Ticks - where they live and why they are dangerous. Mite activity and their habitats Where dust mites live

There are a huge number of ticks in nature. Frequently encountered ones include:

• ixodid (it is also called encephalitis, since some individuals carry an infection that affects the human brain);
• scabies;
• dusty

Each of them has its own habitat. Most often, people observe these insects in nature in spring and summer. Ticks live in the grass, if we are talking about ixodids. Therefore, while walking in the park, it is very easy to pick up an uninvited neighbor. Recently, they are often found within city limits.

Dust mites live in dachas and city apartments, although people may not notice such unpleasant neighbors for years.

• armpits,
• groin area,
• head.

Insects are most dangerous in early spring. During this season, people who go to the country or to the forest should be especially careful. Even if the weather is hot outside, you should choose clothes that cover most of the body, especially the arms and legs. It is advisable to wear a Panama hat on your head. You can learn more about these safety measures in the video.

Where do forest ticks live at different times of the year?

Not all people know about where dangerous insects can be found at different times of the year. Therefore, it is worth studying this issue in more detail.

After each trip to nature, it is necessary to conduct a thorough inspection of your body for the presence of blood-sucking insects. Particular attention should be paid to their favorite places, which are covered with thin skin - the elbow and knee bends, the area behind the ears, and the stomach.

Where do dust mites live?

Dust mites live in close proximity to humans. But they cannot be found in grass and trees, since there are no conditions for a comfortable life for insects in such an environment.

Good hygiene and safety precautions will help you prevent infestation by different types of ticks.

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

What are ticks

Ticks are just small arachnid arthropods 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, he is accompanied by bites from representatives of this family.

Ticks can rightly be classified as 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 rainforests. That is, it is difficult to find a place on the planet where ticks do not live.

The rest of the ticks live in various types of vegetation, feed on plant components, organic matter, their relatives or their remains, posing no threat to humans.

Which ticks are dangerous to humans and pets?

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

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

Argasid and ixodid ticks

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

• infection of the bitten person with pathogens of dangerous diseases;
• itching and allergic reactions;
• dermatitis and other skin lesions.

Argasid mites

Not all representatives of argasid mites are capable of causing harm with their attacks in our region; residents of South America suffer from the majority of them.

In our latitudes, the most likely danger from this family is the following representatives:

Where do ixodid ticks live and how do they get on victims?

As soon as the ground cover warms up above 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 moist grass cover. Climbing onto a blade of grass, a branch of a bush, a twig, bloodsuckers can wait as long as they want, sometimes for months, for a source of food in order to use the claws on their paws to cling to fur or clothing, and when they reach the skin, use special suction cups to attach themselves to it and bite.

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

• The larva of an ixodid tick above 30 cm is not able to climb, so 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 of attachment.
• The nymph can already afford to climb higher in order to increase the chance of meeting a potential warm-blooded victim. But still, she rarely manages to overcome more than a meter. A one-time saturation is also enough for a nymph, and a person may well become her probable accidental “breadwinner.”
• It is difficult to find an adult tick taller than one and a half meters. This is the maximum height from which it can reach the body of its 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 bushes, try not to walk near the edges of paths, and do not choose wild grassy meadows for an overnight stay or a picnic. It is better to prefer “bald” clearings, and in a pine forest on a dry layer of fallen pine needles, where there is no grass, it is completely unrealistic to encounter a tick.

Why are ixodid ticks dangerous?

The highest danger from a tick bite is the transmission of the causative agent of encephalitis to the victim.

• If not treated in a timely manner, a person faces death. Statistics for Russia indicate 2,300 cases of infection with tick-borne encephalitis in 2015, 24 people died. The only effective protective measure is vaccination against encephalitis.
• The second danger is the transmission of Lyme disease, or borreliosis, through the bite of a bloodsucker, which, if treatment is inadequate or not prescribed in a timely manner, leads to severe disability and even death.
• For pets, there is an increased risk of contracting piroplasmosis after a tick attack, resulting in the death of the animal if treatment is not started immediately after the tick attack.

The carriers of these diseases in the northern hemisphere in most cases are 2 types of ixodid ticks - taiga and dog ticks.

How do Ixodid ticks reproduce?

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

When ixodid ticks bite through the skin, they inject an enzyme with an analgesic.

