Ticks are one of the less pleasant reminders of a trip to the forest. Moreover, if information signs about deadly diseases hang on every corner, and medicine strives to introduce some ultra-modern and most effective vaccine into our body.

In this article we will talk about which ticks can actually be dangerous, what diseases they carry, and how you can protect yourself from them. Perhaps some of our readers will find something interesting for themselves and improve their knowledge in the field of ixodid ticks.

General information about ticks

These two species of mite can be found throughout Russia up to an altitude of about 1500 m. The preferred habitats of these related class of arachnids are moderate wet places in deciduous and mixed forests with an abundance of undergrowth (herbs, shrubs, bushes). In particular, they are most abundant in grassy forest edges, in forest clearings and clearings, as well as on hedges and bare ground with tall growing grasses and shrubs. Ticks are rarely found in well-kept home gardens, city parks that are not near forests, and clear coniferous forests. Although even there, under certain environmental conditions, they can occur from year to year.

Ixodid ticks, as a rule, settle on low growing plants, up to a maximum height of 1.5 m, waiting for a passing or crawling host, and then very quickly move to the surface of the body of their host. Ticks do not fall from trees, as many people believe.

Danger of being bitten winter period very low, and in conditions middle zone Russia is impossible. But in the spring, from mid-April to mid-June, and in the fall, from mid-August to October, the risk is much higher. These periods may vary from year to year, depending on climatic conditions.

The hosts for ticks, depending on their stage of development, are small rodents, birds or large wild animals such as hares, deer, and domestic animals (cats and dogs). At the first opportunity, ixodid ticks happily bite people.

The digestive system is also unique in its own way. ixodid tick, starting from the oral apparatus and ending with gender characteristics. For example, males do not feed on blood at all, and their life span can be only a few days. By absorbing plant sap, the male ixodid tick needs to meet the female and fertilize her. This completes his tasks. Moreover, this meeting usually takes place on the body of the female future victim, since the likelihood of meeting her here is much higher.

The female lives much longer - about two years. Moreover, the first year is spent on the cycle from egg to nymph, and at the beginning of the second year, an adult emerges from the nymphal stage and immediately begins to look for a male. For successful fertilization, she needs a portion of fresh blood, so oogenesis will not begin until there is a bite.

The body of ixodid ticks is covered with a shield on top, due to which this family is often called armored, although this is not entirely true from an entomological point of view. In males, the shield covers the entire body, while in females it covers only the chest part. The abdominal region of their body continues to be very soft throughout its entire continuation, which ensures good extensibility and for good reason, because after feeding, which, by the way, takes at least 24 hours, the female can increase in size several tens of times. Such a one-time volume of blood will allow the female not only to begin the process of egg formation, but also to exist for the rest of the time.

The tick will never detach itself from the bite site until it has completely filled its belly. Any action that irritates him will only hold him back more.

Why are ixodid ticks dangerous?

However, infectious diseases that can be carried by ticks and infect humans and domestic animals are especially dangerous. For the territory of our country, diseases such as viral tick-borne encephalitis and borreliosis, which in the West are better known as Lyme disease - after the name of the city where it was first discovered, pose a particular danger.

These diseases are characterized by so-called floating endemicity. Since tick nymphs receive the causative agent of infection after the bite of rodent carriers, the spread of the disease primarily depends on the spread of field mice and rats themselves. In addition, an unfavorable environment can affect the development of the tick's life cycle, reducing or increasing its concentration in specific geographic areas. As a result, in one region this year there may be a large number of cases of the disease, and the next year - in another year.

Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE)

Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE), as a rule, manifests itself in two phases of the disease. During the first stage, which lasts from 7 to 14 days after the tick bite, some patients show symptoms very similar to flu - headache, fever, fatigue or painful joints. These symptoms disappear after a few days and the connection with the tick bite is quickly forgotten.

For most patients, the disease is now over and they are likely to be covered for the rest of their lives, thanks to long-lasting immunity. For approximately 5-15% of patients, after a free phase of symptoms, a second phase of the disease appears with pathology predominantly of the central nervous system.

Symptoms of this form of meningitis are severe headaches, aversion to light, dizziness, lack of concentration, difficulty speaking, seeing and walking. These symptoms may last for several weeks or even months. Some patients may experience paralysis of the arms, legs, or facial nerves, which can lead to permanent disability. Approximately 1% of patients die from this disease. In children, CE often occurs with virtually no complications, but there are also very severe cases. There is no specific therapy against TBE; treatment is aimed at relieving symptoms.

Borreliosis (Lyme disease)

Lyme disease has a variety of symptoms. In addition to the skin, nervous system, musculoskeletal and of cardio-vascular system, the genitourinary and respiratory systems may also be affected. There are three stages of the disease. The first symptom is often local inflammation of the skin, the so-called erythema migrans. A few days after the bite, a diffuse rash appears, which spreads and becomes circular along the appearance.

This symptom appears in only 30% of patients and is often located at the back of the knee, abdomen, or shoulders. At the same time, flu-like symptoms may occur. The first phase of the disease usually goes away on its own, over a period of several days to several weeks. However, treatment with antibiotics is necessary to prevent the bacteria from spreading to other organs.

Symptom of borreliosis at the site of the bite

After a few weeks or months, some patients may experience a second phase of the disease involving the nervous system (dura mater, brain, facial nerves), skin (swelling, itching and redness) and rarely the heart (arrhythmia).

If these symptoms are not recognized immediately and treated promptly with antibiotics, irreversible damage can manifest itself in the form of arthritis, dermatitis, personality changes - the third stage of the disease. Diagnosing Lyme disease can be very difficult, and laboratory tests are not very helpful in the first phase of the disease, when treatment is most effective.

