Pincers
There are thousands of species of ticks, and many of them are dangerous to humans. What are the most dangerous ticks on the planet?
Out of all 54,000 species of ticks, less than a third – 12,000 species – are of interest to humans as food. Vertebrates and ticks have lived together for 200 million years.
Where can we ticks them, which are dangerous?
What dangerous ticks on the planet are found in parks, in the country, in the field, in the forest – this is the Ixodes tick. The most famous tick. It is a carrier of encephalitis, borreliosis, Lyme disease, rickettsiosis and others. In the spring, the ixodid tick is the most dangerous, because after wintering in leaves and grass, it climbs out into the sun hungry. During his short life, he can drink the blood of 5-7 different hosts.
The first victims of hungry ticks are small rodents. They are natural reservoirs of dangerous infections. After drinking, at some stage of infectious blood, the tick itself becomes a biological weapon.
To hunt, the tick crawls out onto the grass or a bush, crawls to a height of 60-80 cm, a maximum of 1 m. Three pairs of legs hug a blade of grass, and the fourth is pointed forward. There, ticks have sensory organs that help them feel heat and smells. The victim is detected by an ixodid tick from a distance of 5 m. The next stage of the hunt is to grab hold of: bare legs, trousers, and animal fur.
During feeding, a female ixodid tick weighing only 5 mg becomes 200 times heavier. All this time, she injects pathogens into the victim’s blood. And all for the sake of posterity.
Residents of the first and last floors are at risk of encountering ticks.
There are ticks that are not used to waiting for the mercy of nature. They themselves come to our homes, and they attack from two directions at once. Some appear together with birds, others with mice and rats.
The rat mite, together with its owner, penetrates into apartments, inhabits them, and accordingly attacks people.
Another dangerous tick on the planet is the chicken tick
The chicken mite is mainly associated with pigeons and lives in their nests. Residents of the first floors suffer from the bites of the first, and from the bites of the second. The upper floors, where the birds live on the roof. Gamaz ticks move along communications in houses and can attack a person when he gets into the reach zone.
The size of the mite is about 1 mm. But despite its small size, its bite causes acute dermatitis. And this is only one of the diseases that a hungry tick can reward a person with.
Demodex.
Most likely, lives right on the face. In the pores of the skin in the nasolabial folds and on the forehead. The neighbor is quite calm. At night, when a person sleeps, it comes to the surface of the skin to eat the dead epidermis and secretion of sebaceous glands. It is not dangerous for humans. It is believed that approximately 90% of the world’s population is a carrier of this mite, and only 5% develop demodex.
Zoologists have established that these ticks are passed from parent to child and peacefully accompany a person throughout life. Up to a certain point. For example, an immune failure of the body can provoke demodex to breed. There are too many ticks on the face and they start eating the living skin. Dermatologists, in some cases cosmetologists, are involved in the treatment. After excessive demodex reproduction, dark spots and scars remain on the skin of the face. Which can only be removed surgically.
Women over 40 are at risk. It is at this age that the hormonal background and immune protective functions of the body decrease. Nutrition and the condition of the gastrointestinal tract also play an important role. You should not eat fatty, spicy food, alcohol – everything that increases. The oiliness of the skin.
The scabies tickson the list of “What dangerous ticks”
Unlike demodex, which lives on the surface of the skin. There are mites that seek to penetrate inside. This is exactly what the scabies mite is. After infection, for the first time, from seven to ten days, a person does not feel anything. After the incubation period, itching appears:. It is a foreign protein contained in the excrement of the tick that causes an allergic reaction. The more ticks inside, the stronger the symptoms.
Infection can be a result of using other people’s objects, clothes, bedding. It is most often found in people in groups – for example, a kindergarten.
Children and the elderly are at risk. The scabies mite prefers not to contact the immune system of a healthy person.
There are ticks from which neither repellents, nor overalls, nor apartment insulation can save.
These are mites that live in house dust. They are so small that they cannot be seen with the naked eye. Previously, it was believed that dust mites attack apartments whose owners neglect hygiene. In fact, ticks do not recognize social barriers and live in almost every home.
That is, there are at least 30,000 of them in your bed every night. Dust mites themselves are calm neighbors. They go out in search of food at night, and when morning comes. They hide in the mattress. But they cause allergies. More precisely, the allergy does not occur to the ticks themselves. But to the products of their vital activity.
The main part of allergens (about 100 of them) is concentrated in tick excrement. Their size is very small, tens of microns. Each day, the tick leaves from 20 to 40 such balls. They easily rise into the air, settle on the human mucous membrane.
Not so many people are prone to house dust mite allergies – only 8%. But, if the allergy has manifested itself. Then the life of the tick in the house should be made as uncomfortable. Do wet cleaning every day, clean carpets, curtains, buy toys only that can be washed…