How to protect yourself from ticks in nature. How to protect yourself from ticks in nature

You can reduce the risk of such problems by using repellents, thorough checks for ticks, and water procedures after you have been in nature. If a rash and fever develop after a tick bite, see a doctor immediately.

When it was not possible to protect yourself from ticks, then finding a disgusting insect swollen from your blood is never fun - ticks do carry infections that cause such serious diseases that they discourage thinking about the next trip to the forest for a long time. But if you don't want to languish in the city or just live closer to nature, there are a few things you need to do in order not to overshadow your vacation and protect yourself from tick bites as much as possible.

Protect yourself from ticks before you go outside

You need to understand where you can expect tick attacks. Ticks live in humid and warm environments, particularly in or near wooded or grassy areas. You can come into contact with ticks even while relaxing near your own country house or while walking on fallen leaves, or near thickets of bushes.

• Always walk in the center of a path or walkway to avoid contact with ticks.
• Products containing permethrin kill mites. Permethrin can be used to treat shoes, clothing and tents and retains its protective properties even after several washes.
• Use repellents with DEET on the skin. Repellents containing 20% ​​or more of DEET (N-diethyl-m-toluamide) can protect against ticks for up to several hours. Always follow the product manufacturer's instructions. Parents should be especially careful when applying DEET repellents to their children, avoiding contact with hands, eyes, and mouths.
• wear clothes light color. You will be more likely to see a dark tick crawling over you before it gets to your skin.
• Wear long trousers with sneakers or hiking boots - NEVER go into the woods in "slates" or sandals. Tuck your pants into your socks and your shirt into your trousers. In areas where mites are abundant, it even makes sense to wrap duct tape around your ankle, over your socks. You will look ridiculous, but it works if you really want to protect yourself from ticks.
• Follow the trail. Ticks cool off in tall vegetation, waiting for a future host. When your foot passes through the vegetation, the tick quickly moves to the body. So stick to the beaten paths.
• Be vigilant - do a daily check for tick bites. Strip down and look at all the places where ticks like to hide: hair, under the armpits, between the legs, under the knees, and even in the navel.
• Treat your clothes in the dryer. Studies show that most mites remain alive even after going through a full wash cycle in hot water! However, mites are killed by the hot dry air of the drying regime, which is found in most modern washing machines. Alternatively, carefully iron the clothes.
• Check your pets before letting them go home from the street. Ticks have no problem moving from wool to carpets or furniture, where they will wait for the opportunity to drink your blood.
• If you find a tick on your skin after doing a thorough check, remember how to properly remove the tick and do it with all precautions.
• For more detailed information for prevention of tick-borne encephalitis and Lyme disease, see up-to-date information Department of Health.

Diseases that can be obtained after a tick bite:

• Anaplasmosis
• babesiosis
• erlichiosis
• Rocky Mountain spotted fever
• tick-borne relapsing fever
• Tularemia
• Tick-borne encephalitis

Protection against ticks: what to do at home indoors

Check your clothes for ticks. As mentioned above, ticks can happily accompany you into your home on your clothes, hair or body, as well as on your animals. Any tick found should be removed. Put your clothes in the dryer for at least an hour - the heat is effective in killing the mites.

Take a shower after visiting outdoors. It is believed that showering within two hours of entering an enclosed space reduces the risk of getting Lyme disease (tick-borne borreliosis). A jet of water helps to wash loose ticks and this good opportunity protect yourself from a tick bite.
Check your body for ticks after spending time outdoors. Using a mirror (ideal in full height), scan all areas of your body. Pay special attention to:

• Armpits
• In and around the ears
• Inside the navel
• Inner knee area
• In and around the hair
• Between the legs
• Around the waist

What to do if you find a stuck tick

• Remove the tick as soon as you notice it by grabbing the tweezers as close to the skin as possible and pulling it outward.
• Watch for signs of illness, such as a rash or fever (fever) for many days to weeks after the bite, and seek immediate medical attention. medical care if they develop. Your risk of getting sick after being bitten by a tick depends on many factors, including where you live, what type of tick bit you, and how long the tick has been on your skin.

