How long a tick lives depends directly on climatic conditions and habitat. The genetic abilities of arachnids are impressive, but in real life the time frame is much shorter. About 50 thousand species of ticks are described in the scientific literature. People often use this word to mean ixodid ticks, which live in forests, groves, tall grass, and city parks. They feed on blood, attack animals, birds, and less often people.
How ticks live and bite
Ixodid ticks are specialized blood-sucking parasites of animals and humans, the largest representatives of the genus. In the warm season - from early spring to early autumn - it is they who begin the “hunt”.
Ticks are active and bite people and animals from spring to autumn
Many are convinced that ticks can only be found in forests, but this is not true. The parasite can be introduced into the urban environment with flowers, brushwood, and domestic animals (for example, dogs or cattle). There are known and not isolated cases of tick attacks in public gardens and parks. Ticks inhabit animal habitats, pastures, paddocks and wait for victims there. It is preferable for the parasite to hunt in bushes, grass and other low vegetation - this way it can easily and, most importantly, quickly climb onto the victim at the first favorable opportunity.
Having settled in ambush, the tick waits for the victim for quite a long time: in the spring, after winter hibernation, it begins to hunt; if there is no prey during the warm period, with the onset of cold weather it again goes “for the winter” until spring, after which it “wakes up” and continues to hunt.
A hungry tick can spend whole days, weeks and months waiting for a victim, falling into suspended animation during the winter.
Thanks to its well-developed sense of smell, it detects the approach of a potential host at a distance of up to 10 meters by earth vibrations, heat and smell. Having sensed “prey”, the tick, like antennae, extends its forelimbs forward in order to accurately grasp the direction of movement of the victim and latch onto it when it is nearby.
Once on the “host”, the mites spend a long time, sometimes for hours, searching for places of suction . Their oral organ has the appearance of a head sticking forward, adapted for cutting the skin and firmly and long-term fixation on the host’s body.
The tick does not bite immediately; it can spend 1–2 hours choosing the most tender place to bite
Thanks to the action of a natural anesthetic in saliva, bites are painless. Adult ticks suck blood from 1 to 12 days. The duration of the bite will be influenced by a number of factors: the developmental phase of the tick, gender, how long it will bite through the skin . These nuances are discussed in more detail below.
There is information that for the first 12 hours it pierces the skin and does not yet suck blood. But you should understand that this is inaccurate information, if only because the skin of a person has different thicknesses in different places, and in a child it will, in principle, be thinner than in an adult. Therefore, it is better to carry out inspections as often as possible.
After 1–2 days from the start of the bite, a feeling of slight nagging pain occurs, as a local inflammatory reaction develops at the site of suction, sometimes accompanied by suppuration. The bite wound heals slowly and is very itchy.
It is important to know
There are times when these parasites are most dangerous. For example, in April and May, forest and dog ticks are the most bloodthirsty; despite the name, they perfectly attack people, and this is where the danger of an encephalitis tick bite arises. Where you need to go with extreme caution is in parks, forests, and squares.
Much depends on weather conditions, as mentioned earlier, if the weather is unfavorable for them, then they are less active. But you always need to be as careful as possible, choose the right clothes when traveling outdoors and do not forget about specialized anti-tick products.
Life cycle of a tick
The tick goes through several stages of development and changes through three hosts during its life.
The life cycle of a tick goes through four stages:
- Egg.
- Larva.
- Nymph.
- Adult: male, female.
Whether the parasite will go through all stages of development in one warm season depends on the following factors:
- successful “hunt” - the tick needs to change three hosts to move to the next stage of development;
- climatic conditions in the region - in the cold season the parasite slows down life processes and remains in suspended animation.
At all stages of development, ticks feed exclusively on the blood and lymph of animals and humans.
Larva
If the female tick is saturated with blood, then from late spring to early summer she will produce a clutch of 2-3 thousand eggs. After 2–4 weeks, larvae will appear.
The female tick lays eggs
The integument of the larvae's body has not yet been formed, the shell is thin and translucent, there are three pairs of limbs, however, already at this stage of development all the outlines of an adult are present.
The size of the larvae does not exceed 0.5 mm. It is difficult for them to climb to heights, so they have to hunt small terrestrial animals: voles, rats, hedgehogs. Having chosen a victim, the larva climbs onto it, attaches itself and begins to feed.
