be most smoothed out or absent altogether. It must be remembered that you only need to use the vaccine that is assigned to a specific region of residence or location.
Finding a sucked tick on the human body is, of course, the very first and most important sign of a bite. The tick usually bites in places with delicate skin, with a developed capillary system. It is possible for ticks to suck at two age stages - an imago (adult form) and / or a nymph (one of the larva forms). Visually, they are distinguished by the number of limbs:
imago - four pairs of legs;
nymph - three pairs of legs.
Tick removal methods
The sucked tick is tied with a thread, closer to the proboscis, and carefully, pulling its ends to opposite sides and up, pull it out. You can use tweezers to grab the tick against the surface of the skin and pull it vertically in even movements. There are also special tools for removing ticks. The procedure is carried out in special protective gloves.
Removing the tick with a thread.
Removing the tick with tweezers. 
Removing the tick with a special tick plier. (Analogue to a nail puller). 
Removing the tick using a special device with a loop at the end. A kind of tick twist. It is not recommended to use ointments, oils, creams, hot lotions, nail polish and others similar funds, since it is believed that such methods increase the salivation of the tick, increasing the risk of infection.
But the tick must be pulled out as quickly as possible, so most of the population uses what is at hand - various creams, petroleum jelly, birch tar, I also somehow used petroleum jelly and tar to remove the tick, which can be said - it helps. Without oxygen, the tick begins to climb out. With the help of a thread, tweezers or other improvised means, you gently help him get out.
If the head of the tick remains in the wound, you need to seek help from a surgeon or wait for its spontaneous exit.
The removed tick is stored in the refrigerator by placing it with a piece of damp cotton wool in a glass bottle with a tight lid. To carry out a microscopic examination of a live tick, it is delivered to the laboratory no later than two days from the moment of the bite. If this is not possible, then it is best to simply burn the tick.
Tick bite symptoms and signs
- The temperature rises to 37-38 degrees.
- Redness of the bite site.
- Drowsiness and weakness, itching, chills, aching joints.
- Photophobia.
- Quincke's edema (swelling of the eyelids, lips and other parts of the body), swollen lymph nodes ..
- Headache, nausea and vomiting, shortness of breath, and hallucinations may also be present.
Tick-borne encephalitis
Tick-borne encephalitis (spring-summer tick-borne meningoencephalitis) - natural focal viral infection characterized by fever, intoxication and damage to the gray matter of the brain (encephalitis) or the membranes of the brain and spinal cord (meningitis and meningoencephalitis). The disease can lead to persistent neurological and psychiatric complications and even death of the patient.
According to statistics, carriers of the virus are six out of a hundred ticks (at the same time, from 2 to 6% of bitten people can get sick from an infected individual).
Often, this disease is disguised as a cold or a common malaise. Also, the symptoms of encephalitis often begin to appear only 30 days after infection. These include the following conditions: - weakness in the neck, arms and legs; - an increase in body temperature. Often, the fever cannot be brought down within a few days. - the appearance and intensification of headaches, nausea, vomiting, dizziness; - the development of photophobia, the appearance of hallucinations, stunning consciousness; - numbness of the limbs, weakness and pain in the muscles, the occurrence of seizures, epileptic seizures and even paralysis.
Symptoms of tick-borne borreliosis
Lyme disease is the most common tick-borne disease in the Northern Hemisphere. The bacteria are transmitted to humans by the bite of infected ixodid ticks belonging to several species of the genus Ixodes.
Early manifestations of the disease may include
- Headache.
- Fatigue and a characteristic skin rash called erythema migrans.
- In some cases, in the presence of a genetic predisposition, the tissues of the joints, the heart, and also nervous system, eyes.
In most cases, the symptoms are controlled by antibiotics. The outcome of the disease largely depends on the timeliness and correctness of the diagnosis and early treatment of the infection. Untimely and inadequate therapy can lead to the development of "late stage", or chronic Lyme disease, which is difficult to cure and can result in disability or even death of the sick person.