How to protect yourself from ticks in a country house, in the country

• Literally change your landscape to create tick-free zones. Remove leaf litter regularly and mow tall grass and brush around the house, and make gravel paths between lawns to keep ticks away from rest areas. Equip playgrounds And play equipment away from shrubs and other vegetation.
• Consider using chemicals for ticks. Chemicals effectively fight ticks, however, do not treat the site and house from ticks on your own, contact specialists who today can really significantly reduce the tick population.

How to protect your pets from ticks

Use tick control products for pets to save lives and also prevent ticks from being carried into the home. Tick ​​collars, sprays, shampoos, or medications should be used regularly to protect your pets and your family from ticks. In any case, check with your veterinarian and be sure to use tick medication according to package directions.

Denial of responsibility : The information provided in this article about how to protect yourself from ticks is for informational purposes only. However, it cannot be a substitute for consulting a professional doctor.

Video how to protect yourself from ticks in the forest

Ticks are potential vectors infectious diseases hazardous to human health. Every year a large number of victims seek help from medical institutions. So that vacations or trips to nature are not overshadowed, it is very important to know how to protect yourself from ticks and how to act after a bite.

Ticks are quite moisture-loving, so their main habitat is a well-moistened area. Such places can be shaded deciduous or mixed forests, dense thickets of grass, forest ravines, thickets of willows. The person also provokes the accumulation of bloodsuckers. Leaving unharvested branches, leaves, people thereby create a favorable microclimate for living dangerous insects.

In everyday life, there is a myth that ticks fall from tree branches. However, this is not true. Insects wait for their victims on overgrown grass along the paths along which people pass, on stumps and undersized plants.

Recently, the number of victims among the townspeople has increased. This suggests that ticks do not necessarily need a forest to live. They can be found in the park, squares, playgrounds. They need vegetation cover in the form of tall grass, which retains moisture near the ground.

Safety clothing

Before going into the forest, you need to carefully consider how to protect yourself from ticks in advance. Mechanical protection in the form of safe clothing can deal with this problem. You can use what is in the wardrobe, or you can purchase a special suit. The main thing is that the clothes meet certain criteria:

• the fabric should have a slippery structure so that it is inconvenient for the tick to grab onto its paws and crawl up;
• light shades allow you to quickly detect a clinging insect;
• trousers must be tucked into boots or socks;
• on the feet must be rubber boots or other closed shoes;
• on the neck it is better to have a high collar or a scarf;
• it is recommended to tuck a shirt or sweater into trousers;
• the item must have tight cuffs;
• you can wear a hood or hat on your head;
• clothing should be comfortable and comfortable.

After a walk, you need to shake all your clothes well, examine your body and comb your hair with a fine-toothed comb. If you remember how to protect yourself from ticks with the help of clothing, then nothing will spoil your vacation.

Anti-mite preparations

As you know, effective protection against ticks can help special means. The drugs are divided into three groups:

Acaricidal preparations contain insectoacaricide alfamethrin. The aerosol agent causes nerve paralysis in ticks, and insects simply fall off things. The most effective medicines include:

• spray Taiga-Anticlesch;
• plant origin Milbiol;
• Picnic-Antiklesch;
• spray Allerhof;
• Tornado;
• Reftamid;
• aerosol Gardex Extreme and others.

The products are very active and harmful, so it is recommended to apply on clothes, wait for things to dry, and then just put them on.

Repellent preparations help to avoid contact with ticks. Feeling diethyltoluamide, they try to crawl away in the other direction. protective agent valid for five days. It is not as toxic as acaricidal, so it can be applied to things and uncovered areas of the body. The most popular repellents:

• Extreme from mosquitoes and ticks;
• Gardex;
• DEFI-taiga;
• Gal-RET;
• Reftamid and others.

Such drugs can protect against both ticks and mosquitoes. Funds are valid for more than a week.

Insecticide-repellent substances retain the qualities of the two groups. It is not recommended to apply them on the body:

• Gardex Extreme;
• disinfectant Medilis-comfort;
• aerosol Mosquitol Special protection against ticks;
• Kra Rep;
• Tick-kaput and others.

Children under three years of age are prohibited from using repellent and combined preparations, as this includes dangerous for the child's body. chemical compounds.

