The season of tick activity in 2019 began right on time, and the first victims turned to emergency rooms in April. The first ticks wake up and stick to a person usually in mid-April, last year the first cases of bites were recorded in March, and these are not isolated cases, but a full-fledged beginning of the tick season. And how is the situation now? Are ticks active and do they pose a threat to people and animals? Consider the main periods of activity and ways to protect against them.

Tick ​​activity period: when does it start and how long does it last?

Early snowmelt and persistent warm weather in March contributed to the early awakening of ticks. The first last year was recorded on April 3. The general activity of ticks is observed April to October.

When does tick season start?? The onset of tick activity begins at April – May When the positive temperature was fixed, the snow melted.

When does tick season end?? The end of the season usually falls on September – October when the weather is cool and damp. In 2019, the tick season will end in November.

Are ticks active now? In the central region of Russia, in Ukraine, in the CIS countries and Europe, ticks came out of hibernation and went in search of food, so they can pose a threat to humans and domestic animals.

Most favorable conditions for tick activity:

• Air temperature + 18-20 degrees;
• 80% air humidity.

Usually the activity of the tick reaches the active phase in mid April, he comes out of hibernation and begins to actively hunt and breed. In June, the population begins to decline due to dry and hot weather. The second wave of the activity phase falls on, and sometimes October, it is weaker than spring, but bites are just as likely. Warm autumn delays the tick's hibernation, and if the first frosts occur in September, the tick season can be considered over.

Precautions for visiting dangerous areas and places

A tick can be picked up anywhere, even in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv, Minsk or any other city. But most often they are found:

• in the forest area;
• in the forest park zone;
• on suburban area.

For forest walks and outdoor recreation, pick up closed clothes, a collar outerwear should fit to the neck, it is desirable to fill the T-shirt. Sleeves and legs should be long. It is better to put on rubber shoes, preferably high boots. Cover your head with a scarf or cap. If the clothes are light, then it will not be difficult for you to see a tick crawling on it.

For stops and parking in the forest, choose dry pine glades without tall thickets. Do not sit on the ground, especially do not lie down in the grass. Before spending the night and after, be sure to inspect the entire body.

From time to time examine yourself and your loved ones for the presence of bloodsuckers. This issue should not be taken lightly. If a tick that has not yet attached itself is found, remove it from yourself. If it sticks, then the faster you remove it, the less risk of contracting a serious disease.

Forest clothing must be stored separately from ordinary clothing so that ticks do not pass onto it. Upon arrival from the forest, inspect the clothes, shake them out in a place remote from the populated area and put them in a bag and tie it tightly. Another good way protect clothing from ticks - treat it with an acaricidal agent before and after walking through the forest.

Use drugs that repel or kill ticks. Drugs can be purchased at pharmacies and hardware stores. Before buying and using, be sure to read the instructions.

Remember! There are three main types of tick sprays:

repellent– repel ticks, can be applied to open areas skin. They work for about 2-5 hours, then disappear.

Acaricidal- kill ticks, applied to clothing, can not be applied to the skin. The effect lasts up to several days.

What should I do if bitten by a tick?

First of all, you need as soon as possible, using a thread or a special veterinary device.

Don't use oil or other fats to extract the tick is a delusion. After oil treatment, the tick can dig even deeper, but it is unlikely to suffocate.

Try not to kill the tick and leave its head under the skin, carefully remove it and place it in a transparent jar with a blade of grass or moistened cotton wool so that it does not die.

Take a jar with a live tick to the laboratory, where it will be examined for the presence of causative agents of serious diseases - encephalitis, Lyme disease.

Vaccination against tick-borne encephalitis

If you are planning a trip to a region prone to a high risk of infection with tick-borne encephalitis, think about protecting your body in advance. it is worth starting to do in advance - in the fall. Immunity to encephalitis is developed after three vaccinations with an interval of 1 month. There is currently no preventive vaccine against borreliosis, only against encephalitis.

Will any bite of an infected tick lead to human infection or? No, not every bite from an infected tick will result in disease. It all depends on:

• the time the tick sucked blood;
• the concentration of the virus in the body of the tick;
• features of the microorganism;
• human immunity.