As a rule, there are no symptoms of the disease in the first 20 days after infection. But after that, some signs may appear: - The bite stain changes color and increases in size. - The appearance of nausea and vomiting. Heat and joint pain. - The appearance on the body of characteristic spots, rashes, knots. - Violation of cardiac activity, the development of muscle weakness and cramps. - A few months after infection, the nervous system may begin to malfunction.
Anti-mite remedy
Each of us, of course, heard about very "bloodthirsty" animals called ticks, and many met with them personally in natural (and not only) conditions. In fact, ticks, like any other animals, cannot be ranked only as exceptionally harmful or deadly creatures.
Any species or taxonomic group of species should be considered only in conjunction with the features of their phylogenesis (origin), habitat, and relationships with other species of animals and plants. The complex of these factors determines its place in nature, while the consideration of any species from the point of view of usefulness or harmfulness seems to be an outdated and primitive approach that does not correspond to modern scientific ideas.
Who are ticks
The branch of zoology that studies ticks is called acarology... According to one of the accepted modern classifications invertebrates, ticks belong to the type of arthropods, subtype Chelicera, the class of arachnids, a subclass of ticks, which currently numbers just over forty-eight thousand species.
Unfortunately in recent times the negative impact of ticks on human health is becoming more and more pronounced, which will be discussed in detail below.
A detailed analysis of the role of ticks in nature would take too long, so we will limit ourselves to a short excursion on the main points of their participation in the processes in environment as well as in the human economy.
Blood sucking ticks
The greatest danger to humans and animals is posed by blood-sucking ticks, primarily because they are able to preserve and transfer pathogens of a number of severe infections from animals to humans for a long time. It is they who, as a rule, are given the most keen interest in various kinds of publications intended for a wide range of readers, which is not surprising, since almost everyone has heard about dangerous diseases, often fatal, spread by blood-sucking ticks.
How to remove a tick yourself
You can try to remove the tick yourself at home, although some sources do not recommend doing this, and this is most likely correct. If you really do it yourself, then it is most convenient to do this with small curved tweezers.
The tick is grasped as close to the proboscis as possible, and by sipping and rotating the tick around its own axis, remove it together with the proboscis. You can use a thread loop by grabbing the tick as close to the head as possible. Do not crush the tick with your fingers, and also lubricate it with various fats, such as oil.
If the proboscis still remains in the wound, then this is not fatal. With the proboscis sticking out above the surface of the skin, it can be unscrewed with tweezers, or contact the surgeon at the clinic. You cannot cut or pick out the bite yourself. Also, you should not try to burn the tick with a cigarette.
Diseases caused by ticks
Diseases of humans and animals caused by ticks are called acariasis... Diseases that develop as a result of the transmission of the pathogen through blood-sucking arthropods (in particular ticks) are called transmissible. Distinguish between specific vectors, that is, those in the body of which the pathogen goes through any stage of its development (or multiplies), and mechanical, in which the infectious agent does not develop and does not multiply, but after getting on oral apparatus or transmitted directly into the intestines through a bite or contamination (infection) of the host's wounds and mucous membranes.
The causative agent of an infection can be transmitted only through a vector (obligate vector-borne diseases, such as leishmaniasis), or by other means (through animal products, through the respiratory system). Not all ticks acquire infectious agents through direct contact with them.
In 1940, Academician E.N. Pavlovsky put forward the doctrine of the natural focus of diseases. According to him, these diseases are closely related to a complex of natural conditions and exist in the natural environment independently of a person. A natural focus is a specific geographic landscape in which the pathogen circulates from donor to recipient through a carrier. Pathogen donors are animals that have become ill with any vector-borne infection, or are a natural reservoir of the pathogen, without infecting the carriers themselves. Recipients of the pathogen are sick animals (or humans) that become donors after infection.
Thus, we see that the natural includes the following components:
- causative agent of the disease;
- carrier of the pathogen;
- pathogen donor;
- recipient of the pathogen;
- a certain natural biotope.
