The 2019 tick season began right on time, and the first victims went to emergency rooms in April. The first ticks wake up and attach themselves 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 the full beginning of the tick season. How is the situation now? Are ticks active and do they pose a threat to people and animals? Let's look at the main periods of activity and ways to protect against them.

The period of tick activity: when does it start and how long does it last?

Early melting of snow and persistent warm weather in March contributed to the early awakening of ticks. The first one last year was recorded on April 3. General tick activity observed from April to October.

When does tick season start?? The onset of tick activity begins in April – May, when the above-zero temperature was recorded, 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, tick season ends in November.

Are ticks active now? In the central region of Russia, Ukraine, the CIS countries and Europe, ticks emerged from 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.

Typically, mite activity reaches the active phase in mid-April, it comes out of hibernation and begins to actively hunt and reproduce. In June, the population begins to decline due to dry and hot weather. The second wave of the activity phase occurs in, and sometimes in October, it is weaker than the 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 when visiting dangerous areas and places

You can pick up a tick anywhere, even in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kyiv, Minsk or any other city. But most often they occur:

• in a forested area;
• in a forested area;
• on summer cottage.

For forest walks and outdoor recreation, choose closed clothing, collars outerwear should fit close to the neck, it is advisable to tuck in the T-shirt. Sleeves and trouser legs should be long. It is better to wear rubber shoes, preferably high boots. Cover your head with a headscarf 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 meadows without tall thickets. Don’t sit on the ground, much less lie down on the grass. Before and after spending the night, be sure to inspect your entire body.

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

Forest clothing must be stored separately from regular clothing so that ticks do not transfer to it. Upon arrival from the forest, inspect your clothes, shake them out in a place away from populated areas and put them in a bag and tie it tightly. Another good way protect clothes from ticks - treat them with an acaricidal agent before and after a walk in the forest.

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

Remember! There are three main types of tick sprays:

Repellent– repels ticks, can be applied to open areas skin. They last for about 2-5 hours, then disappear.

Acaricidal– kill ticks, applied to clothing, not applied to skin. The effect lasts up to several days.

What should I do if bitten by a tick?

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

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

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

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

Vaccination against tick-borne encephalitis

If you are planning a trip to a region exposed to a high risk of infection with tick-borne encephalitis, think in advance about protecting your body. It’s worth starting to do it 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 from an infected tick lead to human infection? No, not every bite from an infected tick will cause illness. It all depends on:

• time, how long the tick sucked blood;
• virus concentration in the tick body;
• characteristics of the microorganism;
• human immunity.

Think in advance about the safety of your family and pets, even before traveling to your dacha 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!

Does it seem to you that there are more and more ticks every year? You didn't think so! Three years ago, 410 thousand victims contacted medical organizations in the country about tick bites, and 440 thousand the year before; and in the past - 530 thousand people. How many didn’t apply? Two million? Three? About 2000-3700 people every year become infected with tick-borne encephalitis from these arachnids, 25-37 of them die. A little? Don't 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 types of pathogens (at least three viral, 22 bacterial and several protozoal infections are transmitted to humans) and, according to some data, infect ticks with them in every twentieth donor.

Why is the tick population 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 worst and how to treat a summer cottage - Lenta.ru was looking for answers to all these questions.

Like raisins from compote

During the May marches we brought a horse from near Rzhev, - oh personal experience Deputy editor-in-chief of Lenta.ru Petr Kamenchenko talks about communicating with ticks. - In the Staritsky district of the Tver region, I still have a house left by my grandfather. We bought a nice 11 month old foal. He raised his mane, and there was horror! Hundreds of sucked ticks look like raisins from yesterday’s compote! We called horse owners we know - they say it’s the same everywhere and no repellents help, just comb it out and pick it out with your hands... We decided to go to the neighboring village for a visit, dressed according to science: in everything light, tucked everything in, laced it up, sprayed ourselves with chemicals... We walked through an abandoned field , I looked, and the child had seven pieces running up his jeans, he shook them off. Thirty meters later - five more... I spent my entire childhood in these places and then - in the 1970s - 1980s - I only heard stories about ticks. And now something unreal is happening!

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

What's happened? After all, fifteen years ago in Moscow and the surrounding regions, ixodid ticks, or, as they are more often called by people, encephalitis ticks, were exotic, and no one in the city had ever heard of their bites. And what is going on in the Kostroma, Yaroslavl, Vologda, Kirov, Perm, Sverdlovsk regions, the Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug, the Mari El Republic, 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, even 20 years ago, ticks attacked people twice as often as anywhere else in Russia (a thousand people fell ill with Lyme disease in 1996), but this year the number of attacks has at least tripled. According to Rospotrebnadzor of the Tomsk Region, on May 4, 2016, 1,902 people came to seroprophylaxis centers with complaints of a tick bite. For comparison, on the same day - May 4, but a year earlier - only 610 people who had been bitten applied to the same medical institutions. And this is not a record. On May 20, 2016, 4,203 tick victims contacted Tomsk prevention centers. Can you imagine what happens to the dogs and horses there?