Protective measures against tick bites

Tight-fitting clothing and special underwear are a good way to avoid tick bites. In addition, proper use of repellents will help increase bite prevention. The products can be sprayed onto the skin as well as clothing. Since tick bites are almost painless, they are often unnoticed, so checking for ticks on your body and clothing after long walks is a must. The fur of animals should not be overlooked.

Vaccination against tick-borne encephalitis is recommended for people who live in areas with natural tick infestations or who spend most of their lives there. Vaccination is not necessary for people who do not have any risk of exposure to ticks.

To obtain intense immunity, as a rule, three doses of the vaccine are required - two doses within a month and a third after five to twelve months. Repeated vaccination is required after ten years.

Vaccination may have short-term effects side effects- pain at the point of needle penetration, headaches, fever or joint tenderness; serious complications are very rare. The cost of vaccination is covered by basic health insurance.

If the tick does bite

If symptoms of borreliosis in the form of erythema migrans appear soon after the bite, then treatment with antibiotics is necessary to prevent escalation of the disease and protect other organs from the effects of the pathogen.

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About 100 species have been recorded on the territory of Russia, of which some species are less dangerous, others more so. Among the latter are some of the most common in the world - ixodid ticks, which can transmit very dangerous diseases to humans.

The female hides the eggs in the ground, choosing for this purpose rodent burrows, forest leaf litter and other “hidden” places. The number of eggs hidden by one female can reach 20,000, but only a few survive until spring.

When the larva hatches, it immediately tries to find a host-breadwinner. Typically, this “role” is assigned to small rodents. Having fed on blood, the larva falls off its victim back to the ground and continues its development there.

Having survived the first moult, the larva turns into a nymph, and larger animals - foxes, hares, rats, etc. - become its victims. Having completed the next one-time feeding, the nymph falls off again, molts and by the next year turns into an adult - an adult.

An adult tick is looking for a large mammal prey. These could be foxes, wolves, dogs, livestock and, in fact, humans.

Where are ixodid ticks common?

Types of ticks

There are about 650 species of ticks in the world. There are much fewer of them on Russian territory. Of the ixodid tick family, the following species are the most dangerous to human health and life:

• Ixodidae proper;
• brown dogs;
• taiga.

Ixodid ticks. They have a chitinous cover. They wait for their owner in nature. They attack at the right moment, after which they can suck blood for a very long time (if they are not detected) - from several days to several weeks. Infected individuals transmit Lyme disease and various fevers to humans.

Taiga ticks. One of the varieties of ixodid ticks. Preferred habitats are steppe and meadow zones, dense damp forests. polyphagous: they feed on the blood of birds, animals, humans and reptiles, attacking prey from the grass or bushes (usually they do not sit higher than 1 m from the ground). They can wait for an owner from 1 week to a month. They are activated already at a temperature of +1C, and at +20C they become sluggish. They can live without food for 3 months to a year. They carry borreliosis, tick-borne encephalitis, etc.

Dog ticks. Based on the name, the main victims of this species are dogs; humans are attacked much less frequently, but this does not mean that the danger for people is less. It can complete the development cycle both outdoors and indoors by finding a secluded corner for this. It multiplies quickly and can carry piroplasmosis and Marseilles fever.

Diseases carried by ticks, their danger and treatment

The top spot among tick-borne diseases is still occupied by tick-borne encephalitis and borreliosis (Lyme disease). Infection with them occurs at the moment, regurgitation of saliva and eaten contents into the human blood.

In addition to encephalitis and borreliosis, and many others dangerous diseases:

• tick-borne typhus;
• tularemia;
• relapsing fever;
• various fevers (Ku, Crimean hemorrhagic, Japanese, spotted, etc.).

Any of these diseases is very dangerous and cannot be ruled out if left untreated. death. Therefore, timely detection and contacting a clinic can literally save lives.

Tick-borne encephalitis

The most “popular” of tick-borne diseases, recorded annually in all climatic zones, and especially in taiga and forest zones.

Encephalitis affects nervous system(gray matter of the brain, peripheral nerves, motor neurons of the spinal cord), if untreated, leads to paralysis, loss of spatial orientation, coma and death (often within a week after the onset of the disease). The first symptoms are characterized by rapidity, appearing sharply 1.5 - 3 weeks after the bite.

For prophylaxis, an injection of immunoglobulin is administered, and antiviral drugs can also be prescribed in parallel. If obvious symptoms of encephalitis appear, the patient is prescribed interferon, antiviral immunoglobulins, vitamins, ribonuclease, and bed rest in a hospital.

Borreliosis

In the treatment of the first stage, tetracycline antibiotics are used, in the second stage - penicillin, in the third - long-acting (long-acting) penicillins. Lack of treatment leads to severe disability or death.

Fevers

They can be different, depending on the area and what type of fever the tick itself is infected with:

• Marseilles;
• Mediterranean;
• Japanese spotted;
• Astrakhan spotted;
• Israeli, etc.

Fevers are characterized by the appearance of papules with necrosis in the center at the site of the bite, rash, and shaking chills. As the diseases develop, headaches, liver enlargement, insomnia, conjunctivitis, and arthralgia appear. The rash becomes more pronounced (especially on the palms, feet, and in certain areas of the body), and is not accompanied by itching. After the rash disappears, pigmented spots remain on the skin.

Tetracycline antibiotics are used in treatment.

Acute viral disease of a two-wave course. It is severe and is accompanied by intoxication and thrombohemorrhagic syndrome.

Infection can occur not only from, but also when the blood of an infected person comes into contact with the skin. The onset is sudden, acute, with fever, chills and intoxication, which resolves after 7-9 days. After a short break, a second wave occurs with fever, rash, bleeding (nasal, uterine or gastrointestinal) and hemoptysis.