The frequency of infection of the recipient in the outbreak, as well as the pathogenesis of the disease, will depend on the degree of pathogenicity of the pathogen, its dose, the frequency of the attack of the vector on the recipient and the presence or absence of prior vaccination.
Now let's move on to a more detailed consideration of various infectious diseases, pathogens, and their causative agents and an assessment of the role of species and groups of ticks involved in the transfer process.
People and animals are attacked by ticks that are part of the families: Gamasoidea (gamasid ticks), Argasidae (argasidae), Trombidiidae (redling ticks), Ixodidae (ixodids). Argasaceae and Ixodidae are united in the superfamily Ixodoidea. Interestingly, some types of ticks never attack a person, others only in cases where there is no main host (so to speak from lack of food), and for others, a person serves as an ordinary victim.
Russia, due to the vastness and heterogeneity of its territories, is one of the world's largest areas for infectious diseases carried by ticks. In general, they spread over 20 infectious diseases on the territory of the CIS.
One of the most dangerous infections transmitted to humans with the help of ixodid ticks are various encephalitis.
In a broader sense, encephalitis is a neuroinfection, most often of a viral nature, it can also sometimes occur as a complication of certain infectious diseases. As a rule, they proceed severely, with lesions of the nervous system in the form of paralysis, deafness, respiratory failure, convulsions, often fatal outcomes, especially in late diagnosed cases.
Tick-borne encephalitis(CE), also spring-summer or taiga - primary viral encephalitis caused by arboviruses, occupies a leading position in Russia and in many European countries. You can also get it by eating raw cow's or goat's milk (alimentary route). The incubation period is 5-25 days, with alimentary penetration 2-3 days. It has three main genotypes of the virus - Far Eastern, Western, and Ural-Siberian.
The disease begins acutely, there is a chill, fever up to pyretic and hyperpyretic levels, severe headache (cephalalgia), myalgia, lethargy, drowsiness, less agitation. The skin of the face, neck, and rather of the body is hyper-hypertensive.
It usually takes place in the form of three forms: febrile, meningeal (with the addition of meningeal signs) and focal (characterized by convulsions, impaired consciousness), and the latter is characterized by high mortality. This disease has several characteristics that are specific to it. One of them is severe damage to the nervous system, expressed by paralysis and paresis of the neck and upper limbs, muscle atrophy, as well as in some cases of the syndrome of Kozhevnikovskaya epilepsy. Also characteristic feature CE is the possibility of developing a chronic progressive process, almost invariably leading to death. Currently, there is no radical treatment for the effects of CE. But you can nevertheless protect yourself from this formidable disease by implementing prevention - the introduction of a vaccine against tick-borne encephalitis.
As for the dynamics of the spread of this infection, according to the data of Rospotrenadzor over the past fifteen years, the territory where tick-borne encephalitis is endemic, is steadily expanding, and there has also been an increase in the number of individuals in the body of which the causative agent of this infection is directly isolated.
Among the leading regions in terms of the incidence of this disease are the Perm and Krasnoyarsk Territories, the Arkhangelsk, Vologda, Kirov, Kostroma, Kurgan, Tomsk and Tyumen regions, as well as the republics of Buryatia, Altai, Udmurtia and Karelia. In these territories, the number of infected patients significantly exceeds the Russian average figure of 2.18 per hundred thousand inhabitants.
In the Nizhny Novgorod region, the situation is as follows: from April 1, 2014, medical assistance in connection with tick sucking was provided to two thousand two hundred and thirty-eight Nizhny Novgorod residents, and according to the results of laboratory studies, fourteen ticks out of one thousand nine hundred and seventeen examined individuals contain the antigen of the tick-borne virus encephalitis.
Thus, the danger of infection in the spring-summer period with infectious diseases carried by ticks is quite high, and every year the statistics indicate a negative trend in this regard. The most typical vectors are the taiga tick (Ixodes persulcatus), the dog tick (Ixodes ricinus) (carries the western form of TBE), Dermacentor silvarum (common in the Far East).
It is worth noting some more vector-borne viral diseases, such as the Omsk and Crimean hemorrhagic fevers.