The duration of blood sucking of the moth is from 2 to 6 days, until complete saturation . A well-fed larva does not live on the host; at the end of the meal, it detaches and falls into the soil for further development. The stage of transformation into a nymph begins.
If at the end of the warm season the victim is not encountered, the tick will overwinter in the larval stage. Severe winters, frosts of -5°C and below can kill the larva. If the winter has been relatively warm, with the arrival of spring she will go hunting again.
A hungry larva, waiting for food, can live up to 2 years.
The life cycle of a tick lasts several seasons
Nymph
A nymph is an intermediate stage of tick development, something like a teenager, no longer a larva, but not yet an adult.
The parasite increases in size - the length now reaches from 1 to 2 mm, a pair of limbs is added - there are four of them, thanks to which the nymph moves much faster than the larva and can afford to hunt larger animals, for example, hares.
Already at the nymph stage, ticks show aggression towards humans; if they meet, they will try to attack him.
To quench the thirst of hunger, the nymph needs to “eat” from 3 to 8 days . After complete saturation, it becomes detached from the victim and disappears. With the help of drinking blood, a new stage of development begins - transformation into an adult.
Like the larva, the nymph can be destroyed by severe frosts, but if this does not happen, its hunt will continue in the spring. In a favorable environment, a nymph in a hungry state is viable for up to 2–3 years .
Adult
When sucking blood, the tick swells to gigantic size.
Ticks become males and females only in the adult stage. The size of a hungry parasite reaches 3–5 mm and directly depends on the sex of the individual—females are larger than males. The main goal of an adult tick is reproduction. Ticks hunt large animals and humans.
If a person is attacked by a tick, the duration of blood sucking will depend on the gender of the parasite. For high-quality egg laying and reproduction of healthy offspring, females need to pump 5–7 times more blood than males. Adult female ticks are capable of sucking blood for up to 12 days . The female’s body is designed in such a way that the hard shell only covers half of it; the other half is a kind of sac that can swell and contain an amount of blood that is 300–500 times greater than the tick’s own size. This is necessary for high-quality egg laying - only after fully “quenching her hunger” is the female able to lay eggs.
The male’s body is completely covered with a hard shell - it does not swell when sucking blood, and accordingly the amount of blood he drinks will be much less, and the “meal” will be modest and quick. The male tick drinks blood from 1 to 3 days .
Adults are quite hardy - severe frosts are unable to exterminate them; during the cold period they simply go into hibernation, and as the weather gets warmer they wake up and go hunting.
The external manifestation of the characteristics of the tick’s life cycle is the transformation of the body into a soft, voluminous bag that can stretch and swell when sucking blood.
Ticks do not use animals or humans as a permanent host to live and reproduce on them; they prefer the forest floor. They only need a sufficient portion of blood from the victim, upon receiving which they immediately detach . Cases of reproduction on the host are extremely rare. As a rule, ticks look for each other in natural conditions.
When saturated, the body of a female tick turns into a soft, voluminous sac.
Life expectancy by location
In the forest
The forest is the natural habitat of ixodid ticks. If there are human residential and outbuildings in it and there are domestic animals, then argasid mites can also settle here.
In the apartment
Tropical countries are a natural zone in which the question of how long a tick lives in an apartment is really relevant. This is especially true for low-rise buildings, next to which there are thickets of plants or livestock complexes. In this case, ticks are able to penetrate human homes and live there. Without treatment with acaricides, it is impossible to be sure of the complete destruction of argasid mites, since many of them are capable of starving for up to 11 years.
Experiments on keeping predatory mites in apartment conditions (using closed glass containers) have demonstrated that they are able to survive at sufficient humidity and temperature for up to 9 months. For the development of eggs, conditions on the forest floor are required, which never exist in an apartment. We are talking about adult insects that usually attack people. If a person does not notice and does not remove a tick that has drunk blood from himself or his pet, it will fall off on its own. If an arachnid is accidentally swept into the trash and ends up on the street, its eggs will have a chance to produce normal offspring.
The answer to the question of whether a tick can live in an apartment is negative. Ticks in an apartment die within a few days after they have drunk blood. The female is able to live for several weeks, and even lay eggs, but without a suitable substrate (this should be a thick layer of damp soil or dust), her eggs will not be able to hatch.