Think in advance about the safety of your family and pets, even before a trip to the country or to the forests of the Moscow region. Thus, you will save yourself and your loved ones from possible serious health problems. Have a nice holiday!

It seemed to you that there are more and more ticks every year? You didn't think so! Three years ago, 410,000 victims applied to the country's medical organizations for tick bites, the year before last - 440,000; and in the past - 530 thousand people. How many didn't apply? Two million? Three? About 2000-3700 people are infected by these arachnids with tick-borne encephalitis every year, 25-37 of them die. A little? Do not rush to breathe a sigh of relief. Cases of infection with Lyme disease (borreliosis) are detected up to 9900 per year, and this disease is not always detected. In total, ixodid ticks carry 300 species of pathogens (at least three viral, 22 bacterial and several protozoal infections are transmitted to humans) and infect ticks with them, according to some sources, every twentieth donor.

Why is the number of ticks growing so rapidly; is it possible to destroy them completely, how to protect yourself from ticks, what to do after a bite, why it is dangerous not to go to the laboratory, where the situation is the worst and how to process a summer cottage - Lenta.ru was looking for answers to all these questions.

Like raisins from compote

In May we brought a horse from Rzhev, - oh personal experience Petr Kamenchenko, deputy editor-in-chief of Lenta.ru, tells how to communicate with ticks. - In the Staritsky district of the Tver region, I still have a house from my grandfather. Bought a nice 11 month old foal. He raised his mane, and there is horror! Hundreds of sucked ticks look like raisins from the day before yesterday's compote! We called the familiar horsemen - they say it’s the same everywhere and no repellents help, only comb out and choose with your hands ... We decided to go to a neighboring village to visit, dressed according to science: everything was bright, everything was tucked in, laced up, sprayed with chemicals ... We passed through an abandoned field , I look, and the child has seven pieces running up his jeans, shook it off. Thirty meters later - five more pieces ... I spent all my childhood in these places and then - in the 1970s - 1980s - I only heard stories about ticks. And now something unreal is going on!

Here's another example. My friend bought a Boerboel puppy and took him to a dacha near Moscow in early June, where he left him with his old mother until the next weekend. Run freely. And when he returned inner sides the ears of the dog were covered with clusters of sucking mites so that there was no free space left. The dog will not go to the country anymore.
Personally, on weekends I walk my dog ​​in Serebryany Bor park in Moscow. Despite the anti-tick collar and the treatment of the dog with a special spray, after each walk I remove from him about five running ticks and a couple of attached ones.

What's happened? After all, fifteen years ago in Moscow and the adjacent regions, ixodid, or, as they are often called by the people, encephalitic, ticks were exotic, and no one heard about their bites in the city at all. And what is happening in the Kostroma, Yaroslavl, Vologda, Kirov, Perm, Sverdlovsk regions, the Komi-Permyatsk Autonomous Okrug, the Republic of Mari El, the Udmurt Republic - historically abounding in ticks? Not to mention the Tomsk region - the absolute champion in the number of ticks and diseases transmitted by them? The answer is hell.

In the Tomsk region, ticks attacked people twice as often 20 years ago than anywhere else in Russia (a thousand people with Lyme disease in 1996), but this year the number of attacks has at least tripled. According to the Rospotrebnadzor of the Tomsk region, on May 4, 2016, 1902 people came to the points of seroprophylaxis with complaints of a tick bite. For comparison, on the same day - May 4, but a year earlier - only 610 bitten people turned to the same medical institutions. And this is not a record. On May 20, 2016, 4,203 victims of ticks turned to Tomsk prevention centers. Can you imagine what happens to dogs and horses there?

DDT

The exact cause of the tick invasion is unknown to scientists. Two working versions of the test did not survive. According to experts, to increase the population ixodid ticks did not affect the decrease in intensity Agriculture and the corresponding interruption of the regular introduction into the ecosystem mineral fertilizers, as well as a ban on burning last year's grass in fields and around settlements.

