The insect poses a danger to human life and health, as it can infect various infections. The bite itself is only harmful to people who are allergic to the parasite's saliva. Disputes often arise as to whether there are ticks in a pine forest? Some are sure that coniferous phytoncides have a detrimental effect and repel arthropods. In fact, if the environmental conditions are right, they can be picked up anywhere.
Where are ticks found: grass or trees?
Many people mistakenly think that the main habitat of ticks is on trees. This is not true: the favorite place of parasites is grass and fallen leaves. There favorable conditions for life and reproduction are created for them.
Ticks in the forest do not live on trees. Most often, parasites are found in grass, especially in parks where the grass is not regularly mowed, which is very convenient for them. By regularly cutting the grass and clearing the area of leaves, the risk of encountering dangerous insects is quite low.
Adults usually sit on tall grass:
- adult specimens – grass above 1.5 m;
- nymphs - in grass at least a meter high;
- larvae – no higher than 30 cm.
But still, are there ticks on trees? No! Many people are mistaken in thinking that ticks are located on tree branches and, when the opportunity arises, jump onto a passing victim. Their habitat is tall grass, fallen leaves and dense thickets.
They show their activity at temperatures above 10 degrees. Most often, there is an increased risk of getting a bite in May and June; sometimes the parasites manifest themselves in April.
Knowing where ticks live and the period of parasite activity, you can significantly reduce the risk of getting a bite and developing complications.
Appearance of insects
The tick looks small, reaching 3–4 mm in length, but if the female has drunk blood, its size increases to 10 mm, and the color also changes to light gray. Females lay about 17,000 eggs in the ground, but due to complex ontogeny, only a few pairs of insects survive. The larvae feed with the help of terrestrial animals such as mustelids and rodents. Adult males are several times smaller than the female.
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Are there ticks in the pine forest?
When going on vacation to a pine forest, many are interested in whether there are ticks in the coniferous forest. It is difficult to encounter ticks on trees and foliage in a pine forest; this usually occurs when conditions are favorable for insects. If the forest has a high level of humidity, the area is well warmed by the sun, there are clearings and unharvested foliage, then such conditions for the growth and reproduction of parasites are ideal.
Therefore, before resting, you should take care of protection, use special means, clothes should be as closed as possible, and after a walk you should carefully examine the skin for the presence of bites.
Remember! Reproduction of ticks can occur in absolutely any forest, provided the climate is favorable. A wet area and deposits of dead wood are some of the conditions for the larvae to be found. Parasites are rarely found in dry pine forests, but in any case it is important to follow safety measures.
Prevention methods
Immunoglobulin for the treatment of tick-borne encephalitis
Only vaccination effectively protects against tick-borne encephalitis . But you shouldn’t forget about personal safety measures: a hat and thick clothing in nature, the use of special anti-tick products, and checking your body every two hours. Upon returning home, you need to take a shower and wash your things.
The health of each person is, first of all, a personal responsibility. If you are bitten by a tick, you should not self-medicate and hope for luck. Borreliosis and tick-borne encephalitis are dangerous diseases that can be fatal.
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Where in Russia there are no ticks
Finding an area where there are no ticks is quite difficult, but there are such areas in Russia. Parasites are almost never found in dark coniferous forests, in very cold places, in forests without undergrowth, in areas where there is no grass and deciduous trees. It is impossible to be 100% sure that there is no parasite here, since parasites are often found even in areas with a fairly dry and cool climate.
The risk of encountering ticks in Russia is low in the following areas where:
- there is no grass and bushes;
- lack of undergrowth;
- abundance of lichens and moss on the territory;
- rocky terrain;
- mountain slopes;
- rocky area.
It is worth noting that insects are almost never found on rocky areas, since it is difficult for them to gain a foothold on a slippery surface. Rest in such places will be comfortable and safest.
Both the table and the house
Having clung to the host, ticks actively search for a suitable place to attach, preferably where it is more difficult for the host to get rid of them, for example, on the ears and head of rodents.
On hedgehogs with their spines, mites are more evenly distributed, but on primates there are practically no mites. In regions with a dry and hot climate, ticks more often stick to the lower part of the body, protected from the sun. They can even be found in the mouths of elephants and in the nostrils of hippos and camels. Ticks attach themselves to people in a variety of places: in the armpits, less often on the chest, abdomen, arms, buttocks and legs, as well as on the head, especially in children.
Ticks attach to the host's skin with their mouth parts, cut through it and use their proboscis to suck out blood, inflammatory infiltrate and tissue dissolution products, alternating this process with the introduction of saliva into the wound.