Omsk hemorrhagic fever- an acute viral disease, in the transmission of which blood-sucking ticks are also involved. The infection penetrates through the disturbed skin at the site of a tick bite or small wounds in contact with a muskrat or water rat, which are a natural reservoir of the pathogen. The main vectors are ixodid ticks Dermacentor pictus, Dermacentor marginatus. The disease is characterized by a hemorrhagic rash, headaches and muscle pains, nasal, pulmonary, intestinal bleeding is possible, blood vessels, kidneys and the nervous system can be affected. Etiotropic (targeting the cause) treatment for this moment not developed.
Crimean hemorrhagic fever- caused by the so-called Congo virus. It is characterized by fever, severe intoxication, up to infectious-toxic shock, and hemorrhages on the skin and internal organs. Reservoir in the countryside - wild mammals, livestock, birds. Carriers are mites Hyalomma marginatus, Ixodes ricinus, Dermatcentor marginatus. In Russia, outbreaks of this infection are noted in the Astrakhan, Rostov, Volgograd regions, Crimea, in the Stavropol, Krasnodar regions, Dagestan. Kalmykia. Found in Ukraine, Central Asia, Africa. Treatment is etiotropic and symptomatic; various immunoglobulins are used.
Continuing the list of diseases carried by ticks, it is also worth noting ixodic tick-borne borelliosis (ICD) also called Lyme disease, tick-borne erythema, systemic tick-borne borreliosis. It is also a natural focal infectious disease belonging to the group of spirochetoses, bacterial etiology, transmitted by transmission. It can turn into a chronic or recurrent course and affect the brain, heart, liver, eyes, joints. It is caused by borellias from the spirochete family, which are found in the intestines of the host tick. In the patient's body, it is excreted from the blood, CSF, synovial fluid. The infection is widespread in the USA, Canada, most of Europe, also in Russia, Mongolia. Japan and several other countries. The peak incidence usually occurs in the spring-summer (April-June) and summer-autumn (August-October) periods. The disease can proceed in three stages, differing in the duration and severity of the course, as well as in characteristic symptoms. Treatment is carried out with antibiotics and fortifying drugs. The already mentioned canine and taiga ticks, as well as the black-footed tick (Ixodes scapularis) and Ixodes damini found in the United States, can participate in the transmission of Lyme disease.
The bites of a chicken tick that lives in poultry houses when attacked on a person can cause acute dermatitis.
Also ticks are involved in the transfer of pathogens such as ehrlichiosis... Caused by ehrlichiae, a bacterium related to rickettsia. Distributed mainly in the USA and Japan. There are two distinct epidemiologically and etiologically forms: monocytic and granulocytic human ehrlichiosis. Clinically, they are practically indistinguishable, characterized by headache and muscle pain, chills, fever, and a decrease in the level of platelets and leukocytes. Light to severe course. Antibiotic treatment.
Another infection, also probably known to many is tularemia... This infection is typical for Russia, North America, Europe, Japan. It is transmitted by ticks, also insects, or by contamination with sick and dead animals, with contaminated water and food. Symptoms are fever, night sweats, talking pain, enlargement and often suppuration of the lymph nodes. There are different forms - intestinal, bubonic, pulmonary, etc. The lethality is low, treatment with antibiotic therapy.
also in last years on the territory of Russia are marked new forms of tick-borne fevers- the so-called Kemerovo and Lipovnik fevers. The first is characteristic, as the name suggests, for the Kemerovo region, the second is described for a number of European countries. Called by arboviruses. Tank - small mammals, birds. The main vectors are ixodid ticks of the genus Dermacentor. The clinic is expressed by fever, intoxication, rash, hemorrhages, sometimes signs of meningoencephalitis.
Some ticks from the argaz superfamily can also play a significant role in the transmission of dangerous infections to humans. About 12 species of them, under certain conditions, attack humans, these are the genera Argas and Ornithodorus. Their bites cause itching, red rash. Argas mite saliva contains potent toxins. For example, the population of Mexico is very afraid of attacks by the tick Ornithodorus coriaceus no less than rattlesnakes, since its bites are extremely painful. An interesting fact is that in Khan Bukhara, argazaceae multiplied in such myriad quantities (for example, in prisons and "bug pits") that some prisoners were simply sucked to death by hordes of hungry ticks.