At a certain temperature and humidity, malicious insects show such endurance and the will to win that even "strangers" from horror films never dreamed of. An adult tick can live in an active state and without food for more than nine months. Although the standard life cycle of ixodid is at least two years, in the absence of food or heat, mites enter diapause and can remain viable for up to seven or even 10 years. Eggs and adults are able to survive both drought and winter frosts.

More than 200 species of wild animals, birds, livestock, domestic animals and, much less often, humans serve as donors for creatures in Russia. Under conditions of diapause, ticks are practically invulnerable to special anti-tick poisons (acaricides).

Photo: Research Institute of Disinfectology of Rospotrebnadzor

Studying ticks is not easy. Under laboratory conditions, they exhibit a normally uncharacteristic lethargy, depriving the plausibility of studies on the effect of exposure to protective equipment. Attempts to create specialized bacterial preparations that destroy tick larvae ended in failure. The female tick, sucking blood, lays thousands of eggs, each of which, if it manages to pass the stages of larva and nymph, can turn into an adult.

The only poison that can stop a tick on an area or country scale is dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane, better known as dust or DDT. 30 years ago, the drug was banned in most countries of the world, as it decomposes very poorly and accumulates in plants and organisms.

Perhaps it was the refusal to treat the natural breeding grounds of ixodid ticks with DDT that led to their current invasion.

Curious fact. In South Africa, DDT was banned later than other countries - in 1996. After that, the incidence of malaria immediately increased by 6.5 times. In 2001 South Africa lifted the ban on DDT, choosing the lesser of two evils.

Image: Research Institute of Disinfectology of Rospotrebnadzor

What is dangerous bloodsucker

The most common disease transmitted through tick bites is borreliosis, or Lyme disease. In half of the cases, the bite site turns red, the spot expands, reaching a significant size in diameter. In some cases, borreliosis is initially asymptomatic or disguises itself as other diseases, for which it is called invisible. In the later stages, the disease leads to damage to the joints, heart and nervous system. Borreliosis does not apply to pets.

The most terrible tick-borne infections for humans are encephalitis (for Last year incidence in Russia increased by 16 percent) and Crimean hemorrhagic fever (139 cases per year).

Well, our best friends- dogs, if they are small, old or weakened - easily die from babesiosis (piroplasmosis), which destroys red blood cells. Unfortunately, there are no statistics on dogs killed by ticks.

All tick-borne infections are treated with early stages, but the only way not to catch borreliosis is to prevent the tick from being sucked.

Where the tick feasts

Ticks love deciduous and mixed forests with thick, moderately moist litter. In dry coniferous forests, they are found ten times less often. There are none in the swamps.

They begin to attack at 4-5 degrees Celsius, in the second decade of April, and reach the peak of activity in the first half of June. In autumn, a second peak of activity is observed in some species.

Photo: Research Institute of Disinfectology of Rospotrebnadzor

Contrary to popular belief, ticks do not fall from trees and do not jump, - says Olga Germant, senior researcher at the Research Institute of Disinfectology of Rospotrebnadzor. - They hunt from the grass or from the bushes. Both larvae, and nymphs, and adults hunt, but mainly the latter stick to a person. The tick climbs onto a blade of grass, clings to it with three pairs of paws, and raises its front paws up, as if praying. At the tips of the front paws there is a whole mechanism for capturing the victim: a set of hooks and suction cups. In choosing a host, ticks are not picky at all. They react to heat. Having moved to a potential donor, ticks crawl up and try to find a secluded place. Until the moment of suction, about 30 minutes pass - this is the head start that is given to a person in order to remove the tick. In hazardous areas, it is necessary to constantly make mutual and independent inspections.

The seized tick should never be crushed by hand. It is necessary to put the tick in a glass container and deliver it to the nearest laboratory for the study of ticks, where the arthropod will be checked for encephalitis, borrelia, and so on. It is best to deliver the tick alive.

How to be saved

Ixodid ticks are only conditionally afraid of repellent repellents. If you still use repellents, you need to make sure that they contain at least 25-30 percent diethyltoluamide (DEET). But ticks are very afraid of special poisons - acaricides. The difficulty is that applying acaricides to the skin is strictly prohibited. They are sprayed on clothing, outside living quarters. Be sure to follow the method of application and the safety measures indicated on the label.