Treatment takes place in a separate box of infectious diseases hospitals or departments.

Piroplasmosis

An acute infectious disease with a severe increase in symptoms, accompanied by fever, anemia, and intoxication. The causative agents of the disease settle in blood cells - erythrocytes.

Piroplasmosis manifests itself in the form of chills and fever, adynamia, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, liver enlargement, jaundice, and pallor. If left untreated, renal failure, pneumonia, sepsis, uremia develop, and ultimately death.

1. clothing should cover the entire body (it is advisable to choose a plain and light-colored one - this makes it easier to spot a tick on it);
2. It’s good if it is possible to treat clothes with acaricides (prevent their contact with the skin);
3. be sure to wear a hat;
4. mutual examinations every 15-20 minutes;
5. using tick repellents before visiting dangerous areas;
6. Upon arrival home, be sure to inspect your clothes and body (especially children and pets).
7. Get preventive vaccinations in advance.

If a tick bites

• try to pull it out (the head will remain inside);
• squeeze out a tick;
• cauterize an embedded tick or pour caustic liquids (ammonia, gasoline, etc.) into it;
• pick out the tick with a needle.

When going outdoors, it is important to always remember that a tick does not sleep, and you never know in advance whether it is infected or not. Therefore, only high-quality prevention and caution in dangerous areas can help to really avoid serious problems with health.

Many species also attack humans when they enter the natural habitats of I. mites. The development cycle of I. mites includes an egg and 3 active stages (larva, nymph, mature tick); each of them eats once for 3-10 days. After a certain time after feeding, the female lays eggs, in some species - several tens of thousands. Ixodid ticks carry pathogens of human diseases with natural focality: [the main carriers are the taiga tick Ixodes persulcatus and I. ricinus], hemorrhagic fever and Q fever, and many others, as well as pathogens of piroplasmosis. To protect against Ixodid tick bites, take.

Body structure. The body shape of hungry individuals is oblong-oval, somewhat narrowed towards the anterior edge, while in fed individuals it is spherical or ovoid-oval.

The chitinous cover (cuticle) is thin, capable of stretching when feeding, but some parts of it are compacted and transformed into scutes located on the dorsal and ventral (only in males) surfaces of the body. In terms of the size of the dorsal shield, females easily differ from males: in females it covers only the anterior third of the body, and in males it covers the entire upper surface.

The rear edge of the body of some ticks has depressions (notches) - scallops, the number of which can reach 11. The body color of hungry ticks is light yellow, yellow-brown, brown-brown, even black. Fed ticks turn gray or yellow-pink in color.

The legs are well developed, consisting of six movable segments: coxae, trochanter, femur, tibia, foretarsus and tarsi. Each foot has two claws and a sucker.

The proboscis is located in a notch on the anterior edge of the body and is movably connected to it. Based on the size of the proboscis, mites are distinguished between short-proboscis and long-proboscis. A proboscis whose length exceeds its width is considered long, and a proboscis whose length is less than its width is short.

Along the edge of the body on both sides behind the fourth pair of legs, there are respiratory openings (stigmas) on special plates. Some ticks have a pair of simple eyes located on the dorsal side of the scutellum at the level of the second pair of limbs.

The digestive organs of ticks include the mouth opening into the proboscis, salivary glands, pharynx, esophagus, intestines and anus. The excretory system is represented by long thin tubes (Malpighian vessels) that open into the rectal bladder.

The nervous system is represented by a single nerve mass (brain), from which paired nerves extend to all organs and tissues of the tick.

The male reproductive system includes the testes, vas deferens, genital opening and accessory glands; in females - ovary, egg ducts, uterus, vagina, gonads, Genet's organ and genital opening.

Based on the nature of their relationships with their hosts, pasture ticks are divided into three groups: single-host, two-host and three-host.

Single-host: mites develop on the host’s body from the attachment of a hungry larva until the female falls off after drinking the blood. The hosts of ticks with a one-host cycle are ungulates, and in cultural landscapes - mainly cattle and horses.

Two-host: the larva, having finished blood-sucking, remains attached to the host, molts onto the nymph, which, having fed, leaves the host’s body. The nymph moults in the external environment into an adult.

Three-host: ticks are on the host’s body only during larval, nymphal and imaginal feeding and leave it at the end of feeding. Accordingly, in their development, ticks replace three hosts. Molting of all phases occurs outside the host's body. The range of hosts is extensive: larvae and nymphs feed on small mammals, birds and reptiles, and adults feed on large mammals and birds.

Ticks of most species of pasture ticks in active phases of development attack their hosts, lying in wait for them and being located in certain tiers of vegetation. Meeting and attachment to the owner is ensured by a complex of behavioral reactions.

Ixodid tick larvae feed for 3-5 days, nymphs for 3-8 days and adults for 6-12 days. During feeding, the weight of females increases by 80-120 times, nymphs by 20-100 and larvae by 10-20 times. Males need less blood to satiate. Briefly attaching to the animal’s body, they usually crawl from place to place, find females and fertilize them. Female ixodid ticks hold absolute records for fertility among blood-sucking arthropods. Thus, females are the most large species(birth Hyalomma And Amblyomma) lay an average of 15-20 thousand eggs, medium (birth Dermacentor, Boophilus, Rhipicephalus) – 3-6 thousand and the smallest burrowing species (genus Ixodes And Haemaphysalis) – about 1 thousand.

Depending on the species characteristics of the mites, oviposition begins on the 1st-2nd day after saturation or after several days, and in the presence of diapause - after several weeks or months. Oviposition lasts from several days to a month or more. In some species of ixodids, facultative laying of parthenogenetic eggs has been noted, that is, the laying of viable eggs by unfertilized females.

