The red-calf tick, named for its bright red-orange color, is distributed throughout the globe. It lives in soil as well as among plants.
Description
These creatures, unusual in their coloration, are really bright representatives of the family of velvet mites. Outwardly, they look more like spiders, so they are often confused with them.
Adult individuals live in the ground. Their rather large oval red body is 1 to 2 mm long and is covered with many small hairs. The limbs are seven-segmented paws, on which 2 claws are located. If any danger arises, the tick presses them under itself, then, if the danger has passed, it continues on its way.
The velvet red beetle mite (earth mite, as it is also called) is a predator that sometimes feeds on plant foods. But the main food for adults is various insects.
These arachnids come from India, where they spread in very large numbers during the monsoon period, for which they received the name rain mites among the local population.
Main habitats
Today, the red beetle mite lives in almost allcorners of the globe. Especially a lot of them are observed in the tropics and subtropics. The arthropods themselves live in the soil, and the larvae parasitize vertebrates. In temperate countries, only one generation of ticks per year can develop (for example, in the tropics there can be up to five). The cycle of development occurs strictly according to the seasons. To lay eggs, the mite migrates into the soil to a depth of 10 cm.
Development cycle
The red velvet mite during the breeding season lays 30-50 eggs per day in the soil, which is approximately 400 to 900 pieces for the entire time. After the embryonic molt, the larva is released from the egg. After a week, she is able to eat on her own. Initially, it feeds on the hemolymph of insects and arachnids.
Then, after passing through the next dormant stage (pupal), the larva turns into a deutonymph. This is the same predator as the adult red beetle tick. Their greatest number is observed in July-August.
After a certain time, another stage of dormancy sets in, after which adults appear.
Maggots
The larvae of the red beetle tick mainly parasitize on animals. Their owners are most often rodents, hedgehogs, predators and some domestic animals, such as sheep, horses, goats, etc. Sometimes they attack a person. Most of the larvae parasitize on the skin, less often in the nasal cavity. Clinging to the body of the host, they break the stratum corneum of the epidermis, sink into the skin and feed on the interstitial fluid for several days, less often -blood.
The larvae of the red beetle mite attack their prey directly from the surface of the soil or plants. Such an attack occurs around the clock (if there is sufficient humidity), stopping for a short time only in the hot midday hours.
Feeding period can be from 2 to 7 days. Satiated larvae leave the host, dropping to the soil, where they continue their development cycle. One animal can have up to 11,000 of them on itself, of which several dozen fall off every day. The larva for the entire feeding period increases in size by more than 15 times.
Use in traditional medicine
Hemolymph of the red beetle mite has a rather powerful fungicidal effect. In this regard, it is widely used in folk medicine of the inhabitants of India. It is used to prevent paralysis, and also as an aphrodisiac: it is believed that the oil obtained from red beetles enhances sexual desire. In modern medicine, this issue is still at the stage of consideration. Scientists are only looking at these arthropods as a potential source of immunomodulators.
What is the danger of the red beetle tick
The photos of these creatures are pretty cute, and looking at them, it's hard to even imagine what kind of danger ticks carry for those who are chosen as an object for food. Among all their relatives, they are the only ones whose larvae are carriers of a rather dangerous disease - tsutsugamushi fever. This infection is especially widespread in Japan, Korea and China. AtWhen infected, a person has a high fever, a rash appears, and the spleen enlarges. In advanced cases, serious complications can occur, leading to death.
In Russia, small foci of infection exist only in some areas of the Far East. Most of all, the red beetle mite is known to us as the causative agent of dermatitis. Attacking a person, he is able to cause a disease such as gooseberry fever. At the site of a tick bite, a small red spot first forms, on which an abscess appears in a day, and after three days a barely noticeable bubble appears. This place is very itchy, especially at night. After 5-8 days, the bubble resolves. After it, a dark pigment spot remains, which lasts for two weeks. It continues to itch quite badly, which can lead to re-infection.
Such arthropods as the red beetle tick are dangerous primarily for children who often play in the grass, where the probability of attack by parasites is quite high. Most often this happens in rural areas, but recently more and more cases of tick attacks on humans have been recorded in large cities.
In urban conditions, favorite places for krasnotelok are squares, gardens, any green areas. There can be several hundred individuals for 1 dm2.
Methods of treatment and prevention of bites
Each year, a fairly large number of people are bitten by red ticks. Due to their small sizeit is difficult to notice on the body, in addition, the larvae can hide in places where clothing fits snugly against the skin. It should be remembered that ticks are carriers of various infectious diseases, including fatal ones. Therefore, their bites cannot be ignored.
The wound should be kept clean by washing in the morning and evening with water. In order to reduce itching, you can use antiseptics or lotions with a decoction of celandine and chamomile. To prepare it, brew 10 grams of a mixture of dried herbs in a glass of boiling water, let it brew for two hours, and then filter it. An infusion of herbs can be mixed with baby cream and lubricated with the resulting ointment on the wound surface up to four times a day.
How to get red beetles out of the balcony
It happens that ticks settle near a person's home, in front gardens and even on balconies.
They can be carried by birds or small rodents. In order not to put yourself in danger, it is important in such cases to know how to remove red ticks from the balcony. To destroy them, chemicals and special agents are used (dust, DDT emulsion, hexachloran). Processing requires 0.5 to 1 g of substance per square meter.