Among the dangerous argazids, it is worth highlighting the Caucasian tick participating in the transfer of the tick-borne relapsing fever, which we have already considered, also the Persian tick, the shell tick, as well as the village tick, which carries tick-borne recurrent encephalitis.
In some individuals, ticks and their larvae can simultaneously present causative agents of several diseases, for example tick-borne encephalitis and tick-borne borelliosis or a combination of babesia and ehrlichia with viruses. When the host organism is infected with more than one infectious agent, so-called mixed infections occur, characterized by a significant increase in the severity of clinical manifestations, an increase in the number of symptoms and the duration of their course. Most often, people are mixed with babesia and the causative agents of Lyme disease.
Such is short review the main dangerous infections that a person can become infected with through blood-sucking ticks. Obviously, on the territory of Russia, the risk of contracting one or more infections during the warm season is quite high. Their clinical diagnosis is difficult, and laboratory diagnostics is not always effective, especially in the early stages.
Measures aimed at improving them and attracting the latest data from epidemiology, ecology and zoology to this process are priorities for health authorities around the world. Precautions and protection measures are quite simple: when visiting forests and meadows, use overalls, use repellents, and promptly carry out self- and mutual inspection.
If a tick is found, you should immediately contact a specialist - a doctor - therapist or infectious disease specialist (it is undesirable to try to remove the tick yourself). It is advisable to conduct a study of the tick for the presence of possible pathogens in it, as well as pass the necessary tests. In general, be vigilant and observe the elementary aspects of prevention and protection, and then a walk in nature will not be overshadowed by a subsequent stay in an infectious diseases hospital and a period of long rehabilitation.
The fight against harmful insects that attack various plants includes not only the use of insecticides and. One of the oldest ways to destroy pests was invented by Nature itself. This is a biological method using natural enemies or entomophages.
This method has a number of advantages over all others. The use of insecticides is not only harmful to people, but also to the environment, as opposed to biological method... In addition, it is much cheaper to attract entomophages.
Entomophagous groups
There are several groups of natural enemies. They act in different ways, not only destroying them mechanically, but also penetrate into the body, damaging it from the inside.
Pathogenic microorganisms
These include bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Having invaded the pest's body, they cause numerous pathological processes, which ultimately lead first to the weakening of the insect, and then to death.
A series of preparations containing such microorganisms is produced. They are called that. microbiological... These include "Lepidocide", "Bitoxibacillin", "Dendrobacillin". The live bacteria included in the composition are used against many lepidoptera (butterflies) and their larvae, Colorado beetles, herbivorous mites, leaf rollers, sawflies and other pests.
Carnivorous insects
To effectively deal with plant pests, you need enough a large number of beneficial insects. To increase their number, it is recommended not to use in the garden. chemicals, which do not have selective activity and destroy everyone in a row. An exception is the biological preparations Iskra-Bio and.
Another significant group of entomophages, which is very effective in destroying harmful insects. By attracting them to your site, you provide quite powerful protection for your plants, since voracious birds are able to get rid of a whole population of pests.
You can increase the number of birds flying to visit with the help of baits. For example, tits are very fond of lard, so it is enough to hang strips of unsalted product on fruit trees.
Insectivores
They are no less voracious and actively destroy pests. Some eat them whole, others suck out internal fluids. The result is always the same - the death of harmful insects.
Various spiders are most beneficial. They hang a cobweb into which a lot of harmful insects fall. And it's not just flies.
Many butterflies, moths and their larvae become food for spiders.
Who helps in pest control
Among the varieties of this suborder of insects, there are those that live on the water surface. We often see them while relaxing by the water, without even realizing that we have a bug in front of us.
