Forest mites in the apartment. Tick ​​bite: how it happens

Why are mites dangerous to us?

Ticks can pose a threat to humans only in one case - when they are carriers of diseases. Through a tick bite, you can become infected with such diseases: encephalitis, typhus, hemorrhagic and Q fever, scabies, ehrlichiosis. The names of these diseases alone are terrifying, not to mention the consequences. How long do ticks that carry such ailments live?

Ticks can certainly be called the laziest arachnids: in their entire lives they overcome several tens of meters. And interesting fact: the female needs more blood and time to saturate. A couple of days are enough for the male to replenish supplies and go to digest the incoming food. And the female is sometimes a few weeks old. Swollen to the size of a bean, it continues to be on the victim. Therefore, how long ticks live after a bite will depend on the amount of blood they drink.

Tick-borne Encephalitis

What does it look like Tick-borne Encephalitis? No one can say for sure, because outwardly it cannot be determined. A person, when a tick is found on himself, often gives in to panic, and such behavior will only aggravate the situation. It is enough to know how long ticks live without a proboscis and head in order to understand the mechanism of their behavior. After properly extracting the aforementioned body parts, the tick will die and will no longer be able to harm anyone.

ixodid tick

Scabies mite

Representatives of this type of ticks are the causative agents of an unpleasant disease - scabies. If we consider the full life cycle scabies mite, it will become clear that the human body acts as an intermediate host. This type of tick lives next to humans and domestic animals, attacks in different time days. When it comes into contact with the skin, the proboscis "drills" the tunnels for movement and food, which causes irritation and itching of the skin. Scabies mite does not tolerate high humidity and low temperature. Such conditions are capable of destroying it within a day, although their life expectancy is already extremely small. Two weeks is how long ticks live under human skin. It may seem very small, but do not forget about a large number of offspring left behind.

Ear mites

Demodex mite

No matter how hard we try to protect ourselves from ticks, in fact they are under our noses in the truest sense of the word! Do not be afraid and attempt to cleanse yourself of them, you still will not succeed.

That's why wet cleaning and sun-baking of carpets is an excellent method of controlling their numbers. The life expectancy of a bed tick does not exceed four months.

spider mite

Security measures

Try not to be long time under the lush crowns of trees, and also avoid places with high humidity. If you have pets, be sure to check them after every walk. Ticks tend to choose places where there is the least amount of hair, this is the inside of the ears and the areas around the eyes. It is there that the vessels pass, to which it is convenient to stick. AT veterinary pharmacies You can find a large number of remedies for ticks. These are drops, collars soaked in medicine, as well as shampoos. Do not neglect protection, because our health depends on the safety of pets.

Ticks are rather small arachnids, the size of which sometimes does not exceed 0.5 mm. They have 8 legs and a fused head and chest. About where we will talk today.

How do ticks live

In the forest, for example, a tick climbs a blade of grass or a twig to a height of no more than half a meter and waits for it to cling to the body of an animal, person or bird. And having seized such a moment, it takes a long time to choose a place suitable for feeding. Having eaten, the female again goes into the forest litter and starts laying eggs. From this moment until the appearance of an adult, several stages pass, lasting from three to five years. And during all this time, the tick only drinks blood a few times.

How long does a tick live after being bitten

The chitinous shell covering the entire body of the arachnid is stretched on the abdomen, so the female, for example, can drink quite a lot of blood, turning into a large “bean” as a result.

In order to eat, the female will need almost a week. And then you can fall off to digest the blood and take care of the offspring. Males also do not disdain blood. They need it to support the body until the moment of mating. True, they drink it much less and are full in an hour. And then they both need blood only for the next process of procreation.

How long does a tick live without food

The presence of food leads to amazing transformations of this insect. So, argas mites that live in dry and warm places and do not threaten a person in any way, without food they have a length of no more than 13 mm. But, after having lunch, these crumbs increase hundreds of times!

The most dangerous for humans are ornitodor mites that live in the steppe, desert and semi-desert zone. They can go without food for 10 years, but at the first opportunity they infect the bitten with serious diseases.

So how long does a tick live?

There are more than 48,000 different ones on Earth. Among them, there are those that cause diseases, for example, encephalitis or hemorrhagic fever, and those that feed exclusively on plant sap. Its duration depends on their way of life.

A tick bite is not necessarily dangerous. Many of us are not even aware that we have been bitten. But remember that in nature there are dangerous individuals, you need.

After all, there are scabies mites, and domestic ones - dust mites, feeding only on dry scales. human skin, but at the same time capable of causing severe allergies.

Regardless of how long a tick lives, we still need to clearly know that attentiveness, cleanliness and composure can help avoid communication with this insect. Coming home from the forest or returning from the cottage, be sure to examine yourself. And if you find a tick on your body, seek medical help. Good luck to you!