The life cycles of ixodid ticks living in different biotopes differ in total duration, seasonality of feeding, reproduction and molting. Adaptation of ticks to living conditions is ensured by synchronization of development with seasonal climate changes and is achieved by the occurrence of the diapause stage. It manifests itself in a delay in the embryogenesis of eggs or the metamorphosis of engorged larvae and nymphs, as well as in a delay in the laying of eggs by females.

Ticks in natural conditions overwinter, being in various phases of development. Many species of ixodid ticks can remain in a hungry state for a long time, for example, adults I. ricinus, D. pictus, H. asiaticum in natural biotopes they remain viable in a hungry state for two years. Naturally, the survival of hungry ticks depends on both their physiological characteristics, and from factors external environment, mainly from temperature and humidity.

To determine whether ixodids belong to a particular genus, the main morphological characteristics of adult ticks are taken into account: body shape, general coloration, size and shape of the dorsal shield, its coloration, the size of the proboscis and the shape of its base, the presence or absence of eyes, the location of the anal groove, peritremes, festoons and other features. All these characteristics are reflected in special definition tables.

To determine the different phases of tick development, you need to know the following. The eggs are oval in shape, 0.3 to 0.5 mm long; hard, shiny shell; color brownish-yellow, but more often dark brown. The larva is from 0.5 to 1 mm long, the anterior part of the body is covered with a dorsal shield; the presence of three pairs of legs and the absence of the genital opening, peritremes and pore fields; length and color depend on the degree of blood saturation. The nymph differs from the larva by the presence of four pairs of legs and peritremes, and from the imago by its smaller size, the absence of a genital opening and pore fields.

Types of ixodid ticks:

In the fauna of our country, this genus is represented by 25 species and subspecies. All species are long-proboscis and develop according to the three-host type. The base of the proboscis is often quadrangular in shape. The dorsal shield, proboscis and legs are black-brown. The legs are close to each other and located in the front of the body. There are no eyes or scallops. The anal groove goes around the anus in front. The first pair of cokes is not split. Peritremes are rounded. The size of a male and a hungry female is from 1.5 to 6 mm, a drunk female is up to 15 mm.

I. ricinus on the territory of our country it is found in the European part. The northern border of its distribution runs between 55 and 65° northern latitude– through Karelia, Estonia, Leningrad, Moscow, Voronezh, Nizhny Novgorod regions and further through Tatarstan and Bashkortostan. Lives in Ukraine, Krasnodar and Stavropol territories, Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia, Kalmykia and Transcaucasia. This species is widespread in the northern, northwestern regions and in the middle zone; in the south it is less common.

I. ricinus is a moisture-loving species (eggs can develop in water), so its biotopes in the northern range are forest zones, in the central, middle and southern zones there are areas dominated by forests and shrubs, as well as open areas, but with bushes.

Because ticks Since they are distributed over a wide geographical area, their life cycles in different climatic zones are not the same. Thus, in northern populations the development cycle ends in 2-3 and even 4 years. Ticks are well tolerated low temperatures, capable of starving for several years, overwinter in all phases of their development. In southern conditions, ticks complete their development within a year.

Genus Hyalomma. To date, the world fauna includes 22 species of ticks of the genus Hyalomma. On the territory of the former Soviet Union 16 species and subspecies of this genus have been described.

Ticks of the genus Hyalomma are the largest in the family Ixodidae; The body length of hungry individuals is 4-10 mm, of engorged females - up to 25 mm, color from red-brown to dark brown. The eyes are well defined - large, hemispherical, orbital. The proboscis is long, with a rectangular base. The legs are long, the coxae of the first pair are deeply split. Peritremes are often comma-shaped or retort-shaped, with long narrow processes. The anal groove goes around the anus from behind. The festoons are pronounced.

Typical habitats for ticks are zones of steppes, deserts and semi-deserts. Some species live in shrubs, woodlands, lowland and mountain forests. The approximate distribution boundary runs between 46 (in the Asian part) and 52° (in the European part) northern latitude. The distribution altitude of some species is more than 2000 m above sea level.

Adult ticks feed primarily on large mammals, while young ticks feed primarily on wild animals, birds and rodents, as well as cattle. Sexually mature individuals willingly attack humans.

N. anatolicum is distributed in Transcaucasia and Central Asia, as well as in the Krasnodar and Stavropol territories, Kalmykia, Chechnya, Ingushetia, and the Astrakhan region.

Typical habitats are lowland and foothill steppes with fairly dense vegetation, mixed lowland and foothill forests and forest-shrub areas.

Nymphs attach to the ears, sometimes to the edges of the eyelids, back, and tail. Adults are capable of fasting for up to 10 months, nymphs and larvae - 8-10 months.

Distribution – south of the European part Russian Federation, north to Kursk, Voronezh, Saratov and Orenburg regions, Moldova and Ukraine, Transcaucasia and Central Asia.

Distribution: Stavropol Territory, Kalmykia, Dagestan, Transcaucasia and Central Asian republics.

Distribution – southern regions of the Russian Federation ( North Caucasus, Astrakhan, Rostov and Volgograd regions, Kalmykia), Moldova, Southern Ukraine, Crimea, Transcaucasia, Central Asia, Kazakhstan.

Genus Haemaphisalis. This genus includes 146 species. There are 11 species and subspecies in the ixodofauna of the former Soviet Union.

Distribution area: predominantly flat and foothill steppes, partially semi-deserts, forests on Far East. The northern limit of distribution runs between 47 and 50° north latitude.

The species of greatest epizootological and epidemiological importance are Haemaphisalis punctata, Haemaphisalis sulcata and Haemaphisalis otophila.

H. punctata is one of the most numerous among the representatives of the genus. Adult ticks feed on large and small domestic animals, less often on wild animals and birds, larvae - mainly on birds, nymphs - on rodents.