A predatory and voracious mite, intensively used to combat garden and garden pests. Phytoseiulus acts in natural and artificially created plant associations as a natural regulator of the number of phytophages
Everyone has heard stories about nomadic ants that travel in giant columns, devouring all living things in their path. What are these insects and is it really that great danger they carry?
The bullet ant is a large predatory insect common in the rainforests of the South and Central America... The pain from an ant bite is equal in intensity to the pain from a bullet wound, but it does not threaten a person's life, except in cases with allergy sufferers
In recent years, the study of biological diversity has sharply intensified. The assessment of biological resources also affected hoverflies, which not only actively pollinate various plants, but also significantly reduce the number of pests at a certain stage of development.
Inexperienced gardeners and gardeners often confuse these insects with pests. Meanwhile, entomophages play an important role in reducing the population of caterpillars, aphids and beetles.
Chalcids, belonging to the order of riders, play an important role in protecting crops from various pests- aphids, caterpillars and scale insects
Dragonflies are one of the most ancient insects. They have excellent eyesight and are virtuoso hunters. Reproduction of dragonflies takes place in water, where an adult fertilized female lays eggs. Dragonfly larvae are characterized by poor survival rate, since many aquatic inhabitants are not averse to feasting on them. Dragonflies exterminate insects harmful to humans
Red beetle with black dots on curved elytra, popularly known as the sun or ladybug, is our main assistant in preserving the harvest - a natural enemy of all kinds of aphids that harm orchards, berry and vegetable gardens
Easily recognizable by their noticeable orange coloration, the two-point ladybugs are known throughout the world as uncompromising fighters against garden pests, such as aphids and ticks, but the secrets of their lives are not known to everyone
Are you wondering what kind of insect it is, which has a strange name - the bombardier beetle? Then read this article!
The most active representatives of entomophages
Ladybug (coccinellida)
The most effective enemy of any aphid species. Moreover, the greatest damage is caused not by an adult beetle, but by its larva. If an adult individual destroys up to 50 aphids per day, then the larva is more than 500.
Great fertility is another plus of this bright, cute bug. One female lays up to 300 eggs per season. In addition to aphids, it hunts whiteflies, worms and larvae of the Colorado potato beetle.
Fast predatory beetles, actively feed in the evening and at night. They are distinguished by an oblong body of dark colors with a metallic sheen. It is one of the most useful predators in the fight against plant pests.
One adult beetle can eat up to 350 caterpillars per summer. Having found a victim, he releases a poisonous liquid on it, which quickly dissolves the organs and tissues of the insect. The beetle eats the resulting liquidish homogeneous mass. The larva is even more voracious and destroys much more pests.
A spectacularly colored flying predator, often pretending to be someone else, such as a wasp. Disguise is needed to escape from enemies. An adult fly feeds on flower nectar, and its larva benefits.
She eats spider mites, aphids and eggs of many insects. While the larval stage lasts, the individual eats up to 2000 pests. Flies can be attracted by planting hogweed, carrots, dill and some other umbrella plants.
Lacewing
An insect with a long, bright green body. Fertile enough, some species can produce up to 1500 eggs per season. The larvae are very voracious and gladly destroy the eggs of pests, aphids and herbivorous small mites. They are often used to kill insects not only in garden plots, but also in greenhouses.
After emerging from the eggs, the riders begin to feed. internal organs victims, leading them to death.
Birds 
For the destruction of pests, tits, swifts, flycatchers, pikas, starlings, wagtails, nuthatches, and redstarts should be attracted to the sites. All of them feed on numerous caterpillars, beetle larvae and adults, bringing very tangible benefits in the fight against harmful insects.
Birds are well attracted by hedges of branching shrubs such as acacia, rose hips, gooseberries. You can arrange feeders and bird houses (birdhouses and titmouses).
Every year the area of distribution of ticks increases, there are more and more of them. Along with them, the number of deadly diseases transmitted to animals and humans by these dangerous predators is also growing.
Today, it is easy to pick up a tick in a city square or in a park, on personal plot and in the garden. The creatures in the chitinous shells are increasingly squeezing the ring around the person.
