Is it true that ticks are found only in forests and are active only in the summer? Is Lyme disease always indicated by the presence of erythema (a specific large rash)? Do you need to twist the tick with your fingers or pull it out with tweezers, or will it come out on its own if you apply oil around it? Can ticks live under the skin? 14 of the most popular myths regarding ticks.
MYTH: Ticks get borreliosis (Lyme disease)
NO. Ticks themselves do not get sick, they only transmit infections and that’s not all. The most well-known pathogens are tick-borne encephalitis viruses and the bacteria that cause Lyme disease. But ticks also carry other infections, causing anaplasmosis, babesiosis, mycoplasmosis and bartonellosis. These infections quite often coexist with Lyme disease pathogens, interfering with diagnosis and treatment.
MYTH: Ticks are only found in forests
NOT ONLY. It is true that ticks love moist forests, especially mixed and deciduous ones, but they are found almost everywhere - in parks and on city lawns. Once these insects lived mainly in the lowlands, now they are found even in areas located up to 1500 m above sea level. Most of all they love the transition zones between various types vegetation, for example, the edge of a forest, meadows, clearings or places near roads. There are many of them in ferns, elderberries and hazels. Ticks do not like the sun, but they like warmth (but not heat above 25°C) and humidity.
MYTH: Ticks are only active in summer
NO. Climate warming, especially mild winters, has led to the fact that the tick season begins in March and lasts until November, with a short break during the hot summer months. There are two peaks of annual activity: May-June and September-October. During the day, the peak of morning activity lasts from the first dew until noon, and the evening peak from 16 to darkness. When temperatures drop below 4°C, they hibernate - hiding in leaf litter and waiting out unfavorable conditions.
There are two peaks of annual tick activity: May-June and September-October. During the day there is morning activity (from the first dew until noon), and evening activity - from 16 to twilight. During hot mass, they hide.
MYTH: Ticks live in trees
NO. Ticks rise to a height of no more than 120-150 cm (the height of the ridge of a potential breadwinner). They hunt actively (especially larvae) or simply wait on leaves and grass, clinging to the vertebrate creature they like passing nearby. They can jump towards the victim, although they would rather hold on (females) until it comes close to their position, so that in a split second they can catch on the skin, fur, and clothing with their claws. On the front legs there are reliable “radars” (Haller’s organ, which perceives odors, pheromones, heat, carbon dioxide concentration), so they sense the prey from a distance. Ticks detect 40-50 odors, including ammonia, butyric acid in sweat, and carbon dioxide in the breath of potential prey. They react to changes in temperature (when the victim casts a shadow) and vibration.
MYTH: When a tick finds its victim, it bites immediately
MYTH: Ticks are easy to spot on the skin.
NO. You need to have eagle vision. The tick in the larval stage is 0.5 mm in diameter and light brown in color (almost the same color as the skin). And in the nymph stage it is the size of a grain of sand (1.5 mm), so you can see it well only under a magnifying glass. In addition, the bite is completely painless, because the tick, along with saliva, injects a substance with anesthetic properties. Blood suction alternates with additional injection of saliva, which prevents blood clotting and may contain pathogenic bacteria and viruses. The larva feeds on blood for about 3 days, the nymph – 5, and the adult can complete this process even up to 11 days. Only when the tick gets enough does it disappear.
MYTH: Ticks can be twisted out with your fingers
NO. You need good tweezers or a special device (sold at the pharmacy). To be safe, you should do this with disposable gloves, since the infection can enter the bloodstream even through microcracks in the skin of the hands. It needs to be grabbed as close to the skin as possible and pulled out with a strong, slightly arched movement (not twisting either to the right or to the left).
MYTH: The tick pulls out easily or falls off on its own when greased onto it.
MYTH: If you pull out a tick within 24 hours, there is no risk of infection.
MYTH: You can get vaccinated against all tick-borne diseases.
NO. Vaccination against Lyme disease is not carried out (it was carried out, but was discontinued), and what’s worse, even after having had it, a person does not receive immunity for life. However, there is a vaccine against tick-borne encephalitis - immunity is provided by two injections administered over 3 months. In the future, periodic injections will be needed to maintain the effect: the first 5-12 months after the second dose, the next after 3 years, the subsequent ones every 3-5 years. The series must begin in winter or in early spring(the first two doses already provide immunity for the entire season). If you start vaccination in the spring, you can take the accelerated route - the second injection 14 days after the first and then according to the main scheme.
MYTH: The sign of burroleosis infection is always erythema
NO. In most cases, erythema (large rash in different places bodies) do not appear at all (or they are ignored), and the disease develops. But if a warm and sometimes painful redness appears at or near the bite site, which expands, this is an indisputable sign of infection. Treatment must be started immediately.
MYTH: Ticks can crawl under the skin and lay eggs there.
NO. The ticks discussed in this article are bloodsuckers. They include the families Ixodidae ("hard" ticks) and Argasidae ("soft" ticks). Having drunk enough blood, they simply fall off. These parasites breathe with the help of the so-called spiracles in the abdomen area, so they cannot dive completely under the skin - they will not have anything to breathe.
There are cases that when pulling out an insect, its head remains under the skin, which requires extraction, as it increases the risk of infection. But she will not live independently in the body.
This misconception that flares can get under the skin was most likely due to confusion between different types(more precisely, genera) of these insects. So, for example, scabies mites (microscopic intradermal parasites) actually live and reproduce under human skin, making holes and causing terrible itching. This is a very unpleasant and extremely contagious disease - scabies.
As soon as the sun begins to warm with its truly spring rays, everyone has a desire to leave the city and go into nature, enjoy the awakening nature, sit on the lush, green grass. However, such a walk in the spring or early summer sometimes associated not only with positive emotions, but also with a serious danger of getting a tick bite or even contracting tick-borne encephalitis. After all, everyone knows that spring and early summer are the period when ticks are active, when the chances of being bitten are high.
Red mite
These plush-looking members of the arachnid class are often mistaken for spiders, but despite their striking resemblance, the red beetle mite belongs to the velvet mite family. Comparatively different small in size– adult individuals reach a length of 3-5 mm, which, however, does not prevent them from hunting insects.
Mostly medium tick has a length of no more than 1 mm, for this reason its beauty can only be appreciated under a microscope. The bright scarlet color is a warning signal of danger, indicating that the insect's body is either poisonous or rather unpleasant to the taste. For example, hungry termites, encountering such a mite on their territory, try to avoid it.
Steppe tick
The tick population density primarily depends on the location. There are many in the forest and steppes, and in the city there are a couple of square meter. Field ticks wake up during the first thaw, when the soil warms up to 6-8 degrees. The 1st activity is observed in May-June, the 2nd occurs at the end of August and beginning of September. During the day, activity also varies: in hot weather, arachnids are active in the morning and evening, on gloomy days - in the middle of the day. At night, ticks are practically inactive.
Ticks harvesters
Harvester ticks are relatively large land ticks (1-3 mm) inhabiting tropical and subtropical areas. They have an oval body and long legs. Their skin is covered with grooves with many pores. Dorsal part of a hysterosome with traces of segmentation. On the dorsal side, 4 pairs of stigmata of the tracheal system open.
The structure of mites
Like almost all arachnids, the external structure of the tick is characterized by the presence of a body made up of parts of segments fused together. Ticks have 8 legs and two pairs of jaws. The insect needs jaws to capture food, grind it, and pierce the skin to suck out blood.
The order mites has the following features:
- flattened and fused body;
- piercing-sucking oral apparatus tick for eating food;
- absence of wings and antennae;
- The adult tick has 8 legs, and the tick larva has 6 legs.
Insect larvae are no more than 0.5 mm in length. An adult tick reaches 2-4 mm. The color varies from reddish to orange. Only nymphs, adults and larvae consume blood, for this reason they are considered free-living predators. The larval stage of development of red mites is dangerous because they are capable of transmitting rickettsia, which can cause a disease such as tsutsugamushi. The carriers of this pathogen are marsupials, insects and rodents.
Tick feeding
An interesting fact is that even bees suffer from these pests, namely the Varroa Jacobsoni mite.
Stages of tick development
Ticks in all stages spend the main part of their life waiting for a potential host; this wait can last more than one year. So, the development of ticks begins in spring or summer, when 2 insects are found on the 1st host - a female and a male. While searching for a mate, the male may briefly cling to the owner to restore vitality. After the fertilization process, the male tick dies, and the female continues to feed intensively for 2 weeks.
The female tick that has sucked detaches itself from the victim and lays eggs. The next year, in spring or summer, larvae emerge from the eggs and begin to look for their first host.
You should know that although ticks are not active in winter, if a pest is found in an apartment or house, it may well attach itself.
Due to the fact that searching for a victim is not simple and depends on many random factors (and many ticks never manage to find it), the stages of the above cycle can last for different amounts of time. In other words, the entire tick development cycle can last from two to eight years.
This is interesting:
It should be noted that virtually every type of tick has the potential to cause harm to humans, if not to health and body, then to food and the environment.