Many parents wonder how to protect themselves from a tick bite without harming their baby. Enough effective means are the methods traditional medicine. fragrant essential oils well scare away bloodsuckers, without worsening the health of the child. But first you need to make sure that he is not allergic to these drugs.

First aid

The bite itself is very difficult to notice, as the tick releases saliva, which anesthetizes the wound. As soon as you find an insect, you need to try to get it immediately.

• You should take manicure tweezers or a special device. If there are no devices, improvised means may come up. You need to take a thread, make a loop and throw it around the proboscis.
• After tightening the loop, gently, shaking from side to side, pull out the tick, turning it around its axis.

In the event that the extraction is not carried out correctly, the head may come off and remain inside. Then you need to wipe the bite site with cotton soaked in alcohol and pull out the head, like a splinter, with a needle previously calcined on fire. Then the wound should be disinfected.

If you can’t extract the bloodsucker on your own, you need to contact the nearest trauma center.

Then you should fill out the label, indicating in it full name and contacts of the victim, date, time and place of detection of the tick. After that, you should immediately contact an accredited laboratory to check the insect for infections.

The consequences of a tick bite for humans

Ticks can be carriers of infections dangerous to humans. The most serious illnesses include:

• viral encephalitis, which affects the brain and nervous system, can cause nerve paralysis and death;
• transmissible Lyme disease - borreliosis, affecting the lymphatic system, joints, disturbing the heart rhythm and the work of other internal organs;
• monocytic ehrlichiosis causes pathology of cardio-vascular system, acute renal failure, interstitial pneumonia;
• granulocytic anaplasmosis provokes the development of anicteric hepatitis with an increase in transaminase activity.

In addition to these diseases, tick-borne infections affect the lungs, causing pneumonia, pulmonary bleeding. The liver is also affected, causing dysfunction of the digestive system.

Ticks are active carriers of several types of microbes and viruses. Therefore, so that they do not disturb, observe simple, but effective methods protection.

Greetings, dear readers! Spring is in full swing! Every year, the May holidays become a kind of vacation for the majority of the population of our country. This time is quite enough to work at your favorite dacha or garden, go to nature with a company, fry kebabs and have fun! In general, each of us is looking forward to this big weekend. In order not to ruin your weekend and not get sick with tick infections, I offer you some tips on how to protect yourself from ticks.

The fact is that being in the forest or in the country, we have a high probability of sucking ticks. Today we will talk about ixodid ticks. They are the carriers of such dangerous, most common diseases in Russia in the spring-summer season, such as tick-borne encephalitis and tick-borne borreliosis.

It seems that these are all common truths, but suddenly someone does not know what to do in this case and not get sick. So these tips are just for them.

Why should we protect ourselves from tick bites? Of course, in order not to get sick with these infections. The most unpleasant thing after a tick-borne infection is complications. The most dangerous and severe complications after tick-borne encephalitis can be paralysis and paresis of the limbs. Deaths do occur, but are now extremely rare, as many are vaccinated against the infection. , used in Russia, is very effective, so those vaccinated with tick-borne encephalitis do not get sick.

How a tick is sucked

People do not notice the moment of sucking a tick. Only later, a few hours after suction, they notice the appearance of some new “wart” or pimple in unusual place. And they notice a tick already quite well drunk with blood.

The fact is that a tick attacking a person passing among bushes or tall grass does not immediately stick. For some time he crawls first on a person’s clothes, and only finding open space in clothes, creeps on the body. Then he crawls over the body for some time, looking for a place convenient for suction. Places where ticks are sucked: more often it is thin skin on the chest, in the armpits, on the genitals, on the abdomen or behind the ears.

The moment of the bite is painless, so the person does not notice it. Because along with saliva, the insect injects an anesthetic.

How to dress?

Regardless of whether you go to work in the country or relax in nature, pay attention to your clothes. Try to dress in such a way that insects do not have a chance to crawl onto the body. Be sure to put on socks, tuck trousers into boots or boots. The sleeves of a jacket or sweatshirt must fit tightly around the wrists. Put a scarf on the head of a woman, and mosquito nets for men (this is such a hat with a net).

Remember to bring repellents with you, these are means to repel ticks and other insects. Now on sale in any supermarket or shop on the market you can find repellents in the form of sprays or ointments. They treat open parts of the body. The use of repellents gives 100% protection against insect attacks: having sniffed this "chemistry" (they are also living beings), they will weaken and possibly fall off their clothes.