DDT

The exact cause of the tick invasion is unknown to scientists. Two working versions failed the test. According to experts, the increase in population ixodid ticks the decrease in intensity had no effect Agriculture and corresponding interruption of regular input into the ecosystem mineral fertilizers, as well as a ban on burning last year’s grass in fields and around populated areas.

At a certain temperature and humidity, malicious insects show such endurance and will to win that even the “strangers” from horror films could not even dream of it. An adult tick can live in an active state and without food for more than nine months. Although the standard life cycle of ixodids is at least two years, in the absence of food or warmth, ticks 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, pets and, much less frequently, humans serve as donors for creatures in Russia. Under diapause conditions, ticks are practically invulnerable to special anti-tick poisons (acaricides).

Photo: Research Institute of Disinfectology of Rospotrebnadzor

Studying ticks is not easy. In laboratory conditions, they usually show unusual lethargy, depriving the credibility of research on the effect of protective equipment. Attempts to create specialized bacterial preparations that destroy tick larvae ended in failure. A female tick, sucked on blood, lays thousands of eggs, each of which, if it manages to go through the larval and nymph stages, can turn into an adult.

The only poison that can stop ticks on a regional or national 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 natural breeding grounds of ixodid ticks with DDT that led to their current invasion.

Interesting fact. In South Africa, DDT was banned later than other countries - in 1996. After this, 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

How dangerous is a 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 disguised as other diseases, for which it is called invisible. In later stages, the disease leads to damage to the joints, heart and nervous system. Borreliosis does not apply to pets.

The most dangerous 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, ours 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 dying from ticks.

All tick-borne infections are treated with early stages, but the only way not to catch borreliosis is to prevent ticks from sucking on them.

Where does the tick feast?

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 either.

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

Photo: Research Institute of Disinfectology of Rospotrebnadzor

Contrary to popular belief, ticks do not fall from trees or jump, says Olga Germant, senior researcher at the Research Institute of Disinfectology of Rospotrebnadzor. - They hunt from the grass or bushes. Both larvae, nymphs, and adults hunt, but it is mainly the latter that attach themselves to humans. The tick climbs onto a blade of grass, holds on to it with three pairs of paws, and raises its front paws upward, 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. Ticks are not at all picky when choosing a host. They react to heat. Having moved onto a potential donor, the ticks crawl upward and try to find a secluded place. About 30 minutes pass until the moment of suction occurs - this is the head start that is given to a person to remove the tick. In hazardous areas, mutual and self-inspections must be constantly performed.

Under no circumstances should a removed tick be crushed with your hands. It is necessary to place the tick in a glass container and deliver it to the nearest tick research laboratory, where the arthropod will be tested for encephalitis, borrelia, and so on. It is best to deliver the tick alive.

How to escape

Ixodid ticks are only conditionally afraid of 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 clothes outside living areas. Be sure to follow the method of use and safety precautions indicated on the label.

Photo: Research Institute of Disinfectology of Rospotrebnadzor

You can also purchase special clothing that has already been treated with an acaricidal composition. Clothing should be light and plain so that the tick is visible on it. If you are going into an area where ticks are active, your pants should be tucked into your socks, your shirt should be zipped up and tucked into your pants, and the cuffs should fit around your wrists. A tick cannot bite through clothing. Proper clothing treated with an acaricidal composition provides a 100% guarantee against tick bites.

If ticks appear on your summer cottage, they can be treated with a special composition, and they will disappear within a month and a half. You 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”, “Concentrate for protecting the territory from ticks”, “MEDILIS-tsiper”, “Kleschevit super” and “Tsifoks”. The processing method is indicated on the package insert (the website of the Federal Budgetary Institution of Scientific Research Institute of Disinfectology of Rospotrebnadzor provides complete information on all products approved for use for this purpose).

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

A weak, but still 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 everything.

The most common question among our readers is what month do they appear in? We answer, 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. These also include scorpions, spiders and haymakers.

We have all seen spiders and harvestmen, appearance we are familiar with them. You rarely see Scorpions in our latitudes, and you don’t really want to bump into them.

But their life is not long, it can be influenced by many factors, scientists are discovering more and more reasons why a tick lives longer or shorter every day.

By external signs They are easy to distinguish - a bedbug has 3 pairs of legs, and a 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
• Ehrlichiosis
• Q fever

If a creepy tick has attached itself to you, then you need to remove it according to these instructions, be very careful and attentive!

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

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

Let's take a closer look at the description of what types of ticks there are, which a person should avoid and, if possible, get rid of them.

They are also sometimes called lurkers, that is, these bloodsuckers prefer to live in secluded places, such as burrows, nests, caves, and 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 of itself for several weeks with itching and pain.

3. Scabies mite– transmitted after contact between people. Usually a female who has already been fertilized crosses over, so when she gets on the victim’s epidermis, she immediately begins to gnaw her way deeper.