Distribution: the south of the European part of the Russian Federation (mainly the North Caucasus zone - Krasnodar and Stavropol territories, Chechnya, Ingushetia, Dagestan), Ukraine, Moldova, Central Asian republics, Kazakhstan, Transcaucasia.

Distribution - the same area as for N. punctata, but mainly in steppes and semi-deserts.

Distribution - predominantly the steppe part of the mountain forest zone, less often flat steppe areas. In the Russian Federation it lives in the same place as the previous species; in addition, it is found in Ukraine, Transcaucasia and Turkmenistan.

Genus Rhipicephalus. Representatives of the genus belong to relatively small ticks, adult and unfed individuals are 2-5 mm, engorged females are 10-12 mm. Colored dark brown or reddish brown.

In the fauna of the former Soviet Union there are 7 species of this genus.

The proboscis is short, the base is hexagonal. The coxae of the first pair of legs are deeply split. The anal groove goes around the anus from behind. The scallops are well defined; in some species the median scallop protrudes beyond the edge of the body. Males have two pairs of ventral scutes. The eyes are marginal, flat and inconspicuous. The type of development is three- or two-host. The hosts are predominantly mammals, especially ungulates. The habitat covers forest-steppes, steppes, semi-deserts and deserts, as well as mountain steppes (up to 1800 m above sea level).

Distribution - dry steppes, forest-shrub belt of foothills and lowland forests: in the Russian Federation - the Lower Volga region and the Northern Caucasus, as well as Crimea, Transcaucasia, the Caspian part of Turkmenistan.

The peculiarity of this species is that all phases of its development take place on dogs and pigs, less often on cats; larvae and nymphs are able to feed on rats and mice.

Distribution – North Caucasus, Kalmykia and Astrakhan region, Transcaucasia and Central Asia.

Distribution: North Caucasus, Kalmykia, Crimea and Transcaucasia.

Genus Dermacentor. Ticks of this genus are characterized by the presence of silvery-white spots on a dark background of the dorsal shield, limbs and proboscis. There are 8 species found in the fauna of the former Soviet Union.

The body length of hungry adults is 4-5 mm, while that of engorged adults is up to 15 mm. The proboscis is short, with a quadrangular base. The cokes of the first pair are deeply cleaved, the cokes of the fourth pair are powerful and larger than the others. The anal groove goes around the anus from behind. Males lack anal scutes and have 11 well-defined scallops. The eyes are flat and marginal.

All species develop according to the three-host type. From the north the range runs along southern border taiga zone, i.e. between 51°-53° northern latitude. They live in different natural conditions: forests, steppes, semi-deserts, and less often in mountainous areas at an altitude of more than 2000 m.

Genus Boophilus. The world fauna includes 20 species and subspecies of this genus, in the territory of the former Soviet Union there is one species. The body length of hungry ticks is 2-5 mm, and that of engorged ticks is 15 mm. Color light brown, with yellowish tint. The proboscis is short, with a hexagonal base. Festoons are not pronounced. The anal groove is absent. The eyes are flat, lateral, located almost at the level of the second pair of limbs. Males have two pairs of scutes on their abdomen.

In its area B. calcaratus prevails over other species of ixodids: cattle are affected almost completely with ticks in hundreds and thousands of individuals. Distribution - the northern border runs between 42 and 47° north latitude. It lives in the southern steppe regions, in dark places with vegetation: Krasnodar and Stavropol territories, Chechnya, Ingushetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Kalmykia, Dagestan, Ukraine, Transcaucasia, Central Asia and Kazakhstan.

Development life cycle

The development cycle of the ixodid tick consists of the following stages:

• egg;
• larva;
• nymph;
• sexually mature individual.

In the spring, the female mite lays up to several thousand eggs in the soil, foliage, and under the roots of plants, and then dies; low humidity is detrimental to them. Egg size is up to 0.5 mm. If unfavorable conditions arise, the individual does not develop. The duration of this stage is up to 10 weeks.

In summer, larvae emerge from the eggs, up to 1 mm in size. Since the main condition for further development for them is the availability of nutrients, at this stage ixodid ticks are looking for the first host. They are most often served by rodents and birds. The larvae feed on blood for several days, after which they fall off and end up on the ground. Under favorable conditions, after 4 weeks the tick enters the nymphal stage; This is how she spends the winter. A hungry larva lives up to 2 years, but further development its life cycle is no longer subject to.

In the spring, in search of food, the nymph becomes more active and finds a second host, which can be a rodent, a pet or a person. Outwardly, it is already beginning to resemble an adult, but smaller in size. The stage lasts about a month. From this time, the tick feeds for up to 8 days, absorbing large volumes of blood and increasing its body weight by 20-100 times.

If adult ticks fail to find a host in the fall, they overwinter in fallen leaves, where they live until spring. After mating, the mature female overwinters, lays eggs and dies. In ixodid ticks, parthenogenesis is possible - development from an unfertilized egg; resulting in females.

Life cycle may have a different duration - from 1 to 4-7 years, lengthening is associated with unfavorable conditions environment, forcing the tick to remain dormant for several years.

How to understand that a tick has bitten

The bite itself is painless and often unnoticeable, but may be accompanied by a local allergic reaction or general somatic symptoms.

1. Redness.
2. Swelling.
3. Soreness.

If you detect such a rash on the skin, you must pay close attention to your well-being and measure your body temperature for a week to exclude the development of an infectious disease.

The severity of the symptoms depends on the body’s tendency to allergies, general initial condition, and age. Children, elderly people, and people with weakened immune systems are most vulnerable to ixodid tick bites. It is worth paying attention to the following manifestations of the disease:

• temperature increase;
• general weakness;
• cardiopalmus;
• pain in joints, muscles;
• enlargement of local lymph nodes;
• lethargy, drowsiness;
• photophobia.

