05.01.2016
Predatory mites are arachnids whose endurance and longevity are unique among arthropods. A predatory lifestyle, which involves a constant hunt for fresh blood, has developed in them the ability to withstand hunger and remain active at the same time. We will tell you in this article how long ticks live and how this depends on their living conditions.
- Maximum lifespan by species
- Life expectancy by location
- Life expectancy by diet type
Who are ticks and why are they dangerous?
Ticks are dangerous parasites that feed on the blood of animals and people. They belong to the arachnid family, since they, like spiders, have 4 pairs of legs. Ticks have perfectly adapted to living conditions in nature. Bloodsuckers can stay on their host for up to 15 days and drink blood.
They are firmly attached to the skin, their saliva contains an anesthetic that, after a bite, enters the wound, and the person does not feel pain. But with saliva, an infection can get into the wound and a dangerous disease can develop. Therefore, while in nature, you need to take precautions. Ticks are carriers of Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis.
Ticks dangerous to humans.
Lifespan without food
Interestingly, without the blood of the victim, ticks live much longer. This is due to a slowdown in development. The process of complete transformation stretches up to 8 years. How long can a tick live without bleeding?
In the absence of food, ticks fall into a special state that allows them to save energy and metabolic processes slow down. The tick does not live, but exists. In this state, it is able to withstand unfavorable climatic conditions and winter. A tick lives without blood for 10 years. All this time he is waiting for a victim. Once on her body, it begins to actively feed. The blood brings her back to life. The development process begins.
It is difficult to say definitively how long a tick can live. Because everything depends on a lucky chance. It is interesting that with such a probabilistic approach, ticks should have disappeared as a species long ago. But no, they continue to torture animals and infect people with dangerous diseases. And every year their number does not become smaller.
Ticks are rather small arachnids, the size of which sometimes does not exceed 0.5 mm. They have 8 legs and a fused head and chest. That's where we'll talk today.
How do ticks live?
In the forest, for example, a tick climbs a blade of grass or a twig to a height of no more than half a meter and waits to cling to the body of an animal, person or bird. And having seized such a moment, it takes a long time to choose a suitable place for feeding. Having eaten, the female returns to the forest floor and begins laying eggs. From this moment until the appearance of an adult, several stages pass, lasting from three to five years. And during all this time, the tick drinks blood only a few times.
How long does a tick live after a bite?
The chitinous shell that covers the entire body of the arachnid stretches on the abdomen, so the female, for example, can drink quite a lot of blood, as a result of this turning into a large “bean”.
It will take the female almost a week to eat. And then you can fall off to digest the blood and take care of the offspring. Males also do not disdain blood. They need it to support the body until mating. True, they drink much less of it and are full within an hour. And then both of them will need blood only for the next process of procreation.
How long does a tick live without food?
The presence of food leads to amazing transformations of this insect. Thus, argasid mites, which live in dry and warm places and do not pose any threat to humans, have a length of no more than 13 mm without food. But after lunch, these crumbs increase hundreds of times!
The most dangerous ticks for humans are ornithodor ticks, which live in the steppe, desert and semi-desert zones. They can go without food for 10 years, but at the first opportunity they infect the bitten person with serious diseases.
So how long does a tick live?
There are more than 48,000 different ones on Earth. Among them are those that cause diseases, for example, encephalitis or hemorrhagic fever, and those that feed exclusively on plant sap. Its duration depends on their way of life.
A tick bite is not necessarily dangerous. Many of us don't even realize we've been bitten. But it is necessary to remember that there are dangerous individuals in nature.
After all, there are scabies mites and domestic dust mites that feed only on dry flakes of human skin, but at the same time can cause severe allergies.
Regardless of how long a tick lives, we still need to clearly know that attentiveness, cleanliness and composure can help us avoid contact with this insect. When coming home from the forest or returning from the dacha, be sure to examine yourself. If you find a tick on your body, seek medical help. Good luck to you!
05.01.2016
Predatory mites are arachnids whose endurance and longevity are unique among arthropods.
A predatory lifestyle, which involves a constant hunt for fresh blood, has developed in them the ability to withstand hunger and remain active at the same time. We will tell you in this article how long ticks live and how this depends on their living conditions.
Life cycle of a tick
Ticks, like other insects, go through 4 life stages: egg, larva, nymph, adult. At each stage of development, the tick feeds once and then moves on to the next stage of development.
Larvae and nymphs
Tick larvae have three pairs of legs and are gray-yellow in color; their body is less than a millimeter long. After birth, they stick together, and several larvae can immediately attach themselves to an animal that happens to be nearby. They are located close to the ground, no higher than 10 cm, where conditions are favorable for their development.
