Taiga tick - spreader of dangerous diseases

Taiga tick - an insect belonging to the order of arachnids. It has eight legs and a flat body. He has no visual organs, in space he is guided by touch and smell. This drawback and very small dimensions (female - 4 mm, male even smaller - only 2.5 mm) do not prevent it from surviving quite successfully. His prey he senses at a distance of up to ten meters. The tick is a very dangerous creature, it is the carrier of tick-borne encephalitis and Lyme disease. Until the middle of the twentieth century he lived only in the territory of Siberia, but gradually began to spread to the west. It is now found all over Russia.

It used to be that a taiga mite lives on tree branches and from there jumps onto its victims. This view was formed due to the fact that it is sucked mainly in the upper part of the human body and animals. But then it turned out that this is such a tactic. The tick searches for places where it is more difficult to detect, but it lives in dense and tall grass or on the lower branches of shrubs. In small animals this insect does fall off from above. And in humans, he gets to his feet and gradually moves up, looking for places where you can suck.

Taiga mite, the photo is clearly illustrated, it is attached where the skin is the most tender, which means it is easy to bite. The person or animal does not feel the bite itself, because an enzyme with an anesthetic effect is injected into the wound by insects. This is done in order not to be discovered. Males are less dangerous than females. They suck in for a short time, do not go deep. Females, on the contrary, are very voracious, they can make themselves almost a mink in the skin and stay there for several days, during this time increasing in size up to 10 times. After sucking, they fall off and lay eggs, one masonry totals up to two thousand pieces. Two weeks later, larvae hatch from it. To gain strength, they will use small animals, and then leave in the soil. There, the larva of the taiga tick will reincarnate into a so-called nymph. When they come to the surface, they will be fed again and will go to winter.

The cycle of mites starts in April-May. They are very dangerous before laying eggs. In June, laying eggs, the bulk of the dying, but especially survivable remain and can live until September. And in the autumn, nymphs become active, who will also take care of themselves.

If earlier taiga mites lived only in dense forest thickets, now it can be found on pastures near populated areas and in park areas. It turns out that almost every person is at risk, it is necessary to take precautions. In cottages need to mow the grass, not only inside the site, but also around it, so you deprive the tick of the habitat. Going to the forest, they put on pants made of dense fabric, narrowed to the bottom, boots, jacket or windbreaker with string and hood. Every 10-15 minutes you need to inspect yourself. After the forest, do not enter this house.

If the taiga tick still found a loophole and sucked, do not panic. It can not just be torn out, remains inside the head with a proboscis, then the infection process will be guaranteed . You need to take a thread, throw it on the proboscis of an insect and tighten it, so it loses its food. Then it is easy to remove. The tick itself should be placed in a jar and handed to the laboratory to find out if it was infected. I wound the wound with iodine. Next, you need to see a doctor and do a prophylactic vaccination. Remember, frivolity leads to disability for the rest of your life.