Can be used folk remedies. Any blood-sucking insects, do not like the smell of cinnamon, cloves, camphor, Chinese and even "triple" cologne.

You can make your own protective mask. Take a piece of gauze and boil it in 1 liter of water with 1 tbsp. cinnamon or clove powder for a few minutes. Dry without rinsing. When visiting the forest or working in the country, put on a mask, like a scarf, on your head, this will also help repel insects.

How to protect yourself in the country?

Dachas that are located near the forest are of great danger. Since autumn, tall grass and shrubs remain in the country. Before starting work, first of all, remove all dried grass and old dried shrubs. It is on them that ticks can be located. Therefore, when working in the country, dress appropriately, as described above.

How to protect yourself in nature?

Going to relax in nature, it is important to choose right place for relax. This should be a place located away from trees, shrubs, thick grass, best of all in an open and ventilated area.

Around the resting place, you can lay out branches of wormwood, tansy, branches of mountain ash or flowering bird cherry. This will also scare away not only ticks, but also mosquitoes.

Very often, dogs are taken to nature. They are unlikely to sit near the owners, they immediately examine all the surroundings and can bring ticks on their fur. Therefore, treat your dogs with some repellents too.

And another very important point. Returning from nature, how not to take home a bouquet of wild flowers or a few branches of birch for brooms to take a steam bath. Here again we are in danger. We can bring ticks home in bouquets of flowers or branches. This is very dangerous, especially if there are small children in the house. Therefore, before bringing flowers home, hold flowers or birch branches for some time outside the living quarters.

Preventive measures

The mites don't stick right away. You can find an insect that has not yet sucked on in time, for this you need to periodically examine yourself and each other. In no case do not crush the found tick! Is it dangerous! On the skin of the fingers there can always be the smallest wounds and abrasions that we may not notice. It is through them that the tick-borne encephalitis virus can enter the bloodstream from a crushed insect. The likelihood of developing the disease in this case is high.

If you notice that the tick has already stuck, then carefully remove it. Some lubricate its back with oil. It's useless, it doesn't help. Then how to remove the tick? To do this, tie a thread around the proboscis and, gently shaking it from side to side, carefully remove the insect. If the proboscis comes off, then remove it like a regular splinter. Lubricate the suction area with any disinfectant.

It is better to expertly remove the tick in the nearest medical institution. Please watch this video and you will learn how to remove a stuck tick with a thread.

And it is better to take a sucked tick to a virological laboratory for research. Within 1-2 days, you will be given a result in which you will find out whether “your” tick was contagious. If the tick was infected with the tick-borne encephalitis virus, then for a preventive purpose it is necessary to start a course of treatment with iodantipyrine according to a scheme that is easy to remember:

• 2 days take 3 tablets (dose of tablets 0.1) 3 times a day;
• 2 days take 2 tablets 3 times a day;
• 2 days 1 tablet 3 times a day.

The medicine is taken orally after a meal.

If the tick was infected with borrelia that cause tick-borne borreliosis (Lyme disease), antibiotic therapy with one of these drugs is carried out for prophylactic purposes: doxycycline (it is safer for the gastrointestinal tract). Take 0.1 (1 tablet) 1 time per day for 5 days. It is contraindicated in children under 8 years of age. If more than 5 days have passed after the tick was sucked, but not more than 10 days, then doxycycline intake is extended to 10 days. In the absence of dokliklin, it can be replaced with other antibiotics, but it is necessary to consult with an infectious disease doctor.

According to existing normative documents in case of sucking ticks in children (regardless of their age), they are injected with anti-tick immunoglobulin at the rate of 0.1 ml per 1 kg of the child's weight.

Infection through goat milk

Tick-borne encephalitis can be transmitted through goat milk. This is possible when you consume unboiled milk. That is, in order not to get infected, it is necessary to use goat's milk only in boiled form or in soups or cereals.

Finally interesting fact about ticks. There is an opinion that only female ixodid ticks stick. The males are preoccupied with fertilizing the female. But this is just a delusion: while he gets to the female, he gets hungry and also sticks and starts drinking blood. There is also an intermediate stage between larvae and sexually mature individuals - these are the so-called nymphs. They are very small, up to 1 mm in size. But they also feed on blood. The virus of tick-borne infections in the population is inherited. So, if the tick is contagious, then we can say with 100% certainty that we can become infected when bitten.