They attach themselves to the victim and feed on blood for 2-8 days, while increasing in size by 10 times. Their food source can be small rodents and birds. The larvae then fall off the animal into dry grass. Their transformation into a nymph lasts from one to eight months.
The body length of the nymph is up to 1.5 mm and such an insect is easier to notice than the larva. The nymph already has 4 pairs of legs. It feeds from 2 to 8 days, and increases in size by 10-20 times. Having drunk blood, it detaches itself from the animal and turns into an imago in dry bedding after 1-7 months.
Adult
Females and males of ticks differ in size and color.
Females are larger, up to 3mm in length, red-brown in color. Males are up to 2 mm in length, gray-brown or brown-black in color, the dorsal shield covers their entire body, while in females it covers only a small part of the body. Sexually mature females attach themselves to the skin of an animal or human and feed on blood for 6-10 days.
Males look for females to mate with. One male is able to fertilize several females and then dies. After mating, the female hides in a grass bed, during which time she digests blood and the eggs mature. She can lay 1000-2000 eggs at a time. This usually happens in the fall, and by spring the larvae appear.
Main types of ticks
- Argaceae. They settle in homes, attack domestic animals, and in some cases humans. It is difficult to remove due to the lack of a hard cover and the head recessed inside the body.
- Subcutaneous.
A very small mite that lives on the body of humans and animals for many years and feeds on dead skin cells. Lives in hair follicles and on the face. Subcutaneous mite - Itchy. It eats through channels in the skin that are invisible to the eye, causing severe itching and redness.
- Forest ticks (European and taiga ticks). They attack directly on humans or spread from dogs. They inhabit the entire territory of Russia, often found in cities, dachas, and private plots. The taiga tick, like the European tick, transmits the most dangerous diseases, including encephalitis and others fatal to humans. What a tick looks like - photo is provided.
- Pasture. It lives in the southern regions and carries encephalitis, plague, brucellosis, and fever. These are Ixodidae and Gamasaceae.
- Armored. They feed on vegetation, mushrooms and their remains, and carrion. They carry helminths (worms).
- Ear. It feeds on the earwax of pets. Such ticks do not attack humans, but cause suffering to animals.
- Dust (bed, linen).
Lives in pillows, mattresses, carpets, etc. It feeds on dead skin particles, dust, down or feathers. Causes asthma in humans. There are dust mites in every home (interesting facts!), and up to 6,000,000 individuals can live in the average bed. In reasonable quantities they do not have a negative effect. Dust mites - Cobwebby.
Herbivorous spider, feeds on plant juices. You can detect mites on indoor plants from the inside of the leaf. Causes plant death. Spider mite - Predatory. Feeds on his classmates. Sometimes used to combat.
- Granary (flour, bread). Causes rot and mold in granaries, warehouses or home closets.
How long do ticks live on average?
In nature, under favorable conditions and sufficient nutrition, a tick lives for about two years. But if the tick fails to find a food source during the season, then it can overwinter and wait for the next season, which will be more favorable than the previous one.
In fact, a tick can live 5-6 years.
But not all individuals are able to survive in natural conditions; they can die at any stage of development. There are other factors influencing his life.
Scientists conducted experiments in laboratory conditions; a tick saturated with blood can live for about 10 years without additional nutrition.
Have you become the prey of a tick?
Yes, it happened No, fortunately
Vaccination against tick-borne encephalitis
If you are planning a trip to a region exposed to a high risk of infection with tick-borne encephalitis, think in advance about protecting your body. Vaccination against tick-borne encephalitis should begin in advance - in the fall. Immunity to encephalitis is developed after three vaccinations with an interval of 1 month. There is currently no preventive vaccine against borreliosis, only against encephalitis.
Will any bite from an infected tick give a person encephalitis or Lyme disease? No, not every bite from an infected tick will cause illness. It all depends on:
- time, how long the tick sucked blood;
- virus concentration in the tick body;
- characteristics of the microorganism;
- human immunity.
Think in advance about the safety of your family and pets, even before traveling to your dacha or to the forests of the Moscow region. Thus, you will save yourself and your loved ones from possible serious health problems. Have a nice holiday!
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Factors influencing the lifespan of a tick
The lifespan of ticks depends on several factors: the environment where they live, the amount of food they eat, and how quickly it is detected if it bites a person.
Habitat
In nature, ticks live in grass bedding, but to reproduce they need a food source, since mating occurs when the female is saturated with blood. After she lays eggs, she dies.
In the forest
In the absence of a food source, the vital activity of ticks slows down. They can live without food for several years, waiting for the opportunity to feed on blood and produce offspring . As soon as an animal or person appears, they come to life and bite into the victim. All life processes are resumed.
A very important fact that influences the life of ticks in the forest is air temperature and humidity. They awaken after winter at zero temperatures and at +10 degrees they actively begin to look for a food source. But in the summer, in hot and dry weather, when the temperature rises to +30 degrees and above, they die.
