Every spring, with the onset of warmth and the awakening of plants, Ixodes ticks become more active. These creatures, which are dangerous to humans and animals, are most active in April–June and August–October.
You can find ticks not only in the forest, park or square, but also on any lawn. Most often they sit in the grass, at a height of 20–60 cm, and only occasionally they get on low bushy plants.
Ixodes ticks can carry pathogens of dangerous human and animal diseases, in particular, tick-borne encephalitis, borreliosis (Lyme disease), and Miyamoto disease. The pathogens enter our body when the tick sucks.
How to protect yourself from ticks
- Make sure you have the right outfit before going for a walk. Choose closed shoes and clothing: long-sleeved, light-colored clothing is safest, and it is advisable to wear pants and tuck them into socks.
- Cover your head with a hat — a cap, a Panama hat, a scarf — and cover your neck.
- Before going for a walk, use a repellent for protection - a special product, most often in the form of an aerosol, that repels ticks. Follow the instructions for use of the product. Be sure to pay attention to the duration of its action and do not forget to re-use it when the time of action has expired.
- When walking, stay closer to the center of the trail and avoid the grass on either side: that's where the most ticks are.
- Clear the area for rest stops from brushwood, branches, and dry grass within a radius of 20–25 m.
- WARNING: When a tick attaches to your clothing, it remains motionless until you stop moving, sit down, or lie down. That's when the attacker begins to look for a place to attach to your body — slowly moving from the bottom up. This process can take anywhere from 30 minutes to three or more hours, or even several days.
- Inspect yourself and your loved ones every two hours during your walk. It is almost impossible to feel a tick bite: the animal secretes an anesthetic substance that numbs the bite. Careful inspection is necessary, as a so-called nymph, a very small young tick, can also bite.
- Immediately after returning home, examine your loved ones, children, and yourself again: it is best to do this in a white bathroom with good lighting. Carefully examine your body, especially areas covered with hair.
- At home, wash and iron your clothes. Most often, ticks cling to a person's clothing, so they can get attached not only while outdoors, but also later, having moved from clothing. You should not leave these clothes next to the bed or sleep in them. Simply shaking them off will not help get rid of the tick.
- Check the things you brought from the walk (bedding, bags, etc.).
- If you take a pet outdoors, it should also be checked for ticks.
How to conduct a review
Start the inspection from the bottom, from the feet, and gradually move up:
- sock line;
- popliteal fossa;
- lower line of panties (groin), upper line of panties;
- lower bra line, upper bra line;
- shirtband;
- hairline on the head, ears;
- hair and scalp - feel them with your hands.
Importantly! Your health depends on the thoroughness of your examination. Such a simple examination should become a habit.
A tick can stay on a person or animal for up to 12 days. Adult ticks that have attached themselves are most often noticed after 2–3 days: swelling, itching, and redness appear at the site of the bite, and the tick itself increases in size.
What diseases can tick bites cause?
Not all ticks carry pathogens of dangerous diseases, but their bites can cause about 150 diseases in humans. The most dangerous of them are:
- Tick-borne viral encephalitis;
- Lyme disease;
- Granulocytic anaplasmosis;
- Monocytic ehrlichiosis;
- Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever;
- Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome;
- Tularemia.
The first manifestation of Lyme disease is redness at the site of tick bite, headache, body aches and lethargy. If not treated early, the disease can lead to damage to various organs: skin, joints, muscles, nervous and cardiovascular systems, and even disability. The risk of infection depends on the duration of tick bite: during the day the probability of infection is quite low, and at the end of the third day it approaches 100 %.
Tick-borne viral encephalitis begins with headache, fever, nausea, vomiting, sleep disturbance. This disease mainly affects the central nervous system, which can lead to disability, and in some cases, to death. The virus is stored in the body of the Ixodes tick, which can get on your body from the ground, bushes and tall grass. You can become infected not only when a tick sucks blood, but also if you accidentally crush it or comb the bite site.
What to do if you find a tick on your body
- Contact a doctor immediately. The emergency room will help you remove the tick and advise you on further actions.
- If there is no doctor nearby, remove the tick yourself. To do this, you can use a special tick removal device sold in veterinary pharmacies ("tick remover"). You need to press it to the skin, slide it under the tick, gently shake the "bloodsucker" from side to side (after all, the proboscis is securely "cemented" in the wound by the animal's saliva), and then slowly unscrew the attacker (you can twist in any direction convenient for you).
- If you don't have a device, do this with your fingers wrapped in gauze, or with tweezers or a loop of thread. Pull the tick out slowly — without jerking!
- It is important to remove the tick along with its proboscis. If it has broken off, remove the remains with a sterile needle.
- After removing the tick, the wound should be lubricated with an antiseptic and hands should be washed with soap.
What to do next
The removed tick must be placed in a vial, test tube, or other clean container, a small piece of grass must be placed in the same container, and the lid must be tightly closed. Upon the referral of an infectious disease specialist, the laboratory network tests the ticks for the presence of pathogens.
Also, monitor your condition for three weeks: measure your body temperature daily, and if it increases or if redness on the skin continues to increase, consult a doctor immediately.
Remember the algorithm of actions in case of a tick bite
- Do not press;
- Do not tear out;
- Do not fill with oil or alcohol;
- Carefully unscrew with rotational movements with tweezers or through gauze;
- Disinfect the bite site;
- Take the tick to the laboratory;
- Donate blood for antibodies;
- If necessary, undergo immunotherapy.
Every year, about 20,000 people seek medical attention for tick bites.