How many years do ticks live?
The main, and indeed the only, goal of this parasite, the simplest in structure, is to find a host, pump blood for further development, become an adult and continue the race. The female dies after laying eggs, the male dies after fertilizing 1-2 females . In a favorable year in a warm southern climate, ticks are capable of producing two offspring in one season. After reproduction they die.
Nature has endowed the tick with endurance - in conditions of famine and favorable climatic conditions, it is viable for up to 2-3 years.
The high fecundity of ticks compensates for the noticeable mortality caused by a shortage of hosts.
Life stages
Thousands of species of ticks live in nature, the life cycle of which goes through the following stages:
- a larva emerging from an egg;
- nymphs, development includes 4−8 molts;
- imago, or sexually mature tick.
Each reincarnation occurs after the parasite is fed with blood.
The duration of the stages varies from several days to months. While waiting for prey, diapauses or hibernation breaks occur, in which activity is reduced to a minimum.
The state of a kind of suspended animation allows you to survive any unfavorable period. The ability to slow down metabolic processes greatly increases the period of existence of the parasite.
The tick type, habitat, environmental features are the main factors influencing the life span and each of its stages
Why is a tick dangerous?
When hosts change, conditions are created for the transfer of pathogens. The virus obtained from wild animals accumulates in the tick's body and penetrates the salivary glands. The duration of blood sucking directly affects the continued growth of the glands and the number of viral particles multiplying in them. With prolonged blood sucking, more viruses enter the blood, so if you find a tick on your body, it is important to immediately remove it and submit it to a laboratory to check for viruses .
Ticks are carriers of dangerous microbes and can transmit dangerous diseases, such as:
- borreliosis (Lyme disease);
- tick-borne encephalitis;
- tick-borne relapsing fever;
- ehrlichiosis;
- babesiosis;
- tularemia;
- spotted fever.
These diseases are dangerous for both animals and humans, as they can lead to disability and even death.
Among domestic animals, goats are the most susceptible to encephalitis. Human infection with tick-borne encephalitis virus can occur through raw goat milk.
What to do if bitten?
If alarming symptoms appear, you don’t have to wait, like a tick on a blade of grass, whether it will go away or not. You should immediately consult a doctor. With encephalitis (translated from Latin as “inflammation of the brain”), fever, headache, weakness, and nausea first appear. In some cases, the patient has impaired consciousness and paralysis. He might die. But doctors have cures for all forms of encephalitis.
The first symptoms of borreliosis are red rings around the bite. They can be gigantic - for example, on the entire back. A cough, runny nose, headache, and weakness, like a cold, also appear. But then the work of the heart is disrupted, bones and joints deteriorate, and red growths appear on the skin. The sick person may become disabled or die. The disease gets its name from Borrelia, a long, spiral-shaped bacteria that enters the bloodstream and begins to multiply there.
Another name is Lyme disease, because it was first studied in 1975 in the town of Lyme in the USA.
In the south of Russia, other ticks are also found, for example from the genus Hyalomma - they carry Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (the patient’s temperature rises, a rash, spots and bruises appear on the skin, gums and injection sites bleed, the stomach may hurt, and jaundice is possible).
Ticks from the genus Dermacentor (found in southern Russia and Western Siberia) carry tick-borne encephalitis , Omsk hemorrhagic fever, tularemia, and tick-borne North Asian typhus (all of these are also dangerous diseases).
In any case, I repeat once again, it is important to see a doctor as soon as possible.
Security measures
Try not to stay under lush tree canopies for a long time, and also avoid places with high humidity. If you have pets, be sure to check them after every walk. Ticks tend to choose areas where there is the least fur, such as the inside of the ears and areas around the eyes. This is where the vessels pass, which are convenient for sucking on. You can find a large number of tick repellents in veterinary pharmacies. These are drops, collars impregnated with medicine, as well as shampoos. We should not neglect protection, because our health depends on the safety of pets.
Females and males of ticks feed on blood to fulfill the main goal - procreation.
The peculiarity here is that the female needs to drink more blood. It takes about a week for her to completely “get enough.” During this time, it becomes similar to a bean (its chitinous cover stretches in accordance with the volume of blood consumed), after which it detaches from a person or animal and digests the “prey”.