Photo: Research Institute of Disinfectology of Rospotrebnadzor

You can also purchase special clothing already treated with an acaricidal composition. Clothing should be light and solid so that the tick is visible on it. If you are going to a tick activity area, trousers should be tucked into socks, shirt should be zipped and tucked into trousers, cuffs should be close to the wrists. Ticks cannot bite through clothing. Proper, acaricidal-treated clothing gives a 100% guarantee against a tick bite.

If ticks have appeared in your summer cottage, they can be treated with a special compound, and they will disappear for a month and a half. Must either order professional processing territory with acaricides, or carry out such treatment yourself. The Research Institute of Disinfectology recommends such products as Alpicid, Breeze 25% e. k.", "Gardex Extreme" (Gardex Extreme), "Concentrate to protect the territory from ticks", "MEDILIS-cyper", "Kleschevit super" and "Cifox". The processing method is indicated on the insert label (on the website of the FBUN Research Institute of Disinfectology of Rospotrebnadzor, full information is provided on all means allowed for use for this purpose).

The vaccine exists only for tick-borne viral encephalitis and tularemia.

Weak, but still a consolation can be the fact that not only Russia suffers from ixodid ticks and the diseases they carry. This problem is extremely serious in Canada, Germany, the Czech Republic, China, the USA and many other countries.

Everyone has heard about ticks, but unfortunately, not all people know what they look like and when their period of activity occurs. You need to know the enemy by sight, so today we will tell you about everything.

The most common question among our readers is what month do they appear in? We answer that the peak of their activity is early spring, then they continue their hunt until autumn.

In fact, there are about fifty thousand species of ticks in the world, which means how little we know about them. The very first fact known to a narrow circle of people is that ticks are not insects at all, but arachnids. They also include scorpions, spiders and harvestmen.

We all saw spiders and harvestmen, appearance we know them. Scorpions in our latitudes you will meet infrequently, and you don’t really want to stumble upon them.

But their life is not long, it can be influenced by many factors, scientists every day discover more and more reasons why the tick lives more or less.

By outward signs they are easy to distinguish - the bug has 3 pairs of legs, and the tick has 4 pairs.

We list a few of them that a person can become infected with:

• Lyme disease
• Hemorrhagic fever
• Tick-borne encephalitis
• Tick-borne typhus
• erlichiosis
• Q fever

If a terrible tick has stuck to you, then you need to remove it according to this instruction, be very careful and attentive!

To prevent the disease from becoming an unpleasant surprise, it is better to take a tick that has bitten you or pets to the doctor.

If there is a suspicion of illness, the hospital will immediately help you and begin immediate treatment.

Let us consider in more detail the description of what ticks are, which a person should avoid and, if possible, get rid of them.

They are also sometimes called lieutenants, that is, these bloodsuckers prefer to live in secluded places, such as burrows, nests, caves, cracks. It is known that some individuals of these bloodsuckers can live up to 25 years.

Their bite is very dangerous - in just one minute this pest can infect a person with relapsing fever, and the puncture site on the skin will remind you of itself for several weeks with itching and pain.

3. Scabies mite– are transmitted after contact between people. Usually the female passes, which is already fertilized, therefore, when it hits the epidermis of the victim, it immediately begins to gnaw its way inward.

After some time, she lays eggs, nymphs are selected from them and spread under the skin within two weeks.

After this time, the larvae mature and are ready to breed. They feed on a special substance that is obtained by the reaction of the skin secretion with the saliva of the tick.

After mating, males die, and females live for about two to three months, laying eggs in hair follicles. You can get infected with this scourge anywhere, through another person, animal.

5. Bed - ticks do not live on human skin, but in bed and fluff of blankets and pillows, dust, eating pieces of skin.

Although the pests themselves are small, they leave behind a lot of waste products.

They can get infected on the street. Pests feed on sebum and earwax.

7. spider mite - do not harm people, but plants. live on reverse side leaves, sucking out the juice.