Measures to protect against tick attacks

When going to a park, forest, or planting, use any form of repellent, wear closed clothing, and protect your pet with drops, spray, or a collar. When you return, carefully inspect the body and, if you find a tick, remove it correctly.

If you live in a tick-infested area or are planning a trip there, vaccination is the best preventive measure.

Males dig into the skin, drink blood, and then quickly fall, so a person may not notice them. But the females, sucking very tightly, sit and absorb blood for many hours and days. When the tick pierces the skin, it secretes anesthetic saliva, which glues the proboscis to the wound for better attachment.

Are there ticks in the city?

The widespread belief that city residents need not be afraid is refuted by scientific data and statistics of injured people. In every locality and even a large metropolis there are park areas, squares and areas sown with grass. These are the places where ticks live in the summer. Scientists cannot answer the question of how they get there, but sanitary services find them there.

But in small settlements, where green areas are located near forests, fields with livestock or summer cottages, ticks can be picked up almost on the road or next to the lawn, and the danger from them is small, but still exists.

Why are ticks and their bites dangerous?

Among the ixodid species living in the Russian Federation, 2 species pose a danger to humans:

• European forest, distributed throughout Europe, except for the northernmost regions, in North Africa and the European part of Russia;
• , whose habitat is in the middle and southern taiga zones.

According to statistics, the percentage of “bloodsuckers” who carry infections is only 1.5-5%. However, it is impossible to externally distinguish a healthy tick from an infected one, and due to the long incubation period of such diseases, the first symptoms of the disease may appear only after 5-14 days.

Regions where there are the most ticks with a high risk of disease:

• borreliosis – , ;
• – North-West of the Russian Federation, Volga region, Karelia, regions of the Central District, Far East, most cases are registered in Vladivostok and the region;
• hemorrhagic fever – Volgograd, Rostov regions, Caucasus.

According to Rospotrebnadzor, this year you can find regions where there are no . These are the central regions of the European part, including Moscow, Tula, Kursk, Oryol, Ryazan, Smolensk, Lipetsk, Tambov, Murmansk regions, Southern and North Caucasus federal districts, Magadan region, Kamchatka Territory, Yakutia and Chukotka.

How are viral infections spread by ticks?

From an infected female, pathogens of infectious diseases are transmitted to all offspring. Infection of a person occurs during a bite when the tick injects saliva with the virus under the skin.

When going on a picnic or a walk in the forest, where ticks may be located, you should remember that they can crawl only in the bottom-up direction, and select the appropriate equipment:

Information about where ticks can live and how they get on human skin will be useful for all people who are going for a walk in the forest or park, to the country house or to a picnic. Compliance with all safety rules will help avoid attacks by “bloodsuckers” and possible infection with serious infectious diseases.

To protect yourself and your home or summer cottage from ticks, the first thing you need to know is where this blood-sucking creature lives and what it needs for a happy life.

Tick ​​habitats

Ticks (ixodidae) live throughout our country, and not only in Siberia or the Far East, as some sometimes like to say. There are ticks in northern China and in most European countries: the Baltic states, Germany, Scandinavia, Poland, the Czech Republic, France and Austria. If you take a cross-section of the statistically average tick (ixodid), you can safely highlight the following.

Ticks require high air humidity - no lower than 80%. This is due to the fact that the tick is accustomed to living in humid conditions and always sticks to the ground, thick grass, household garbage, etc. What’s funny is that ticks do not exist in a swamp, where the humidity is always higher and the area is flooded.

They need animals to feed. Ticks do not consider humans their main delicacy. They happily cling to small animals, cattle and even domestic animals. Actually, it is they who need ticks for food, and not humans.

Ticks find optimal living conditions on fresh forest edges with adjacent meadows; in clearings abundantly overgrown with ferns and moss; in deciduous forests, where there is abundant vegetation and small rivers, ponds and streams.

Where are ticks found?

Most often, ticks live on slightly sun-warmed slopes with tall grass and small trees. They can also settle in coniferous forests, settling in brush piles of dead vegetation.

It is important to know! Tick ​​activity begins in early April with the first reasonable warming to +4 and +5 degrees Celsius. A little later, with the growth of the tick population, the number of attacks increases, as well as their appetite. If the temperature suddenly drops to -5 or below, the tick hides in the foliage and falls into torpor.