These signs resemble the initial manifestations infectious diseases(like ARVI), but can also indicate that the ixodid tick poison has entered the body. It is worth noting that in rare cases, the state of health may become worse the next day, when general neurological symptoms appear:

• headache;
• dizziness;
• painful nausea;
• labored breathing;
• hallucinations.

A detected ixodid tick must be taken to the sanitary service, even if the victim feels well. Early diagnosis helps to start preventive therapy on time, which allows you to preserve health and life.

Pets can also be affected by these blood-sucking arachnids, so animals should be examined carefully after a walk. Thus, ixodid ticks in cats can be found: in the perineum, anus, on the neck, behind the ears.

If there is a suspicion of a bite, but the aggressor could not be detected, it is necessary to carry out repeated examinations at intervals of 2-3 days, since the tick that has drunk blood will become larger and more noticeable.

Measures taken when a tick is detected

If you find a tick, you must immediately go to the emergency room or carefully remove it yourself and take it to the SES.

Exist various ways extracts at home, but not all of them are safe.

There are special devices for removing ticks; if they are not available, you can try to make do with improvised means, such as tweezers and thread.

How to remove an ixodid tick using a thread:

1. Make a loop of thread.
2. Carefully place it over the tick, trying to tie the knot closer to the proboscis.
3. Slowly swinging and periodically stopping, unscrew the bloodsucker, thereby giving the ixodid tick the opportunity to detach itself.
4. Place it in a glass jar on a piece of cotton wool and close with a lid.
5. Label the jar with a label indicating the details of the victim, the date and place where the tick was found.
6. Inspect the bite site to make sure that there are no tick fragments left under the skin, then wash with soap and water and treat with an antiseptic solution (iodine, alcohol).

Using tweezers:

1. Clean the tweezers with alcohol.
2. Grasp the tick as close to the bite site as possible, since if held incorrectly, it can be crushed.
3. Pull towards yourself, rotating the plier around its axis, as a rule, you have to make up to three turns.
4. Treat the bite site, put the tick in a jar, label it and take it to the SES.

There is an alternative way to remove Ixodid ticks using a syringe. The principle of operation is based on creating negative pressure in the syringe, due to which the tick is pushed out. A small syringe (insulin) is best suited, from which a piece of the cylinder with the needle is carefully cut off. Pressing the resulting device tightly to the skin, you need to pull the piston towards you.

Correct removal of the tick and storage during transportation will allow it to be delivered for examination alive, which has great importance when diagnosing borelliosis (Lyme disease).

Why is an ixodid tick bite dangerous?

It is important to understand what danger an encounter with this arachnid poses to a person or animal. Ticks carry pathogens of infectious diseases transmitted by vector-borne transmission:

• tick-borne encephalitis;
• borelliosis;
• tularemia;
• typhus, relapsing fever;
• piroplasmosis;
• rickettsioses.

Tick-borne encephalitis can be suspected if, after contact with the pathogen, the following signs appear: a sharp increase in body temperature, headache, pain in the eyeballs, muscles, joints, lethargy, lethargy, impaired consciousness, and possible meningeal symptoms. The result can be persistent paresis, paralysis, episyndrome. Dealing with the disease and its consequences is extremely difficult. The mortality rate from tick-borne encephalitis is high.

How dangerous is the microorganism that causes borelliosis? The disease can occur not only from a bite, but also from crushing an ixodid tick with your fingers. It is characterized by a staged course: first, the clinic typical of viral infections comes to the fore: hyperthermia, pain in muscles, joints, characteristic migratory tick-borne erythema is found on the skin (has a ring shape, the surface is hot to the touch, itching is possible), then neurological and cardiac symptoms (meningeal manifestations, pericarditis, myocarditis). With a longer course of the disease, large joints are affected. Lyme disease tends to become chronic; the clinical picture is represented by symptoms of arthritis and osteoporosis.

General precautions

IMPORTANT! Preventive vaccination will protect against tick-borne encephalitis.

But in addition to its epidemiological significance, ixodid ticks are very interesting due to the unique features of their biology and interaction with their hosts. We will consider many of these nuances in more detail later...

Representatives of the family

The family Ixodidae, despite the relatively small number of species included in it, is distinguished by a significant diversity of its representatives, both in appearance and (to a greater extent) in lifestyle.

One of the most typical and well-known representatives is the taiga tick Ixodes persulcatus, which lives mainly in northeastern regions Russia and is a carrier of spring-summer tick-borne encephalitis here. With the onset of the warm season, its nymphs, after wintering in the forest floor, begin to hunt for small mammals and reptiles, and adult individuals search for large animals (or humans) for food.

The photo below shows adult representatives of this species:

Species of ixodids from the genus Dermacentor, recognizable by the white enamel pattern on the dorsal shield and also found in Europe and the European part of Russia, are the main vectors of tularemia and tick-borne typhus:

On the Black Sea and Caspian coasts, the brown dog tick is widespread, which can transmit Marseille spotted fever. At each stage of development, such a tick feeds only on dogs, but a person can become infected if he crushes the tick and then spreads the infection to the mucous membranes of the mouth, eyes or nose.

Photo of a brown dog tick:

The photo below shows the pig mite Amblyomma sculptum:

On a note

Today, the family is systematically divided into two groups, one of which includes, in fact, the genus Ixodes, and the other - all the rest. But the lack of data on fossil species still leaves open the question of the taxonomy of the group of ixodid ticks.

Appearance and anatomical features of ixodid ticks

The appearance of ixodid ticks is quite recognizable. Adult representatives of most species in a hungry state reach a size of about 5 mm, and their body is strongly flattened in the dorso-ventral direction.