You can find out about what the tick eats and about its habits by reading this article.
About the types of ticks
All ticks belong to the order of small arachnids, uniting about 20 thousand species. What does a tick eat other than blood? Some of the mites presented below feed on other types of food as well.
The largest group of soil mites is armored mites... They live in forest soils and litter. They chew on decaying plant residues with abundant microflora with their gnawing chelicerae. They carry tape helminths that affect livestock.
Small insects gnawing with their chelicerae are barn mites (or bread and flour mites). They live in rotting plant debris and in the soil. In warehouses of agricultural products, they cause deterioration of flour, grain and cereals. In people working in such premises, they can cause severe skin irritation in the form of an allergic reaction. The tick feeds on insect tissues.
It is best studied as a serious pest of poultry farms. What does a chicken tick eat? They are active at night, when they leave the cracks of the chicken coop and, attacking chickens, suck their blood. It also happens that with a massive defeat, birds die from anemia.
To learn more about what ticks eat in nature, let's get acquainted with the most dangerous ticks for humans.
Encephalitis ticks
Below are the mites that are the most aggressive.
The encephalitis tick is one of the most common and famous. It is important to note that the encephalitis tick is not a separate breed (species) of arthropod insects. All types of ticks can become infected with encephalitis, so it is impossible to identify signs that determine the degree of danger. But it should be remembered that such an infection can lead to the death of a person.
By appearance it is impossible to determine whether it is encephalitic or not, therefore, when going into the forest, you should take the necessary measures to protect yourself from contact with predators.
It is ixodid ticks that most often act as carriers of dangerous encephalitis. They also have a second name - hard mites. They owe this name to a hard chitinous coating, which is a kind of protective shell. Both canine and taiga ticks belong to ixodids.
Forest tick habits
What do ticks eat in the forest? With the blood of various animals and humans.
As a rule, ticks rarely rise above a meter from the ground, and when attacking a victim, they try to move higher to the softest areas of the skin. Females of ticks are more voracious, they can suck blood for 6 days without stopping, while for males 3 days are enough for saturation.
Relatively small, their dimensions in a state of hunger do not exceed 4 mm in length. When blood is sucked out in large volumes, the size can increase up to 120 times.
The tick bite is not felt, because the insect introduces a special saliva that blocks pain in humans. In this regard, the tick may long time eat blood imperceptibly.
An excellent sense of smell helps the tick to find its prey. In order for a predator to climb on a person, it is enough for the latter to stop in the forest, even for a couple of minutes.
About diseases carried by ticks
Knowing what the tick eats, it should be remembered that it is a carrier of various diseases.
In fact, there are many, but 2 species mainly have a real dangerous epidemiological significance: Persulcatus (or taiga tick), which lives in the European and Asian parts of Russia; Ixodes Ricinus (or European forest tick) - in the European part.
Ticks can carry the following diseases:
- encephalitis;
- tick-borne typhus;
- Lyme disease (or borreliosis);
- hemorrhagic fever;
- fever spotted;
- fever of Marseilles;
- babesiosis;
- tularemia;
- ehrlichiosis.
Many of these diseases are dangerous and not very treatable, and some show signs only 10-20 days after the bite.
Important information
After it became known what the forest tick eats and what this can lead to, you should know how to protect yourself from predatory insects, and what to do if, nevertheless, the tick sucked. Be sure to remember that the part that pierces the skin (proboscis) is equipped with small "spines". They are directed towards the back of the tick.
Therefore, if it is pulled along the axis, the "spines" bristle and bite even more firmly into the skin, which can lead to the separation of the tick's proboscis from the body, which can forever remain in the dermis.
To avoid this, the insect should be removed in a circular motion (unscrewed), and not simply pulled out. In this case, the spines on the proboscis will roll to the axis of rotation, while the head will not come off.
If this was not done correctly, the suction site (where the head remained) should be wiped with cotton wool moistened with alcohol, after which the head should be removed with a sterile needle like a common splinter.
