Ixodid ticks are carriers of pathogens that are dangerous to human life, such as encephalitis, typhus, borreliosis (Lyme disease), ehrlichiosis, and many others, no less scary. According to statistics, every sixth tick is infected with these viruses.
These ticks are common throughout the globe, except for Antarctica and the Arctic, parasitizing on mammals, birds and humans.
Developmental stages
Ixodid ticks have several stages of development - from an egg to an adult, which directly depend on their nutrition. In a lifetime, a tick takes food only four times. Development stages:
- Larva: the shell is thin, sometimes translucent, but depends on the degree of filling with blood, the size is up to one millimeter. A special distinguishing factor is the presence of three pairs of legs (an adult has four pairs) and the absence of a genital opening. Also, in the tick larva, the front of the body is covered with a dorsal shield. These are compacted segments of the chitin cover of the tick. When the larva becomes saturated with blood, and it takes it from three to six days, it falls into a dormant stage (like a pupa in butterflies), during which it proceeds to the next stage.
- Tick nymph. If the larva is a child, then the nymph is a teenager in the world of ticks. It is larger in size, already up to two millimeters in length, more mobile when moving and has an almost formed reproductive system, but without an outlet. The tick nymph has four pairs of legs. Given that ticks live for about two years, most of them winter in the nymph stage.
The adult is a mature adult tick. Again, the mite turns from a nymph into an adult after complete satisfaction of hunger: after drinking blood, it begins transformation in the definitive stage and, after finishing it, seeks a partner to complete the most important mission - mating and laying eggs. Hungry imagoes are 6-8 mm in size, and well-fed and full of blood can increase up to three centimeters.
Nymph photo
What is a tick dangerous to humans? At first glance, one can’t believe that in these two millimeters a terrible damage to the human brain can be hidden - encephalitis. What does a tick nymph look like. shown in the photo below. Remember and be careful in the summer when this parasite is most active.
How to distinguish a nymph from an adult tick?
The tick nymph looks like an adult, only three times less than the diameter of the body. There are no other differences visible to the naked eye, although some individuals may slightly differ in color: they are slightly lighter than their older relatives.
Where does this parasite usually live?
The fact that ticks and nymphs jump on a person from trees are inventions invented by people who are uninitiated in the life of the parasite. Most of his life passes in the grass or undersized bushes, from where he ends up on human clothes, pet hair or other “vehicles”. Not a single tick is capable of climbing a tree in its entire life and from there specially jumping onto a person in search of food. If you were lying or sitting on the grass on a picnic or hiking in the woods, then, of course, the likelihood is increased that the tick or its nymph will hook on the villi with hooks and paws and crawl onto the body in search of a tender place for a bite. The tick nymph usually parasitizes only in the summer, and adult individuals from spring to autumn, especially actively manifesting itself from May to August. A hungry tick is able to wait for its victim for more than a year and a half.
Is a tick nymph dangerous?
For humans, this stage of the parasite is as dangerous as an adult. The only difference is that the nymph is difficult to get on the human body (unless, of course, for a long time he was lying on the grass) for the reason that at the initial stages of development the tick lives in close proximity to the soil, since it spent its first days or wintering in the cold season. He physically cannot get on a tree or a large bush due to his meager size.
How can a creature of 1 mm overcome a distance of at least 15 meters? Unlikely. The larva (the first stage after the egg) is practically safe for humans: the parasite is unlikely to get onto the carrier’s body, it has to be content with small rodents living near the ground. Moreover, the saliva of the larva is sterile and cannot transmit viruses. Is the nymph of an ixodid tick dangerous, which was already pumped with blood from another? No, she is preparing for the next transformation, so her tasks are completely different, and a full abdomen is unlikely to require supplements.
Can a nymph tolerate encephalitis?
A tick of any kind, belonging to the ixodidae (parasitiform family), is a carrier and distributor of all viruses that it carries on its body. And the nymph, as already known, has the same degree of possibility of infection as an adult tick. Accordingly, it can also infect a person with dangerous diseases through a bite.
The virus that causes the disease is transmitted from the tick nymph to the person through the saliva of the parasite and quickly spreads through the body due to the circulatory system. If you are bitten, you must act quickly and purposefully.
What to do?
So what to do if a tick nymph has bitten? This happens very rarely, due to the fact that this stage of development of the tick does not allow it to rise above the grass. If it suddenly turns out that the nymph is already clinging, then first coat her body with vegetable oil. The airways of the ticks are located on the abdomen, the oil will close these holes, and the nymph will have to look for a way out literally in a few minutes. Gently pry it with tweezers and remove.
If an adult has sucked in, then also try to manipulate the oil. Melted paraffin from a candle helps a lot: pour the insect’s abdomen with hot paraffin and wait a few minutes.
Another method of getting rid of a sucked imago is to lubricate it with kerosene. This will make him stir and loosen his bite grip. Carefully capturing the tick with tweezers and making slight rotational movements in different directions, remove the parasite. In any case, be sure to contact the medical center, taking with you a nymph and tick body for examination in the laboratory for the presence of dangerous viruses. The place of the bite is recommended to be treated with iodine for several days in a row - 3-5 times a day.
Signs of infection
If, after some time after a bite or extraction of a tick, a person feels a rise in temperature, accompanied by chills, nausea, headache and a general breakdown, then you must definitely go to the emergency room and explain the situation. Most likely, one of the viruses has already entered the body and has begun a destructive effect. The sooner measures are taken, the easier the consequences will be.