The photo below shows the gnathosoma of a engorged female:

Ixodid ticks have olfactory organs on their legs, and therefore they usually wait for their prey, putting them forward. There are also many bristles on the body and legs that help to stay on different surfaces, serve as an element of protection and help in resettlement.

Adults have differences in morphology, depending on gender - females have only a small scute on the back, while in males the scute covers the entire back. This is due to the fact that females feed much more intensively, and the large scutum - a hard chitinous formation - will interfere with the stretching of the body when sucking blood.

On a note

It is worth noting that stretching occurs due to a special cuticle that completely covers the body of the tick. In a hungry individual, this cuticle contains many microfolds and grooves, which straighten out during saturation, and the body enlarges, acquiring a rounded shape and a grayish tint. The color of a hungry tick can vary from yellow-brown to almost black.

The oral apparatus of ixodid ticks is ideally adapted for feeding on blood on hosts with dense body coverings. It consists of a base, a proboscis, one pair of chelicerae enclosed in cases, and a pair of palps. The base of the proboscis is a capsule with a dense chitinous cover, where the ducts of the salivary glands are located. The palps consist of 4 segments and perform a tactile function.

The hypostome, or proboscis, is a rigid chitinous plate fixedly attached to the base. On it there are rows of sharp hooks curved back, which help to cut through the skin like a saw and fasten into it like a harpoon.

In addition to painkillers and blood anticoagulants, the tick’s saliva also contains a special protein secretion that hardens around the embedded proboscis. This provides additional reliability when secured in the skin - a kind of “cement case”.

Lifestyle and habitats

Ixodid ticks are generally very slow - each individual travels no more than a couple of tens of meters in its entire life.

This is interesting

Distribution of ixodids

Ixodid ticks are ubiquitous and are found on all continents Globe. But, as with any organisms, they have their own limiting factors. First of all, this is the need for optimal temperature and humidity. Even in the same forest, different microclimates prevail in different parts of it. Meadows exposed to sunlight may not have enough moisture for ticks to thrive. And, for example, at the edge or in the thicket of a forest there may be plenty of water. Therefore, the spread of ixodids in any geographical area intermittent, mosaic.

Having suitable hosts is also important, but ixodids are highly flexible and therefore often able to survive almost anywhere that terrestrial vertebrates live.

Altitude is also not a serious limitation for ticks: they are found in all altitude zones - from sea level to high mountains. For example, Ixodes acutitarsus is often found in the Himalayas above forest level.

However, the greatest diversity of ixodid ticks is observed in subtropical and tropical latitudes. The further you move away from them, the fewer species of ixodids you can find.

One of the most famous ticks, the taiga tick, has a distribution within its range limited by Kamchatka and Sakhalin from the north, and the Moscow region from the south. Its relative, the dog tick, is found in North Africa and throughout Europe, reaching as far as the Volga. The brown dog tick, as already mentioned, prefers coastal areas, including the Crimea and the Caucasus. It is these species that pose the greatest epidemiological danger to residents of Russia and European countries.

Hosts of different types of ixodid ticks

There are also two-host ticks - this means that the larva, having sucked blood, does not leave its first host. Having turned into a nymph, she bites him again, and only after that falls away from the first victim. The third time an adult tick will bite another animal.

Interesting fact

The duration of tick feeding increases with each subsequent stage of development. Larvae can attach to their hosts for 3-5 days, nymphs for 3-8 days, and adults are saturated with blood for up to 10-12 days. At the same time, the effect of ticks on an animal depends on many factors: the susceptibility of the host, its weight and the general degree of infestation.

Often, severe tick infestation leads to massive mortality of livestock. For example, 3-4 female ticks per 1 kg of body in an ordinary sheep is already a threat of rapid death.

If there are too many ticks on an animal, this leads to large blood losses and acute intoxication with saliva. Ixodid saliva contains many proteins that can cause severe immunological reactions. In addition, tissue damage in the bite area can result in suppuration and additional infection, not to mention diseases that can be transmitted by the ticks themselves.

Nutrition specifics

Before starting to suck blood, the tick usually searches for a long time appropriate place on the owner's body. He will definitely prefer an area with delicate thin skin, so ticks are often found on the neck, behind the ears, in groin area, on the bends of the limbs.

If the tick is infected with any infection, then already at this moment the pathogens will begin to penetrate the host tissues.

In addition, saliva contains vasodilators and components that prevent blood clotting (anticoagulants). All this is necessary to ensure successful long-term feeding of the tick.

On a note

Ixodids have several surprising biological features that are characteristic only of some representatives. One of them, aphagia, is a phenomenon in which adult males of certain species do not feed at all, but only engage in fertilization of engorged females, after which they immediately die.

Another interesting phenomenon, characteristic only of ticks, is omovampirism, in which hungry ticks (usually males) do not hesitate to attack their well-fed relatives. They pierce the body of their fellow and suck some of the blood from it. What is noteworthy is that the victim tick remains alive after such an unceremonious intervention in its metabolic processes, and if it is a female, then she is quite capable of safely laying eggs after this.

Reproduction and development

It is not easy to give a general characteristic for all ixodids in terms of reproduction and development. They are characterized by a huge variety of life cycles in terms of total duration and seasonal activity of hungry individuals. All three active stages can develop in one warm season, sometimes even several generations are formed during this time. In other cases, the transition from egg to larva, nymph, and then adult requires quite a lot of time, and the cycle stretches for up to five years.

The total duration of blood sucking on the host during the entire life of an ixodid tick reaches a total of about 15 days, which is an extremely small fraction of the total duration of ontogenesis. But during this time, serious qualitative changes occur in the tick’s body, associated not only with the stretching of the body’s integument during feeding, but also with the development of its body as a whole. Thanks to this, after saturation, the larva becomes a nymph, and that, in turn, becomes an adult.