Ixodid ticks feed slowly: larvae feed for 3–5 days, females for 5–15 days. During feeding, their body weight increases by one or two orders of magnitude: females of the largest species can absorb up to 8–10 ml of blood!
After finishing feeding, the larvae and nymphs fall away from the host and molt, moving to the next stage of development. In adult ticks, feeding is associated with reproduction. Partners, as a rule, meet on their host - hungry male and female ticks are not able to mate, with the exception of ticks of the genus Ixodes
. The male can remain on the host for several months and during this time fertilize several dozen females. The female mates only once, after which she quickly gains weight, falls away from the owner and after some time (from several days to months) lays eggs (from 800 to 20,000 depending on the species), after which she dies (Balashov, 1998; Biology of Ticks, 2014).
In most cases, the development of ixodid ticks occurs with a change of host at each stage of the life cycle. Their feeders are birds, reptiles and, first of all, mammals, especially rodents. Thus, the taiga tick parasitizes approximately 170 species of birds, 100 species of mammals and several species of reptiles. As a rule, small animals moving in the lower tiers are attacked by larvae and nymphs, and large animals are attacked by adult ticks (Balashov, 1998; Biology of Ticks, 2014).
Where are the most ticks?
They are found in areas with high levels of humidity, the most favorable place being mixed and deciduous forests. In Europe, parasites can easily be found in gardens, forests and city parks. Sometimes found in northern regions and highlands.
Ticks in the forest are one of the most common options; such areas have high humidity, there is a lot of foliage, tall grass and clearings around.
Forest ticks and dog ticks are often found in Russia (you can see the distribution halo above on the map). In the forest parks of the Far East and Siberia you can encounter the taiga parasite. The most dangerous place is Western Siberia and the Urals - more than 80% of cases of bites of such insects are recorded here. In Northern and Central Europe, as well as the European part of Russia, the encephalitis dog tick is widespread.
Previously, parasite bites and subsequent complications were occupational diseases, since they were infected by those whose work activities were related to the forest. It was noted that infection of rural and urban residents occurs in the same way.
Parasites choose areas with high humidity, so they are most often found in countries whose territories are rich in clearings, forest edges, low bushes and dense grass. European taiga and forest ticks pose a threat to human health. The latter species is often found in northern Europe, European Russia and North America. Taiga dangerous insects are common in areas of the southern and northern taiga.
These types of ticks are carriers of particularly dangerous pathogens: hemorrhagic fever, Lyme disease and encephalitis. Borreliosis ticks are often found in the Krasnodar region, Moscow and the Moscow region. It is possible to become infected with hemorrhagic fever in the Caucasus, in the Volgograd and Rostov regions. The encephalitis tick was seen in the Far East, Volga region, Karelia, and Northwestern Russia. In the East, ticks are more common in Vladivostok.
Less common, but still found, are parasites along forest and park paths. When the temperature drops below 5 degrees, they burrow into moss or foliage. Insects are attracted to branches, debris, garden plots and parks rich in foliage. Similar places in large cities are not ignored either.
Where to expect an attack?
Ticks need feeders to survive. Therefore, they are located exactly where many people and animals pass. They climb to the very top of bushes or blades of grass and wait for their prey. When walking along forest roads or through coastal thickets, you should not touch or touch low-hanging branches, bushes and tall grass with your hands. Do not sit on a litter of leaves or branches.
Ticks have no eyes. Thanks to their excellent sense of smell, they sense the approach of humans and warm-blooded animals from 10 meters away. In anticipation of their approach, the parasite extends its forelimbs to latch on.
It is on the front legs of the tick that the olfactory organs are located. Moving them from side to side, the tick understands from which side the victim is approaching and tries to grab onto it. Thanks to special hooks and suction cups at the end of the legs, the tick firmly clings to everything it touches.
Most often, the parasite sneaks under a person’s trouser leg and moves higher, attaching itself to the leg or groin area or leg. A person does not feel the bite because, together with its saliva, the tick injects a substance with an analgesic effect into the bite site. Then it plunges its proboscis under the victim's skin and begins to suck blood. The special “cementing” properties of saliva firmly fix it in this position. Once satisfied, the tick disappears. A well-fed tick increases in size up to a centimeter.
Among the total number of ixodid ticks, about 5% of individuals are carriers of dangerous diseases. They can cause the following serious diseases:
- tick-borne encephalitis is a life-threatening disease;
- borreliosis is a bacterial disease that, in the absence of timely treatment, leads to irreversible changes in the brain and death;
- piroplasmosis is a disease of domestic animals transmitted through tick bites;
- hemorrhagic fever.