Human or animal. The tick bites into the body and feeds on the blood of the chosen victim for several days. Except the bite big problem is the risk of contracting dangerous diseases.

In the forest or in the country they can bite various insects, one of them may be a contagious tick. How to understand that it was a tick that bit you? This can be determined by the type of bite site. Quite often it starts to itch. In addition, the abdomen of an insect that absorbs blood increases in size. It can be detected by feeling the bite site.

It is important after each visit to an area potentially dangerous for insect attack to inspect and feel your body from head to toe. Otherwise, how can you know that, because his bite is completely painless due to the release of a substance with analgesic properties by insects at the time of the bite.

First of all, you need to identify the insect found on the body. How do you know if it's a tick or not? Perhaps its species has nothing to do with blood-sucking insects.

How to understand that you have a tick that can infect with encephalitis? Encephalitic or otherwise ixodid ticks must be able to identify. Their body does not exceed 4 mm in size. It looks like an oval bag to which the proboscis and paws are attached. The insect brain is located in the central part of the body. The hungry tick is flat. The protective chitinous skeleton can be different shade. There are light yellow mites and dark brown ones.

There are suckers on 4 pairs of legs. Their presence allows you to move not only along horizontal and inclined, but also along vertical surfaces. On the paws there are tools for attaching to the body of the victim. They are in the form of microscopic-sized spines and teeth.

The chitinous dorsal shield in females covers a small part, only 1/3 of the back. All males. This structure allows you to increase the elasticity of the female body and contributes to its increase in size by 15 times. The female who has drunk blood becomes a dark gray shade. Dangerous carriers of encephalitis are mainly taiga and dog ticks similar in size and shape. Taiga has a characteristic bright color of the abdomen. The ventral part of the dog is gray in different shades.

For those who have been bitten by a tick, the type of insect is not very important, it is important whether or not it is a carrier of encephalitis. The only way to find out is by testing the blood in the laboratory. However, sometimes the symptoms of the disease are manifested by the following signs:

• the manifestation of blistering at the site of the bite, accompanied by redness;
• constant chills and an increase in the temperature of the bitten to a 40-degree value;
• skin rash;
• the presence of general weakness, aching joints and headache;
• photophobia;
• loss on a short time consciousness;
• gastrointestinal upset, accompanied by nausea and vomiting;
• an increase in the size of the liver and (or) spleen;
• yellowing of the skin, etc.

If any of these symptoms are present, the bitten person should immediately contact a general practitioner or infectious disease specialist!

The question of how to understand what kind of tick under the skin is asked by a lot of people on the Internet. Non-standard problem. If the insect is completely under the skin, this is considered the worst case scenario.

An insect under the skin looks like a new mole or a small ball that differs from the skin in color. If a tick has dug in, it is felt by discomfort in the contact area.

Can a tick fall off on its own

After receiving the necessary dose of blood, the insect falls off on its own. This can happen in a couple of hours, or in a few days.

In these cases, you need to urgently consult a doctor. The complexity of the situation with a tick that has fallen off the body is the impossibility of presenting the insect to the laboratory for analysis. It is important to fix the date of the probable bite and in exactly 10 days go to the clinic and check for tick-borne encephalitis. In some cases, it will be right to check again in a couple of weeks.

It is especially important to go through all the control procedures in the event that burning, itching and redness of the skin suddenly appear in the healed bite site. The moment of a bite due to anesthesia introduced by insects can not be noticed, but unpleasant consequences will definitely appear.

Where does a tick bite more often and how long does a person sit

Important information is the answer to the question: how long does a person hold? Many people believe that 2-3 days. To some extent, they are right, but only in relation to male ticks. After saturation, for which 3-4 days are enough for them, they leave the human body.

With regard to females, the period has been increased several times. Females are on the human body up to 1.5 weeks. Their functional task is different than that of males. They must prepare for procreation. After the birth of small cubs, the female dies.

Quite often, places are located on areas of the body that are not covered by clothing. In other cases, insects crawl under clothes. Visitors to the forest should be aware of where ticks usually bite.

The most common bite sites are the neck, the hairy head, and the area behind the ears. On other parts of the body, the favorite areas for ticks are the armpits, lower abdomen, groin, lower back, and genitals. Insects choose places where they can quickly get to the blood source.

Many are interested in how to understand that you have a tick? If you had to move for a long time through a dense forest, hmyznik and tall grass, you can be sure that ticks sitting in ambush got on your clothes. In the absence of a special anti-tick suit, one of the blood-sucking insects can get under clothing.

