What does the tick feed on in nature?

Every year the distribution range of mites increases, they become more and more. Together with them, the number of deadly diseases carried to animals and humans by these dangerous predators is also growing.

Today, it is easy to pick up a tick in the city park or in the park, on the plot and in the garden. Creatures in the shells of chitinous more tighten the ring around the person.

About what the tick feeds and its habits can be learned by reading this article.

About the types of ticks

All mites belong to the order of small arachnids, uniting about 20 thousand species. What feeds the tick, except blood? Some of the ticks below are fed by other types of food.

The largest group of soil mites are armor pliers. They dwell in forest soils and litter. They chew rotting plant remains with abundant microflora with their gnawing chelicerae. They carry helminths that damage livestock.

Small insects, chewing their chelicera - it's barn clamps (or bread and flour). They live in decaying plant residues and in the soil. In storehouses of agricultural products, they cause spoilage of flour, grain and cereals. In people working in such rooms, they can cause severe skin irritation in the form of an allergic reaction. The mite feeds on the tissues of insects.

The best studied chicken tick, which is a serious pest of poultry farms. What does the chicken feed on ? They are active at night, when they leave the chicken coops and, attacking the hens, suck their blood. It happens that the birds die from anemia with massive damage.

On mammals parasitize scabies (itch itch), causing scabies and in humans. The female of the insect gnaws long strokes in the skin and lays eggs there, which leads to inflammation and severe itching.

What does the mite feed on ? Most of the representatives of this group are predators feeding on small invertebrates, and many are parasites and vertebrates.

Ticks water are quite common in freshwater ponds, 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 Russia ixodid mites - parasites bloodsucking. They attack the most diverse 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 trunk with blood. In normal condition, they have a size of 1.3 cm. These are carriers of many diseases, among them dangerous ones.

To find out more about what mites eat in nature, we will get acquainted with the most dangerous mites for humans.

Encephalitic mites

Below are the ticks, which are the most aggressive.

Encephalitic tick is one of the most common and known. It is important to note that the encephalitis mite is not a separate breed (species) of arthropod insects. Encephalitis can be infected with any variety of ticks, so it is impossible to identify 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 an insect it is impossible to determine whether it is encephalic or not, so when you go to the forest, you should take the necessary measures to protect yourself from contact with predators.

It is iksodovye mites most often act as carriers of dangerous encephalitis. They also have a second name - hard tongs. By this name they are obliged to a hard chitinous covering, which is a kind of protective shell. Both canine and taiga ticks belong to the ixodids.

The habits of forest mites

What do mites eat in the forest? Blood of different animals and man.

They refer to a family of arachnids, but, unlike spiders, they do not weave cobwebs and have shorter paws. These parasites are a real problem for those who like walking and traveling through wooded places. Recently, ticks are found in both the steppes and in the fields. They can stumble on both stones and sand. Mostly, parasites are attracted to shaded wetlands in the forest.

Typically, mites rarely rise above a meter from the ground, and when attacking a victim they try to move higher to the softest areas of the skin. Female ticks are more voracious, they can suck blood for 6 days without stopping, while for males it is enough for saturation for 3 days.

Forest ticks are relatively small, their size in the state of hunger in length does not exceed 4 mm. When the blood is sucked out in large volumes, the dimensions can increase up to 120 times.

The tick bite is not felt, because the insect introduces a special saliva, blocking the pain sensations in humans. In connection with this, the tick can consume blood for a long time.

A perfect sense of smell helps the tick to detect the victim. In order for a predator to climb a person, the last one is enough to stop in the forest, even for a couple of minutes.

About diseases carried by ticks

Knowing what the tick feeds on, one should remember that this predatory insect is the carrier of various diseases.

Ixodid mites are in fact many, but the actual dangerous epidemiological significance is mainly of two kinds: Persulcatus (or taiga mite), inhabiting the 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;
• Typhus tick-borne;
• Lyme disease (or borreliosis);
• Fever hemorrhagic;
• Spotted fever;
• Fever Marseilles;
• Babesiosis;
• Tularemia;
• Erlichiosis.

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 the forest mite feeds and what it can lead to, one should know how to protect oneself from predatory insects, and what to do if the mite sucked. Be sure to remember that the part that pierces the skin (proboscis), is equipped with small "spines". They are directed to the back of the mite.

Therefore, if it is pulled along the axis, the "thorns" bristle and dig even harder into the skin, which can lead to the separation of the tick's body from its proboscis, which can forever remain in the dermis.

To avoid this, the insect should be removed in a circular motion (unscrewed), and not just pulled. In this case, the spines on the proboscis curl up to the axis of rotation, and the head will not come off.

If this can not be done correctly, the suction site (where the head remains) should be wiped with alcohol soaked with cotton, after which the head should be removed with a sterile needle as an ordinary splinter.

Conclusion

Ticks are such creatures that, if necessary, can in nature for a long time (even months), and in laboratories and for years, dispense with food.

This is due to their lack of mobility and, in this connection, a fairly economical expenditure of the body's energy reserves.