Excessive reproduction of them threatens with death for most of the crop or indoor plants, therefore, there are many insecticides that will help gardeners and gardeners stand up for their crops.

They carry various serious plant diseases. They live quite a bit - from a week to a month.

8. Gamasovy - these bloodsuckers live for about seven months. They prefer to live on birds and small animals (rats, mice).

They are called accordingly - chicken, mouse, rat. But in the absence of a primary food source, ticks will bite anyone with blood. Although they are very small, the saliva of bloodsuckers is very toxic.

These include several pests - forest, taiga, dog, forest. The larvae begin to wake up in early spring, when the earth gradually warms up under the rays of the sun.

But the danger is only in wild forests and fields, ticks are rare in cities, because parks are usually treated with pesticides, but in the spring even a city dweller must follow some rules for self-preservation.

And ticks sit on trees in rare cases, usually their habitat is grass and bushes up to a meter high.

The fabric of the outerwear also plays an important role. It should be smooth, without roughness, for example, Bologna. On it, the clawed paws of ticks will not be able to catch on and will slide off.

In an ordinary forest, you need to inspect yourself every couple of hours, in places with a large accumulation of ticks, it is better to check in half an hour.

The same goes for protecting pets. the best remedies– Dana Ultra, Api-San, Bolfo. The preparations are produced in the form of a spray and drops, which are applied to the withers of the animal. On sale there are also special collars, which should indicate that they protect against ticks.

Now it is known what ticks are, and that many can negatively affect a person in some way. They not only bite and carry various serious diseases, but also attack domestic animals, livestock, poultry, destroy crops by feeding on crop juices or garden plants.

Quiet suburban forests, cozy parks, green groves attract people in all seasons. It is especially pleasant to dive into the desired coolness under the trees in spring and summer. But along with magical landscapes, danger lurks. In what month the ticks disappear and whether it is possible to protect themselves from their bites, the material will tell.

nationwide problem

Today in nature there are more than 48,000 species. This amount has to do with evolution. This class lives in the first layers of the soil, chemical and mineral composition, which varies depending on the territory. The length of ticks is usually from 0.2 to 0.4 mm, but there are also giants that reach 5 mm in size.

Weather is the main factor

The first attacks can occur even in the early months of spring, when the soil temperature warms up to 0.3 degrees.

This little nuisance can lie in wait for mushroom pickers who spend a lot of time in the forests, fishermen doing what they love on the banks of water bodies, summer residents while working in vegetable gardens.

How not to fall into the trap

It is also worth noting that they do not sit on the tops of trees. Usually their vantage point is on the lower branches, in tall grass. Many scientists believe that insects do not rise above 50-60 cm at all. When they are especially aggressive, they wait for prey. Their receptors allow you to feel a person or animal at a distance of 10 meters.

But any problem can be prevented. Doctors recommend wearing tight clothing, treating by special means open areas of the body, and upon returning from a walk, examine the skin in detail.

The main sign that these small arthropods have disappeared is frost or heat. Both the first and the second creatures are feared very much. In summer weather, they hide from the sun. But here it should be noted that they sit out a slight heat in those places where people go who also want to get away from the scorching rays. Therefore, if the temperature increase is predicted only for a few days, and the rest of the summer will be moderate, it is better to use protective equipment.

Fans of forest walks are well aware that in the warm season, insect activity increases. And if the bites of some do not cause much harm to the human body, then contact with ticks, for example, can have serious consequences. They start talking about these bloodsuckers everywhere in April-May - they harm the health of people and animals. But our readers are interested in whether ticks are dangerous in September? Unfortunately, this is not an idle question, but a very relevant one, since understanding the answer to it, sometimes, no less, can save a person's life. Consideration of the most important topic, among other things, will also clarify the situation with whether it is possible to be in the forest without protective clothing in the warm season? You will also find out which preventive measures what should be done to prevent the tick from sticking to you?

Here he is Tick-borne Encephalitis- a very dangerous bloodsucker

The hungry tick is flattened and brownish in appearance

Attention! Ticks in September in the Moscow region are quite common. The tick has a sharp proboscis. It can stay in the body of the victim for a long time. This statement is especially true for females.