There is a technique for how to identify a tick on the body:

1. You need to take off all the clothes in the bathroom and put them in a dry bath. This will prevent insects from moving and spreading to other rooms.
2. Checking for ticks on your body should start with the hair on your head. It is desirable to dissolve them. It is required to probe the skin centimeter by centimeter under the hairline. It is necessary to work with both hands, the fingers are kept together. Any foreign object and bumps on the skin should be suspicious.
3. It is necessary to comb your hair in order to exclude the presence of ticks hiding in the hair and not yet stuck into the scalp.
4. Examine the body, starting from the top. It is advisable to use a large mirror when inspecting, which is usually present in bathrooms. Not bad if someone from the household will help detect the presence of ticks.
5. When examining, pay attention to the areas of the armpits, groin, under the breasts.
6. After completing the personal examination, clean clothes should be put on.
7. It is advisable to immediately send the things in the bath to the laundry. The tub should be checked for insects.

How a tick digs into human skin

For digging into the skin of a tick, a special oral apparatus, which has a complex structure, is used. It is sometimes incorrectly referred to as a tick's head. In this element of the structure of the insect there are several parts.

At the base there is a capsule covered with a chitinous cover, in which the salivary glands are located. Their functional purpose is to work actively both at the time of the bite and during the absorption of blood. In addition to the capsule located at the base, the mouth apparatus contains a proboscis, in which there are a pair of pedipalps and a chelicerae.

The proboscis is fixedly fixed on the base. It is a hard plate and somewhat similar to a sting. On the proboscis there are many hooks bent back. They are lined up. The farther from the base capsule, the smaller they are. At the top you can find short sharp spikes. It is they who are cut skin covering at the time of the bite. In addition to them, chelicerae blades located at the base of the proboscis are involved in the process of cutting through the skin. Until the bite, they are covered with protective chitin cases. At the moment of a bite, they become mobile and leave their cases. Chelicerae cut through the skin to different depths. And the impact angles are also different.

The proboscis and chelicerae cut into the superficial skin layer and invade the tissues. A pair of pedipalps solves the tactile function. These elements are placed on the sides of the proboscis. Their feature is the segmented structure.

When bitten, the oral apparatus of the insect is completely immersed in the body of a person or animal. Penetration is extended in time and is a gradual process.

On the initial stage chelicerae crash into upper layer epithelium. The keratinized cells of the epidermis do not give in immediately. It takes up to 20 minutes to cut through keratin cells and pave the way to the skin layer with a rich number of blood vessels.

At the time of the bite, the salivation of the salivary glands of the tick increases. Its quantity is enough to facilitate the work of the oral apparatus in cutting through the skin, wetting the surface. The saliva produced by the salivary glands contains anesthetics and anticoagulants.

Anesthetics powerfully block the sensation of pain from a bite. Anticoagulants prevent blood from clotting. The properties of saliva ensure that the tick remains on the human or animal body in an unidentified form for a long time.

Chelicerae and proboscis are immersed in the depth of skin tissues to the state of maximum penetration. After the beginning of the penetration of the oral apparatus into the inner layer, the movement of the pedipalps in different directions begins. As soon as full penetration occurs, these elements move into a position parallel to the skin. The process of sucking a tick takes from 20 minutes to half an hour.

Among the features can be noted the ability of ticks to regulate the depth of penetration of the proboscis. Researchers in the course of scientific research have found that some types of ticks have the ability to penetrate the body of the victim for part of the length of the oral apparatus. They are able to stop the sinking process after reaching an area with branching blood vessels. The researchers found that this ability was present only in those ticks who often changed bitten ones. It was found that such a functional solution appears as a protective measure against damage to the chelicerae, which can be damaged at a significant thickness of the epidermis. The presence of an injury will not allow the insect to receive food.

After fixing in the skin layers, the tick begins to absorb a kind of cocktail from the blood of the victim, along with damaged and destroyed epithelial cells.

Female and male ticks feed on blood to fulfill the main goal - procreation.

The peculiarity here is that the female needs to drink more blood. In order to fully “eat up” it takes about a week. During this time, it becomes similar to a bean (its chitinous cover is stretched in accordance with the amount of blood drunk), after which it unhooks from a person or animal and digests the “prey”.

Ticks use these resources for procreation and further existence.

The male tick drinks blood several times less than the female and does it in 1-2 days.

Without food

How long can they live

How long do they live? Today in the world there are more than 40 thousand varieties of ticks that live in various parts of our planet.

The full development cycle of ticks can be from one to several years, depending on the characteristics. climatic conditions and amount of food.

Some varieties of these creatures can live for more than 10-12 years in harsh desert conditions and wait for their prey all this time.

These creatures are extremely hardy and can live for a very long time.

In the world there are tens of thousands of species of ticks with different life spans. There are ticks that live in bed, there are species that infect plants and there are blood-sucking ones that settle on the skin of animals and humans.