To avoid being targeted by a tick, the first thing you need to do is stay away from tall grass. Ticks constantly concentrate near paths and forest roads, trying to find their victims by smell. But in dry pine forests and places where there is no grass, ticks are extremely rare, and most often they are completely absent. The meadow tick, which also lives in short grass, is not so aggressive towards humans and, even more so, does not infect encephalitis so often.

It is the grass that serves as a feeding place for the tick, so 90% of all attacks occur from bushes with a total height of 20 cm to 1.5 meters. Ticks do not like to hunt in short grass, so if you cut your garden plot short, you can partially protect yourself from their presence.

This is what a regular tick looks like when it has drunk blood

The tick looks small, reaching 3–4 mm in length, but if the female has drunk blood, its size increases to 10 mm, and the color also changes to light gray. Females lay about 17,000 eggs in the ground, but due to complex ontogeny, only a few pairs of insects survive. The larvae feed with the help of terrestrial animals such as mustelids and rodents. Adult males are several times smaller than the female.

Area

Not everyone knows where ticks live. In the meantime, this is very important, since this is the only way to completely protect yourself from their bites.
Ticks often live in dense thickets and forests with dead wood. Unfortunately, insects live not only in forests. With the loss of agriculture in Russia, many lands fell into loss, stagnation and completely ceased to be cultivated. Tick ​​habitat has increased significantly. In such places, insects accumulate in double mode and usually such dangerous areas are located close to human habitation.

Ticks mainly live:

• ditches and nearby sections of roads;
• abandoned fields;
• forest shelterbelts;
• forest park urban area.

Not many residents of our country know where insects live, which is why cases of tick bites spread with the onset of the warm months of spring and summer.

Human activity does not reduce the spread of insects. Ticks are common in parks, cleared areas and around homes, but they often prefer secluded areas out of direct sunlight. Insects have spread throughout the city, and the number of infected city residents is increasing over time. The habitat of ticks is tall grass, not forest, which is why this pest is not found on mowed lawns.

Activity

Ticks overwinter under leaves or under snow. Males die before winter, while females wait out the winter and lay eggs in the spring with the first thaw, then die.

The growth process of an individual lasts about 7-8 months. During this time, the males manage to live and die by the onset of winter. Ticks do not always hibernate; if winter comes early, some individuals do not have time to reprogram and fall asleep.

The first insect bites occur when the earth has time to warm up by 5-7 degrees, usually this period occurs in April-May. The peak of bites from these pests is the end of May - mid-June. Subsequently, the number of infected people decreases, insects cease to be active due to the heat. The second peak of activity occurs at the end of August and September, but canines usually attack at this time.

Everyone believes that ticks jump on their prey and are immediately absorbed into its skin. Actually this is not true. Few people know how insects attack. They do not tend to jump, but they wait for their prey on a tree branch or low plant. Ticks in the garden and in any other place sit on the tip of a branch or blade of grass, their hind legs are located on the branch, and their front legs are spread out in anticipation of the victim. At the slightest movement, the insect clings to something that passed next to them, this could be clothing or a hair on the body of a person or animal. Ticks do not tend to run several kilometers in search of prey. They are used to waiting; if they fail to attach themselves to the victim, they crawl out onto the same blade of grass and wait for up to several weeks.

Apartment or dust individuals

Ticks live not only in spacious plantations and fields, but also in apartments and private houses. In this case, these individuals are called dust.

Their size reaches 0.1-0.2 mm, so it is impossible to see them without a microscope.

Ticks in an apartment are a common phenomenon, but not everyone knows that these pests have settled in their home, causing allergic reactions and other diseases. The habitat of ticks in the house is dust collections, which include:

• mattresses and pillows;
• corners;
• carpets, especially terry;
• Stuffed Toys;
• clothes, usually winter, that have been lying in the closet for a long time.

Ticks live almost everywhere and it is impossible to completely get rid of domestic ticks. To reduce their number, just follow a few simple rules of hygiene and cleaning:

1. Carry out wet cleaning with saline solution at least 1-2 times a week.
2. Change mattresses and pillows every 5–7 years.
3. Beat and wash carpets.
4. Ventilate your apartment or house.
5. Knock out soft toys.

The habitat of ticks is very diverse; these pests are found in forests, fields, lawns and even in apartments. It is quite difficult to protect yourself from them, but it is possible if you follow simple rules of hygiene and hiking.