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Be healthy! Taisiya Filippova was with you.

In late spring - early summer, ticks appear in many regions. These small blood-sucking insects spoil the whole impression of being in nature and in some cases can infect you with very unpleasant diseases. How to protect yourself from ticks in nature, read in this article.

What does a tick look like

Here I will not talk in detail about the ticks themselves, their types, features and life cycle. I think most people don't care at all. It is enough just to know what a tick looks like in order not to confuse it with other insects.

Female ticks usually have a reddish posterior part of the body and are normally about 3.5-4.5 mm in size. Having sucked blood, it becomes two to three times larger.

The male is slightly smaller than the female 2.5-3.5 mm and is completely the same color.

Ticks are arthropod arachnids and, like all spiders, they have 8 legs.

Why are ticks dangerous?

Ticks usually fall on clothes from the grass, crawl under it in search of thinner and more delicate skin and then bite through it and, thrusting their proboscis and head into the wound “up to the very ears”, drink blood. Not all ticks are carriers of dangerous diseases, however, pathogenic bacteria enter the wound along with the tick and it will at least become inflamed and itchy.

But some can "reward" you with quite serious and even deadly diseases, which explains the panic fear of ticks, inflated by the media.

Basically, ticks prefer deciduous or mixed forests, dense thickets of grass and shrubs. They love moisture, so they are more common in floodplain thickets, near rivers, in wetlands, etc. The hotter and drier in your area, the less likely it is to pick up a tick. In dry coniferous forests, where there is almost no undergrowth, they usually do not occur. Ticks that carry dangerous diseases, mainly distributed in Far East and in Siberia. In the European part of Russia, there are much fewer of them, but they are also sometimes found.

How and what to protect yourself from ticks

Even if the probability of meeting these bloodsuckers is rather small, you should not neglect some precautions, at least the most minimal ones.

The easiest way to protect against ticks is to use special preparations. Aerosol products can be used to treat clothes. And gels and ointments protect exposed parts of the body. Most of the chemicals used to control ticks fall into two categories: repellants and acaricides.

Repellents- as well as means for, they simply repel ticks and they will not climb on your clothes and skin. There are combined remedies - from mosquitoes, midges and ticks, and there are specialized ones - only from ticks. You can also use dog repellants.

Read the instructions carefully and update the product every few hours according to it.

Acaricides- agents that kill ticks. They are also universal different types insects and highly specialized. Be sure to study the composition of these products, since in fact it is a poison and it can be dangerous not only for ticks, but also for pets and humans. Accordingly, it is necessary to handle such drugs very carefully and avoid contact with the skin and, moreover, with food.

How to dress for tick protection

Since the tick does not immediately dig into the body, but crawls under clothes and looks for a more convenient place for it with thin skin and big amount capillaries, then quite a lot of time passes from the moment it gets on the clothes to the bite. Therefore, if there is a possibility of picking up a tick, it is necessary to carefully examine each other every couple of hours, check all the folds of clothing and secluded places, and be sure to examine the skin. Most often, ticks bite in the groin, armpits, abdomen, behind the ears and on the neck.

You can buy a special anti-tick suit - encephalitis. He has tight cuffs on his trousers and sleeves of the jacket, which do not allow the tick to pass further. In the area of ​​the belt on the jacket there is a special “skirt”, which is tucked into trousers and also prevents the tick from reaching the body.

On the trousers, sleeves, on the chest and back of the jacket, special protective strips of fabric are attached, under which the tick gets stuck. Under these strips, it is necessary to treat the fabric with acaricide preparations, and then periodically check for the presence of mites.

Also, the encephalitis has a built-in mosquito net that securely covers the head and neck.

It makes sense to buy such a suit if you are often and for a long time in the area of ​​​​the spread of ticks. For infrequent picnics with friends in nature, you can get by with ordinary clothes.

For the convenience of detecting ticks, it is advisable to wear light-colored clothes. If there are no tight cuffs on the bottom of the trousers, you can simply tuck them into socks or berets. Jacket sleeves are also desirable to fit snugly to the wrist. Put on any cap or bandana on your head. Still need to process clothes at home chemicals and periodically update them over time.

