Taiga tick is an insect belonging to the order of arachnids. It has eight legs and a flat body. He has no visual organs, he orients himself in space thanks to touch and smell. This disadvantage and very small size (the female is 4 mm, the male is even smaller - only 2.5 mm) do not prevent him from surviving quite successfully. He smells his prey at a distance of up to ten meters.
Tick is a very dangerous creature, he is a carrier of tick-borne encephalitis and Lyme disease. Until the middle of the twentieth century, he lived only in Siberia, but gradually began to spread to the west. Now found throughout Russia.
It used to be that the taiga tick lives on the branches of trees and from there jumps onto its victims. This opinion was formed due to the fact that it sticks mainly in the upper body of humans and animals. But then it turned out that this is such a tactic. The tick looks for places where it is more difficult to detect it, and it lives in thick and tall grass or on the lower branches.shrubs. On small animals, this insect really falls from above. And in a person, he gets on his feet and gradually moves up, looking for places where he can stick.
Taiga tick, the photo clearly illustrates this, it attaches itself where the skin is most tender, which means it is easy to bite through. The bite itself is not felt by a person or animal, since an enzyme with an analgesic effect is injected into the wound by insects.
This is done in order not to be detected. Males are less dangerous than females. They stick for a short time, do not go deep. Females, on the contrary, are very voracious, they can make themselves practically a mink in the skin and stay there for up to several days, during which time they increase in size up to 10 times. Having sucked, they fall off and lay eggs, one clutch has up to two thousand pieces. After two weeks, larvae hatch from it. To gain strength, they will take advantage of small animals, and then go into the soil. There, the larva of the taiga tick will reincarnate into the so-called nymph. Having come to the surface, they will feed again and go to winter quarters.
The life cycle of a tick begins in April-May. They are very dangerous before laying eggs. In June, having laid eggs, the bulk of them die, but especially tenacious ones remain and can live until September. And in autumn, nymphs become active, who are also not averse to profiting.
If earlier the taiga tick lived only in dense forest thickets, now it can bemeet on pastures near settlements and in park areas. It turns out that almost every person is at risk, it is necessary to take precautions. In summer cottages, you need to mow the grass not only inside the site, but also around it, so you will deprive the tick of its habitat. Going to the forest, they put on trousers made of dense fabric, narrowed to the bottom, boots, a jacket or a windbreaker with ties and a hood. Every 10-15 minutes you need to examine yourself. After the forest, do not enter the house in these clothes.
If the taiga tick still found a loophole and stuck, do not panic. You can’t just pull it out, the head with the proboscis will remain inside, then the infectious process is guaranteed to begin. You need to take a thread, throw it on the proboscis of an insect and tighten it, so it is deprived of food. Then it is easy to take it off. Place the tick itself in a jar and take it to the laboratory to find out if it was infected. Treat the wound with iodine. Next, you need to see a doctor and get preventive vaccinations. Remember, frivolity leads to disability for the rest of your life.