Bed mites feed on the remains of dead skin, which flakes off and remains in bedding. It is impossible to see them with the naked eye. The only harm they bring to people is allergic diseases. This type of tick is afraid of the sun, wet cleaning and cleanliness.

Spider mites living in plants are not dangerous to humans. They live from 5 to 6 months. If they are not removed, the plant may die. A sign that the plant is sick is white cobwebs on the affected areas.

A subcutaneous tick (demodex) settles in the scalp of a person and may not detect itself for a long time. Life expectancy is 120 days. The eggs are laid in hair follicles.

Scabies mite causes an unpleasant scabies disease. Having settled on the skin, the mite moves under it, which causes severe itching.

Ear mites mainly affect animals - cats, dogs, rabbits, etc. In three weeks, mature mites hatch from the laid eggs, and after 60 days they turn into sexually mature individuals.

What are the habitats of the blood-sucking tick? The greatest danger to humans is mites, which are carriers of infectious diseases. They can be easily picked up in nature and in places of abundant vegetation. Their favorite places of settlement are grass, branches and leaves of trees. The tick smells the warm blood of a person or animal from a distance. Despite its microscopic size, it fixes the victim at a distance of 10-15 m. Having safely moved onto a person’s clothes, it paves the way to the skin. The tick chooses places covered thin layer skin, namely:

• the area behind the ears;
• curves of the arms and legs.

Carriers of infection include:

• Tick-borne Encephalitis;
• ixodid;
• argas;
• Persian;
• kosharny.

What is the lifespan of a tick? Having settled on a living body, the tick bites the skin. The bite is not felt due to the injection of an anesthetic substance. The bite site begins to hurt and itch after a few hours. The appetite of females differs sharply from that of males. Males get drunk on blood for 2-3 days, which cannot be said about females, who break away from the body after 10 days, having drunk enough.

The lifespan of females and males is different. Male insects soon die after fertilization. This process begins in the spring when the weather becomes warm. Having clung to the victim, the male patiently waits for the female, although their meeting can also occur in the grass. The female, unlike the male, continues to live and feeds on blood for another 2 weeks, after which she lays eggs. They need a lot of blood to procreate. The process of laying eggs can last 3 months. The number of eggs laid reaches 3 thousand.

It should be noted that they need soil to procreate, i.e. they lay their eggs exclusively on the ground, otherwise they will not survive.

By the end of summer, larvae emerge from the eggs, which need blood to feed for further development and growth. Having found a prey, the larvae suck blood for about 4 days, after which they leave the body. It is enough for larvae to eat 1 time per week.

After overwintering (they endure the winter quite well), the larvae turn into a nymph and go out in search of food. And already in spring and summer, when they become adults, having drunk enough blood, they are preparing for the next wintering, after which they will become sexually mature individuals.

The life of ticks can last up to 10 years. They are very lazy creatures that do not waste their energy. After drinking blood, ticks fall into a kind of trance state. Metabolic processes slow down and in this state, even without the body of the victim (without food), he can easily endure any weather conditions.

You can tell a female from a male by size. Males are several mm smaller than females. Females increase in size by 10 times. A tick that can settle on the body of a person or animal lives mainly in forests, parks, glades - where there are many plants.

Before laying eggs, the female changes owners three times. Lays eggs for several months.
The tick can live for a long time if it is not accidentally discovered and destroyed. The average period of tick development from the moment of egg deposition lasts approximately 2 years.

Why is a tick dangerous? The tick sticks to the human body for 2 weeks. During this time, if it is not removed, it will reach the size of a bean. Ticks are carriers of infectious diseases such as encephalitis, borreliosis. The first disease affects the CNS (central nervous system), and the second:

• a heart;
• joints;
• skin.

If you find a tick, you need to remove it immediately. You can contact the medical center, or you can get it at home. To do this, you need to surround the area around the tick with a ring and pour there vegetable oil. Thus, the tick should crawl out from under the skin. If suddenly a part of the insect remains inside, you need to sterilize the needle and pull it out. Then treat the wound with any antiseptic. If the temperature rises, you should immediately consult a doctor.

This question is often asked by people who have pets at home. After all, a tick can unhook from the hair of an animal and fall on the territory of the apartment. At first, he will hide and wait for the next victim. This situation is especially dangerous when there are children in the house. It is almost impossible to find a tick in the house, but even if this happens, it must be thrown into boiling water so that it dies or burns.

Despite the fact that ticks live for a very long time without a victim, they quickly die in apartment conditions. For existence, they need dampness and soil, which is not available in apartments.

A good method of dealing with ticks is wet cleaning in the house, maintaining the constant cleanliness of the apartment and bed linen. In some cases, you can use chemical substances for space disinfection.