Before the hike

If there are a lot of ticks in your area and there is a threat of contracting Encephalitis, then before going out into nature it will not be superfluous to go to the clinic and get the appropriate vaccinations. They will not scare away ticks from you and do not cancel all other security measures, but vaccination will allow you not to get sick after a bite. infected tick and minimize potential consequences.

After the hike

Returning home, be sure to shake all the clothes in the bathroom and inspect for the presence of ticks. You also need to check the equipment. A tick can be brought home even in an ordinary bouquet of wildflowers. If you had pets with you, they should also be examined. And, of course, you need to examine yourself and take a shower to wash off the repellents from the skin.

If a tick is found, it must be destroyed - burned or crushed with something solid. He has a fairly strong shell and slap it with his hand will not work.

As you can see, the tick is not so terrible, "as it is painted." And about what has stuck into the body, how to remove it and how to recognize the symptoms of the disease, read the following article.

A small nondescript tick bites imperceptibly, and the consequences of contact are often deplorable.

These insects carry infections (tick-borne encephalitis, borreliosis), terrible in their consequences: paralysis, deafness, and even death. How not to pick up a tick in nature, when these insects are most active and what to do if you are still bitten by a tick? The editors of Know All.rf have collected the most reliable ways to protect against ticks.

You can often hear the phrase: "Do not walk under a tree, otherwise the tick will fall by the scruff of the neck." In fact, ticks do not live in trees and do not fall down on people. Ticks live in the grass and do not rise above 120-150 cm.

Therefore, getting out into nature, look for a parking lot with trampled down or very low grass, in an open area. Do not run on high gravel without protection and do not let your pets do it.

Where does the tick bite

Having made its way to the skin of a person, the tick does not bite immediately, but is looking for a “tasty” part of the body. They are attracted to sweat, especially male sweat, so when you return from the forest, be sure to examine yourself in the shower, paying attention to sweaty or especially tender parts of the body with vegetation:

• armpits
• popliteal fossae
• elbow sockets
• groin
• behind the ear
• lower back
• hairline

Symptoms of tick venom entering the body:

• redness, with time the spot increases;
• fever, sweating;
• muscle and headaches;
• fear of light;
• irritability.

How to protect yourself from ticks in the forest

Clothing: what to wear so as not to be bitten?

Choose socks with a tight elastic band, tuck your pants into boots, and upper part clothes - in trousers. Cuffs and collar should fit snugly to the body. It is necessary to put on a hood or scarf on the head and tuck the hair under them.

To date, vaccination is the most effective method protection against tick-borne encephalitis.

How to protect your child from ticks

Do not allow children to sit or lie in the grass at the peak of tick activity. Get vaccinated, take care of closed clothing before going out into nature. Examine the baby for a walk every half hour. When you get home, check your clothes carefully. When sending a child to travel alone, put a tick repellent in a backpack. Do not spray repellant on your hands to prevent the chemical from entering your child's mouth.

How to remove a tick at home: video

Never twist the tick with your hands.

One of the most convenient ways- pull out the tick with tweezers. The method is suitable even for removing small, freshly sucked ticks. Better fit curved (specialized tweezers for removing ticks are sold in pharmacies), but you can also use a regular cosmetic one. Grab the tick parallel to its body, not at an angle; closer to the head, and not in the center of the body. Do not remove it with a jerk, but smoothly rotate along the axis. It is believed that it is better to remove the tick counterclockwise.

How to properly remove a tick

Another way is to remove the tick with a syringe. You buy a regular syringe at the pharmacy, take out the needle and carefully cut off the tip at plastic case. Then you need to “cover” the tick with the resulting semblance of a pipe and pull the piston. Thanks to the resulting vacuum, the tick will gently and painlessly leave the body. The only negative is that you may have a bruise.

How to remove a tick with a syringe

2. Soothe itching and relieve redness with ice packs and antihistamines.

3. Make inquiries about the epidemiological situation in the region.

4. Seek medical attention if symptoms of poison ingestion appear.

The editors of the site wish you good health and hope that you do not have to escape from dangerous insects.
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