Conclusion
Ticks are such creatures that, if necessary, can in nature for a long time (even months), and in laboratories and for years, do without food.
This is due to their inactivity and, in connection with this, the rather economical expenditure of the body's energy reserves.
The tick (lat. Acari) is one of the oldest inhabitants of our planet. Contrary to the erroneous opinion, ticks are not insects, but are representatives of the order of arachnids.
Description of ticks. What does a tick look like?
In size, these representatives of arthropods rarely reach 3 mm, in general, the size of ticks ranges from 0.1 to 0.5 mm. As befits arachnids, ticks lack wings. Adult ticks have 4 pairs of legs, while specimens that have not reached sexual maturity have three pairs of legs. Without eyes, ticks orient themselves in space with the help of a well-developed sensory apparatus, thanks to which they can smell the victim 10 meters away. According to the structure of the body, all types of ticks can be divided into leathery, with accrete head and chest, and solid (armored), in which the head is attached to the body movably. Oxygen supply also depends on the structure of the body: the former breathe through the skin or trachea, while the armored ones have special spiracles.
What do ticks eat?
By the way of nutrition, ticks are divided into:
Predators of blood-sucking ticks wait for the prey, settling in ambush on blades of grass, twigs and sticks. With the help of paws equipped with claws and suction cups, they attach to it, after which they move to the place of feeding (groin, neck or head region, armpits). Moreover, the victim of a tick can be not only a person, but also other herbivorous ticks or thrips.
A tick bite can be very dangerous, as ticks are carriers of diseases, including encephalitis. Ticks can do without food for up to 3 years, but at the slightest opportunity they show miracles of gluttony and can increase in weight up to 120 times.
Types of ticks. Tick classification.
Ticks have more than 40,000 species, which scientists have divided into 2 main superorders:
Description of the main types of mites:
. It is absolutely harmless to birds, animals and humans, as it is a complete "vegetarian" and feeds on plant juices, settling from the lower part of the leaf and sucking the juices out of it. It is a carrier of gray rot harmful to plants.
It feeds on its congeners, therefore, sometimes a person deliberately settles in greenhouses and greenhouses to combat spider mites.
Barn (flour, bread) mite. For humans, in principle, it is safe, but for grain or flour reserves it is a serious pest: products are clogged with waste products of flour mites, which leads to rotting and the formation of mold.
lives in the southern part of Russia, in Kazakhstan, Transcaucasia, the mountains of Central Asia, in the south Western Siberia... It mainly settles in forest-steppes or forests. Dangerous for animals and humans, can be a carrier of encephalitis, plague, brucellosis, fever.
harmless to humans, but dangerous to dogs. Dwells everywhere. Especially active in coastal areas and on Black sea coast.
Where do ticks live?
Ticks live in every climatic zone and on all continents. Due to the fact that ticks prefer moist places, they choose forest ravines, undergrowth, thickets near the banks of streams, flooded meadows, overgrown paths, animal hair, dark storage rooms with agricultural products, as their habitat. Some species are adapted for life in the seas and reservoirs with fresh water... Some mites live in houses and apartments, for example house mites, dust mites, flour mites.
Spread of ticks.
How long does a tick live?
The lifespan of a tick depends on the species. For example, house dust mites or dust mites live 65-80 days. Other species, such as the taiga tick, live up to 4 years. Ticks can live from 1 month to 3 years without food.
Reproduction of ticks. Stages (cycle) of tick development.
Most ticks are oviparous, although there are viviparous species. Like all arachnids, ticks have a clear division into females and males. The most ineresting life cycle tracked in blood-sucking species. The following stages of tick development are distinguished:
- Larva
- Nymph
- Adult
Tick eggs.
In late spring or early summer, the female tick, saturated with blood, makes a clutch of 2.5-3 thousand eggs. What do tick eggs look like? The egg is a rather large cell in relation to the size of the female, consisting of cytoplasm and nucleus, and covered with a two-layer shell, which is painted in various colors. Tick eggs can be completely different shape- from round or oval, to flattened and elongated.
What do tick eggs look like?