Ticks in the forest.
In the apartment
A tick can get into an apartment on clothing after a walk, or it can be brought in by a dog or cat living in the apartment. After the engorged female comes unstuck from the owner, even if she lays eggs, offspring will not appear from them; the environment in the apartment is not favorable for their development. But in an apartment, it can live for 8-9 months if it does not find a new food source and does not end up in nature.
Ticks in the house.
Access to food and air
In the absence of food, the life processes of ticks slow down, they are able to fall into suspended animation for some time.
Without food
Having fed once, the tick can live for quite a long time, waiting for the next victim to appear. In nature, this period can last from 3 to 5 years.
Without water
Ticks feed on blood, but their lifespan is affected by air temperature and humidity.
After the bite
After a bite, ticks remain on the animal for several months; they can move around the victim and feed. Some types of ticks can remain on the victim for up to several years.
On the host's body
Ticks can live on the body of a victim for several years, changing hosts. Males attach themselves and become saturated with blood within 3 days, but die after mating; females, depending on their size, feed for 3-15 days.
No access to air
It is known that only some types of microbes can do without oxygen; all other living beings need air to live. Ticks die without air after 2 days.
The period of tick activity: when does it start and how long does it last?
Early melting of snow and persistent warm weather in March contributed to the early awakening of ticks.
The first tick bite last year was recorded on April 3, and in 2022 - on March 3 in the Chelyabinsk region. General tick activity is usually observed from April to October. When does tick season start? The onset of tick activity begins in April - May, when above-zero temperatures were recorded and the snow melted.
When does tick season end? The end of the season usually falls between September and October, when the weather is cool and damp. In 2022, the tick season ended in November, and this year it will end the same if there are no weather anomalies.
Are ticks active now? In the central region of Russia, Ukraine, the CIS countries and Europe, ticks emerged from hibernation and went in search of food, so they can pose a threat to humans and domestic animals.
The most favorable conditions for tick activity:
- Air temperature +18-20 degrees;
- 80% air humidity.
Typically, tick activity reaches its active phase in mid-April, it comes out of hibernation and begins to actively hunt and reproduce. In June, the population begins to decline due to dry and hot weather. The second wave of the activity phase occurs in August, September and sometimes October; it is weaker than the spring wave, but bites are just as likely. Warm autumn delays the tick's hibernation, and if the first frosts occur in September, the tick season can be considered over.
Have you been bitten by a tick? No, never 46%
Yes, once 46%
Yes, twice or more 8% Voted: 50
How to protect yourself from ticks
When going for a walk in spring or autumn, it is important to take care of protective clothing and tick repellents. They usually sit on grass or branches and wait for prey. They are especially attracted to light-colored clothing. A few basic rules on how to protect yourself from tick attacks:
- For a walk in nature, you should take care of a hat and tight-fitting clothes and shoes.
- After your hike, carefully inspect your belongings and clothing to avoid bringing ticks into your home. Ticks are very difficult to shake off as they get into the folds of clothing. After a walk, you need to comb your hair.
- Apply special protective agents to clothing.
- When inspecting pets when returning from a walk, ticks usually cling to the ears or are located on the lower part of the body.
- If the tick still burrows into the skin, you can try to pull it out yourself or consult a doctor.
- Ticks are carriers of dangerous diseases, so if a tick is attached, it must be carefully removed and sent to the laboratory for research.
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Actions to take if bitten by a tick
Removal using tools
DIY devices are available in the form of plates with a teardrop-shaped hole and spoons or hooks with a V-shaped slot
The embedded tick must be pryed as deep as possible under the head and carefully pulled out using twisting and rocking movements. All tools are small in size, they can be used as key rings
Products available include Tick Twister and Trixie hooks, Ticked Off spoon, Pro-Tick and Tick Key plates.
What to do after extraction
If extraction was unsuccessful and the head remained under the skin, it must be removed with a disinfected needle. After extraction, in any case, the wound is treated with iodine, alcohol (vodka) or another disinfectant solution. The extracted tick must be submitted to a laboratory for testing. If an insect is removed in a medical facility, such a study is required. For greater safety, the extracted tick is placed in a plastic bag or glass flask (vial) with soaked pieces of paper.
Preventive actions
- repellent (repellent): Gall-RET, Deta-WOKKO, Biban, Reftamid maximum, Off! Extreme, DEFI-Taiga;
- acaricidal (killing): Reftamid taiga, Tornado-Antiklesch, Fumitox-anti-mites, Permanon, Piknik-Antiklesch, Gardex aerosol extreme;
- complex (repellent and killing): Kra-rep, Mosquito-anti-mite.
Correct actions will prevent a tick bite, and even if this happens, it will allow you to avoid serious consequences.