As already mentioned, at different stages of development, ticks attack animals of different sizes. If in the first two stages the victims of most ixodids are small rodents, reptiles and birds, then adults already prefer large animals, including ungulates and humans.

The reproduction of ixodid ticks is also not without interesting details. The search for a partner and the mating itself most often takes place directly on the owner. This is explained by the fact that searching for each other in nature is extremely difficult due to their solitary lifestyle, wide habitat and low mobility.

In addition, individuals of some species are generally incapable of mating without being engorged with blood. Therefore, the ideal place for a “date” is just at mealtime. On the 3-5th day of blood sucking, adult female ixodids begin to secrete special compounds - pheromones, which attract males.

Mating takes place directly while the female is feeding, which she does not interrupt for several days after insemination. The male either dies immediately after mating, or he can consume another portion of blood and go looking for a new female.

By the way, the nutrition of ticks differs depending on gender. In general, all ixodids are characterized by much shorter suction of males to the owner compared to females - they only need a couple of hours to get enough. And the body of males itself is not adapted for large volumes of blood - it is surrounded on all sides by rigid, inextensible shields.

After the fertilized female is saturated with a sufficient amount of blood, she falls away from the owner and prepares for the process of laying eggs. Their maturation takes from several days to a month, and occurs thanks to nutrients, obtained from the blood of the last victim.

The oviposition process itself is also long - from three weeks to two months. At the same time, a female dog tick will lay an average of 2000-3000 thousand eggs, but individuals of more exotic tropical species will lay up to 20 thousand eggs, and sometimes even 30 thousand or more.

Ixodid ticks are dangerous, first of all, as carriers of many infectious diseases, and therefore have an important medical significance. In terms of the variety of infections they carry, they are ahead of all arthropods, including mosquitoes.

About 100 viruses, 200 species of piroplasmids, dozens of species of rickettsia, trypanosomes and bacteria were isolated from ticks collected in nature. But still, infection with certain infections is not the norm for ixodids - ticks become infected with them either when feeding on a sick animal, or while still in the egg from an infected mother.

With rare exceptions, the reproducing pathogen does not cause any harm to the tick, unlike its possible host.

The photo below shows erythema migrans, a characteristic sign of Lyme disease:

It is important to note that even uninfected ticks, if there are a large number of them on one host, cause enormous harm to it. Wounds from penetration of ixodid proboscis can additionally become infected with pathogens from the surface of the skin or from the air. Such damage can then fester and not heal for a long time, causing severe discomfort. With an impressive number of attached ticks, the owner also begins to suffer from blood loss. This poses a risk of developing anemia that is incompatible with life.

Methods of protection against ixodid ticks and combating them

There are several effective ways protect yourself from ixodid tick bites in nature. The simplest thing you can do is to dress appropriately when going into a potentially dangerous area. Shirts with a high collar and long sleeves with tight-fitting cuffs, long trousers and, if possible, closed high shoes are suitable for this.

It is advisable to tuck your trousers into your socks and your shirt into your trousers. It is also good to use smooth and light-colored fabrics in clothing, which are more difficult for ticks to cling to and on which dark ticks are clearly visible.

Active control measures include spraying clothing and animal fur with repellents containing diethyltoluamide (DEET), dimethyl phthalate, repudin, diethyl phthalate, carboxyl, repethal and others. For animals, there are also tablets and injections that provide resistance to tick bites for a certain period of time.

Among folk remedies Self-prepared protective sprays are popular. They are made from natural essential oils, vinegar or ointments with strong odors, mixing them with water. Perhaps they have some effect, but a person needs to be prepared to endure the annoying smell of the product, which is not suitable for everyone. In any case, in terms of the protective effect, such drugs are mostly inferior to products based on powerful synthetic repellents.

It is important not to try to pull out the tick with a simple tearing movement - in this case, you can tear off its body from the head, which will remain in the skin and lead to suppuration.

In regions where cases of tick-borne encephalitis have been repeatedly reported, there is a well-functioning system for preventing this disease. It includes both vaccinations and emergency care immediately after being bitten by an infected tick.

If desired, you can undergo a course of vaccination consisting of several vaccinations, following one after another in a strict time interval. This course provides reliable protection against the disease, but vaccination must be repeated periodically, because immunity to encephalitis after it lasts only about a year.

If a tick infected with the tick-borne encephalitis virus has already bitten, and the person has not been vaccinated before, then an emergency injection of anti-encephalitis gamma globulin will be effective within the first three to four days. This protein specifically binds to the pathogen and prevents the disease from developing.

It may be advisable to treat garden plots to kill ticks on them. To combat ixodids, special acaricides are used - in large areas they are sprayed using aircraft, in small areas - with hand and motor sprayers.

On a note

Previously, long-acting preparations such as DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) and HCH (hexachlorocyclohexane) were widely used as land treatment agents. They showed high efficiency in killing ticks, but also turned out to be dangerous for the environment and people themselves.

Today, to get rid of ticks in the territories of sanatoriums, recreation centers and children's camps, safer drugs are used: karbofos, trichlorvos, chlorpyrifos, fenthion, permethrin, cypermethrin and others. It is preferable to poison ticks by professional exterminators - they have access to modern effective drugs and know how to use them correctly.

Their natural enemies in nature also help maintain control over the number of ticks. Here, ixodids are often fed by predators, the diversity of which is quite large: spiders, beetles, ants, wasps, centipedes. They are also eaten by amphibians, reptiles and birds, and the latter can even eat wintering ticks in their hiding places. That is why it is useful not only to treat the area with acaricides, but also to make it attractive for natural enemies ticks.

Interesting video: interesting facts about ixodid ticks...

Test the effectiveness of various anti-tick products