Ticks use these resources for procreation and further existence.
The male tick drinks several times less blood than the female and does this in 1-2 days.
Expanding the boundaries
Over the past decades, the range of ixodid ticks has changed and expanded. Thus, if previously it was believed that in Russia the problem of tick-borne infections was relevant only for Siberia and the Far East, now it is well known to residents of the western regions of the country. Ticks are increasingly spreading in other regions of the planet: in the USA and Canada, China and the countries of Southeast Asia, South America.
Scientists believe that one of the reasons for this phenomenon is climate warming. It has been repeatedly shown that migratory birds can carry ticks over long distances (Sparagano et al., 2015). But if earlier ticks could not take root in the northern territories, now the situation has changed. In many regions of the planet, winters have become shorter and milder, and ticks are able to survive the winter more easily.
One star mite Amblyomma americanum
widespread in the southeastern United States.
This tick is known as a carrier of several species of Ehrlichia, the causative agent of tularemia and the recently discovered Heartland
and
Bourbon
. Thus, in Sweden and Norway for the period 1994–2008. The limit of occurrence of ticks has moved more than 200 km north along the Baltic coast (Jaenson et al., 2012). On the North American continent, ticks began to be found almost 1000 km further north compared to the period 1943–1983. And in the mountains in the north of the Czech Republic, where temperatures have risen by 1.4° over four decades, ticks appeared at altitudes of up to 1,300 m above sea level. In Russia in the 1960s. The taiga tick was found only in the southern regions of the Komi Republic, but now it is also found in the central ones: over the past forty years, the northern border of its range has moved 150–200 km (Loktev, 2015).
Extensive range of the meadow mite Dermacentor reticulatus
includes the territory of Europe, the European part of Russia and Western Siberia.
Often found in forested areas and on the outskirts of cities (in wastelands). It has two peaks of activity - spring and autumn. It poses the greatest danger to dogs, since it is a carrier of pathogens that cause a serious, life-threatening disease in them - canine piroplasmosis. In Eastern Siberia and the Far East, where D. reticulatus
is absent, cases of canine piroplasmosis have not been described. This photo was taken in the Moscow region. © CC BY-SA 4.0, photo by A. Yakovlev
The second possible reason for the change in the range of ticks is a change in the ecological situation caused by human activity. For example, naturalists who traveled to the USA in the mid-18th century noted a large number of ticks there. But a century later, due to the development of agriculture, the number of white-tailed deer, the main feeders of black-legged ticks,
, which led to a decrease in the number of these parasites. However, in the second half of the last century, the number of both host animals and ticks themselves increased manifold. Accordingly, the number of tick attacks on humans has increased as city dwellers began to spend more and more time in nature.
Western black-legged tick Ixodes pacificus
distributed on the western (Pacific) coast of the United States, where it serves as the main carrier of tick-borne borreliosis (Lyme disease).
The photo
shows a view from the dorsal and ventral sides. © CC BY 2.0, photo by Don Loarie
Recently, in Western Siberia, the range of the Pavlovsky mite
, and the cause of this event remains unclear.
At the end of the last century, its habitat was only in the territory of Altai and other mountainous regions (Salair Ridge, Kuznetsk Alatau). Now it is found in most of the studied lowland areas of the Novosibirsk and Tomsk regions, while in some areas, mainly with high anthropogenic load, the Pavlovsky tick has almost completely replaced the taiga tick
(Livanova et al., 2011; Romanenko, 2011).
Perhaps this change in range is associated with long-term anti-tick treatments of the area around large cities, which were carried out in the 1960–1980s. When these places began to be repopulated by ticks, I. pavlovskyi
received an advantage, since its life cycle is shorter, and it can feed on birds, the number of which in anthropogenic foci is higher compared to the number of large mammals, the main feeders of the taiga tick.
Tick Ixodes trianguliceps
parasitizes only on small mammals; it does not attach itself to people and large mammals.
At the same time, its range overlaps with the range of other ticks of the genus Ixodes, which attack people, and their feeders are the same species of animals. Therefore, I. trianguliceps
can infect people indirectly, through ticks of other species (Filippova, 1977; Yakimenko, 2013).
The photo
shows a well-fed female and nymph
of I. trianguliceps
on a vole. