С каждым годом ареал распространения клещей increases, they are becoming more and more. Together with them, the number of deadly diseases carried by these dangerous predators is being carried by animals and humans.
Today it is easy to pick up a tick in a city square or in a park, in a backyard and in a garden. Creatures in chitin shells are increasingly squeezing the ring around the person.
About what the tick eats and about its habits can be found by reading this article.
About types of ticks
All mites belong to the order of small arachnids, uniting approximately 20 thousand species. What feeds a tick, except for blood? Some of the ticks listed below feed on other types of feed.
The largest group of soil mites - armoredticks. They live in forest soils and litter. Chewing rotting plant debris with abundant microflora with their gnawing chelicerae. They carry tape worms that affect livestock.
Small insects gnawing with their chelicerae -This granary ticks (or bread and flour). They live in decaying plant debris and in the soil. In the storage of agricultural products they cause damage to flour, grain and cereals. In people working in such premises, they can cause severe skin irritation in the form of an allergic reaction. The tick feeds on insect tissues.
The best studied chicken mite, which issevere pest poultry farms. What eats tick chicken? They are active at night when they come out of the crevices of the chicken coop and, attacking the hens, suck their blood. It also happens that when a mass destruction of the birds die from anemia.
On mammals parasitic scab mites(scabby itch), causing scabies and in humans. The insect female gnaws long strokes in the skin and lays eggs there, which leads to inflammation and severe itching.
What eats gamazovy mite? Most of the members of this group are predators feeding on small invertebrates, and many are parasites and vertebrates.
Water mites are quite common inreservoirs fresh, but mostly live in the seas. These free-living predators attack small invertebrates, but among them there are parasites of various animals.
The most common and dangerous in Russiaixodic mites are blood-sucking parasites. They attack a variety of terrestrial vertebrates (birds, mammals and reptiles). In the detachment, these are the largest representatives, reaching up to 2.5 cm in length after filling the body with blood. In normal condition, they are 1.3 cm in size. They are carriers of many diseases, among which are dangerous.
In order to learn more about what ticks eat in nature, let's get acquainted with the most dangerous ticks for people.
Encephalitis mites
Below are the ticks that are the most aggressive.
Encephalitis tick is one of the mostcommon and famous. It is important to note that an encephalitic tick is not a separate breed (species) of arthropod insects. Any tick species can become infected with encephalitis, therefore it is impossible to isolate the signs that determine the degree of danger. But it should be remembered that such an infection can lead to the death of a person.
By the appearance of the insect, it is impossible to determine whether it is encephalitic or not, therefore, when going into the forest, you should take the necessary measures to protect yourself from contact with predators.
Ixodid ticks are more often than otherscarriers of dangerous encephalitis. They have a second name - hard mites. They owe this name to a hard chitinous coating, which is a kind of protective shell. Dogs and taiga ticks belong to ixodic ones.
Habits of forest mites
What do ticks eat in the forest? The blood of various animals and humans.
They belong to the family of arachnids, but, inunlike spiders, do not spin webs and have shorter legs. These parasites - a real problem for lovers of walks and traveling through wooded places. Recently, ticks are found in the steppes, and in the fields. You can stumble on them and on the rocks and sand. Mostly parasites attract shaded wet areas in the forest.
As a rule, ticks rarely rise above a meter.from the ground, and when attacking a victim, they try to move higher to the softest zones of the skin. Females of ticks are more voracious, they can suck blood without stopping for 6 days, while males are enough for 3 days to saturate.
Forest ticks are relatively small, their size in the state of hunger does not exceed 4 mm in length. When sucking blood in large volumes can increase up to 120 times.
The tick bite is not felt, because the insect introduces a special saliva that blocks pain in a person. In this regard, the tick can for a long time unnoticed feed on blood.
A wonderful sense of smell helps the tick detect the victim. In order for a predator to climb a human, it is enough for the latter to stay in the forest for a couple of minutes.
About tick-borne diseases
Knowing what a tick eats, it should be remembered that this predatory insect is a carrier of various diseases.
Ixodid ticks are actually many, but realtwo types of dangerous epidemiological significance are mainly: Persulcatus (or taiga tick), inhabiting European and Asian parts of Russia; Ixodes ricinus (or European forest mite) - in the European part.
Ticks can be carriers of the following diseases:
- encephalitis;
- tick-borne typhus;
- Lyme disease (or borreliosis);
- hemorrhagic fever;
- spotted fever;
- Marseilles fever;
- babesiosis;
- Tularemia;
- ehrlichiosis
Many of these diseases are dangerous and not very treatable, and some show signs only 10–20 days after the bite.
Important information
After it became known what it feeds onforest tick and what it can lead to, you should know how to protect yourself from predatory insects, and what to do if you still tick stuck. Be sure to remember that the part that pierces the skin (proboscis), equipped with small "spines". They are directed to the back of the tick.
Therefore, if it is pulled out along the axis, the “thorns” bristle and dig even more tightly into the skin, which can lead to the separation of the tick from the tick's body, which can remain forever in the dermis.
To avoid this, the insect shouldremove in a circular motion (unscrew), and not just pull out. In this case, the spikes on the proboscis will roll to the axis of rotation, and the head will not come off.
If this could not be done correctly, the place of suction (where the head remained) should be wiped with cotton wool moistened with alcohol, after which the head should be removed with a sterile needle as a usual splinter.
Conclusion
Ticks are such creatures that, if necessary, can in nature for a long time (even months), and in laboratories and for years, go without food.
This is due to their low mobility and, in connection with this, quite economical expenditure of energy reserves of the body.