When the danger is greatest

There are certain periods in which tick activity is pronounced:

• from April to June;
• from August to October.

The first tick season begins in spring, when the air temperature warms up to about +10 degrees.

An adult bloodsucker is dangerous at any time of the year, but especially in spring and autumn.

They wake up from sleep and wait suitable occasion to get fed up. This period of activity will last until mid-June. This will be followed by a pause. From the end of August, the second wave of tick activity will begin. Its duration depends on the weather. If the autumn season turns out to be warm, then ticks in October will pose no less danger than in May.

Ticks hide in the grass

Attention! Ticks are unevenly distributed in the forest. Usually there are a lot of them where there are animals and birds. Ticks are concentrated along the natural places of movement of mammals.

And yet, the bloodsucker is not averse to getting a city "registration permit", so do not be surprised if you meet this enemy:

• in the city park;
• in the country.
• near water bodies.

There is a lot of grass in these places, where the tick can wait for you. They love moist air just like mosquitoes. In autumn, ticks also accumulate on fallen old trees and deadwood deposits. When you pass close similar places, examine yourself. Spotted ticks should be carefully removed from clothing.

Attention! The smell of a person ticks smell for 12-14 meters. They are able to move with the wind, so they will overcome this distance in a matter of seconds. On the plant, the tick tends to position itself so that the front pair of limbs, when a potential feeder approaches, can easily stretch forward. This posture is called the waiting posture.

How does a tick attack

The tick is often found on the neck and head.

1. When a tick gets on a potential host, it begins to move along it with the help of claws and suckers.
2. He is looking for an unprotected area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe skin to which he can stick. In humans, the most endangered places, which are the first to be noticed during examination, are: the neck, chest, armpits and inguinal cavities.
3. Having sucked, the tick releases an anesthetic substance. Therefore, the bite is usually not accompanied by pain symptoms. Often the victim does not even notice that a tick has attached itself to it. When several hours have passed after attachment, its head will already be completely immersed in the skin, and the body will swell from the sucked blood. The salivary glands of the tick are exactly the place that may contain the causative agent of encephalitis or another disease. Therefore, if the tick is infected, then the pathogen enters the blood along with its saliva.

The main thing is not to panic: the correct method for removing a bloodsucker

If you are bitten by a tick, take immediate action. A sucking tick should be removed as soon as possible. In this case, you must be very careful - you can not press or pull. It is better to contact a medical institution. If this is not possible, first the bite site must be lubricated with a fatty substance or liquid. After a few minutes, use a loop of strong thread. Gently swinging the loop, begin to pull the tick. Try not to crush it, because in this case the causative agent of the disease has the opportunity to penetrate into your blood, if it has not done so before.

When extracting a tick, it is very important not to tear off the head

Attention! Finding out whether a tick has been infected or not will not work on its own. After removing it, put it in a bag and bring it to the hospital for examination.

Signs of infection with encephalitis

• Heat.
• Headache.
• Nausea.
• Diarrhea.
• Muscle pain.

It's very easy to protect yourself

"Equipment" for those who are going to the forest in September

Is it really better to give up forest walks or visits to the park during tick season? Of course not. But, the high activity of ticks in September obliges you to remember the safety measures that will help maintain health:

• dense closed clothes are chosen in the forest;
• shoes are tight and closed;
• trousers should be with an elastic band at the bottom so that they fit snugly to the leg and prevent the tick from getting close to the skin;
• Mandatory protection for hands - a jacket / windbreaker with cuffs adjacent to the wrist.

An important preventive measure is the constant inspection of clothing. It should be done every half hour. Finding a tick during self-examination will allow you to remove it from your clothes in a timely manner and prevent a bite. On simple plain clothes light color ticks are clearly visible.

Avoid areas with grassy vegetation - this is a key rule of behavior in the forest when the activity of ticks is increased. Try to walk along well-trodden paths and paths. So you reduce the likelihood of a tick getting on your clothes from the grass.

When the tick season ends - with the onset of the July heat and November frosts, ticks cease to pose a danger to humans!