After some time, she lays eggs, from which nymphs emerge and spread under the skin within two weeks.

After this time, the larvae mature and are ready to reproduce. They feed on a special substance produced by the reaction of skin secretions with tick saliva.

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

5. Bed mites - mites do not live on human skin, but in the bed and down of blankets and pillows, dust, feeding on pieces of skin.

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

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

7. Spider mite – cause harm not to people, but to plants. They live on back side leaves, sucking the juice.

Their excessive reproduction threatens the death of most of the crop or indoor plants, so there are many insecticides that will help gardeners and gardeners protect their crops.

They carry various serious plant diseases. They live very little - from a week to a month.

8. Gamazovy – 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 main source of food, ticks will bite anyone who has 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 awaken in early spring, when the earth gradually warms up under the rays of the sun.

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

And ticks rarely sit on trees; usually their habitat is grass and bushes up to a meter high.

The fabric of outerwear also plays an important role. It should be smooth, without roughness, for example, bolognese. On it, the clawed legs of the 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 concentration of ticks, it is better to check after half an hour.

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

It is now known what types of ticks there are, and that many can negatively affect humans in some way. They not only bite and carry various serious diseases, but also attack domestic animals, livestock, poultry, and destroy crops by feeding on the juices of agricultural crops or garden plants.

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

National problem

Today there are more than 48,000 species in nature. This number is associated with evolution. This class lives in the first layers of 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 a major factor

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

This little nuisance can befall mushroom pickers who spend a lot of time in the forests, fishermen doing their favorite thing on the banks of reservoirs, and summer residents working in their gardens.

How to avoid falling into the trap

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

But any problem can be prevented. Doctors recommend wearing thick clothing, handling 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 second creatures are very feared. In summer weather they hide from the sun. But here it should be noted that they survive the slight heat in those places where people go who also want to get away from the scorching rays. Therefore, if an increase in temperature is predicted for only 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 insect activity increases in the warm season. 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. People start talking about these bloodsuckers everywhere in April-May - they cause harm to 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 than can save a person’s life. Consideration of the most important topic, among other things, will also clarify the situation regarding whether it is possible to be in the forest without protective clothing in the warm season? You will also find out what preventive measures What should you do to prevent ticks from sticking to you?

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

A hungry tick is flattened and brownish in appearance.

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

When the danger is especially great

There are certain periods during which tick activity is pronounced:

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

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

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

They wake up from their sleepy state and wait suitable occasion to get enough. This period of activity will last until mid-June. After this there will be a pause. The second wave of tick activity will begin from the end of August. Its duration depends on the weather conditions. If the autumn season turns out to be warm, then ticks in October will pose no less danger than in May.

Ticks are hiding in the grass

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

And also, the bloodsucker is not averse to getting a city “registration”, so don’t be surprised if you meet this enemy:

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

There is a lot of grass in these places where ticks can be waiting for you. They love moist air just like mosquitoes. Ticks also accumulate in the fall on fallen old trees and dead wood deposits. When you pass near similar places, look around yourself. Noticed ticks should be carefully removed from clothing.

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

How a tick attacks

The mite is often found on the neck and head

1. When a tick lands on a potential feeder, it begins to move along it using claws and suction cups.
2. He is looking for an unprotected area of ​​skin to which he can attach. In humans, the most exposed places to danger, to which attention is paid first of all during examination, are considered to be: the neck, chest, armpits and inguinal cavities.
3. Having attached itself, the tick secretes 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 be completely immersed in the skin, and the body will swell from the sucked blood. The salivary glands of a tick are precisely the place that may contain the causative agent of encephalitis or another disease. Therefore, if a tick is infected, the pathogen enters the bloodstream 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. The attached tick must be removed as soon as possible. In this case, you need to be very careful - you cannot press or pull. It is better to contact a medical facility. If this is not possible, first the bite site should be lubricated with a fatty substance or liquid. After a few minutes, use a loop of strong thread. Gently rocking the loop, begin to pull out the tick. Try not to crush it, because this will allow the pathogen to enter your blood if it has not done so before.

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

Attention! You won’t be able to find out whether a tick was infected or not on your own. Once removed, place it in a bag and bring it to the hospital for examination.

Signs of encephalitis infection

• 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 avoid forest walks or visiting the park during tick season? Of course not. But the high activity of ticks in September makes it necessary to remember safety measures that will help maintain health:

• wear thick, closed clothing when going into the forest;
• shoes are tight and closed;
• trousers should have elastic at the bottom so that they fit snugly to the leg and do not allow the tick to get to the skin;
• Mandatory hand protection – a jacket/windbreaker with cuffs adjacent to the wrist.

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

Avoid areas with grass vegetation - this is a key rule of behavior in the forest when tick activity is increased. Try to walk on well-trodden paths and paths. This will reduce the likelihood of ticks getting onto 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!