Are there parasites in the city?
Ticks in the city are not a rare phenomenon, it all depends on the territory and the number of plantings. There is a high probability of encountering parasites in a city where there are recreational areas and parks populated with a lot of greenery. The ability of dangerous insects to get into different places is still unknown, but statistics have shown that insects are increasingly appearing in places where they were not there before.
If there is a high risk of ticks, control services must treat such areas with special means. At the same time, it is not always possible to completely get rid of insects, so when traveling to the city that seems safest at first glance, you should be careful and take safety measures. The danger lies not in the bite itself, but in the pathogens that they can transmit from an infected animal.
In large cities, according to statistics, ticks with an encephalitis pathogen are practically not found.
Do not forget about precautionary measures, especially for areas with abundant vegetation, as well as areas adjacent to forests, summer cottages and livestock fields. You can often find parasites in small towns, villages or urban villages, where the population does not exceed 100 thousand people.
In such urban areas, blood-sucking insects are found along sidewalks; the risk of a bite in this case is as high as when you are in an open field. In such areas there is no special fight against ticks, since cities have small budgets, which are not enough to include measures to combat dangerous insects.
In cities with a population of over 500 thousand people, hazardous areas are treated with anti-tick agents during peak times of the year. Cases of bites are increasingly being recorded in big cities, in the suburbs and outskirts, and fishermen and summer residents are also suffering.
How does infection occur?
While waiting for its victim, the tick climbs onto a grassy plant or tree branches. Having caught the smell of an animal or person, it quickly crawls onto it and tries to find the most convenient place for feeding.
Such places may be:
- Groin area;
- Head;
- Neck from the back;
- Armpit;
- Back;
- Chest and belly.
Of course, no one is safe from being bitten on the hand or other parts of the body. When an infected animal is bitten, the disease virus enters the tick, which then transfers the virus from one warm-blooded creature to another. The bacteria enter the victim's body along with saliva, which is secreted by the arthropod and spreads throughout the body, which causes the disease. In many cases, a patient bitten by a tick does not have time to be taken to the hospital.
The bite is practically unnoticeable; this is again due to the insect’s saliva, which contains analgesics that affect immune cells at the sites of attachment. Due to this, the infection quickly spreads through the blood.
The tick can be invisible for about 24 hours, but after sucking blood from the object, the female increases in size several times and can be easily detected. During this time, the infection affects the entire body. Unlike the female, the male disappears after drinking blood; sometimes people do not even notice his presence on their skin and will not understand why their health has deteriorated and unwanted symptoms have appeared.
It should be noted that not all ticks are disease carriers. People and all warm-blooded animals should be wary of only three species among 40 thousand:
- ixodidae;
- Gamasaceae;
- Argasaceae
However, in order for a tick to become a carrier of diseases, it itself needs to become infected. There is a constant cycle in the infection mechanism. Having bitten an infected mammal, the tick absorbs the virus of typhoid, tularemia, encephalitis, borreliosis, etc. Thus, this arachnid becomes infected.
Both mammals and humans can become infected from a tick bite. Tick-borne encephalitis, for example, can be acquired completely imperceptibly. Having found a place unprotected by clothing, the arachnid bites into the skin with its oral appendages (chelicerae). After which the tick inserts a proboscis with teeth into the resulting hole, which securely fixes it on the victim’s body.
Insect saliva contains a substance that makes blood clotting difficult. Thanks to this, they drink enough of it. In addition, a substance gets into the wound, making the bite painless. This means that it will be difficult for a person to notice the attached tick. Having drunk enough, he takes out his proboscis and falls to the ground.
It is not possible to identify an infected tick by appearance. It needs to be taken to a laboratory where diagnostics will be performed.
Which countries have no ticks at all?
Which countries are tick free? In areas with dry, cold and sparse foliage, they are rare, but they do exist. Parasites are not found in the Nordic countries, in cities with a dry climate, a small number of deciduous parks, forests and fields. They are not found in Antarctica, Bermuda or Hawaii.
In order to protect yourself and your loved ones when choosing a vacation spot, you need to know in advance in which places and countries ticks live.
By the way, parasites can be found in mountainous areas, for example in the Altai Mountains. Despite the fact that the tick loves high humidity and abundant foliage, you should also be vigilant when going to the mountains. Increased activity of their appearance in the mountains is observed in June; by the end of summer, parasites can also be found, but much less frequently.
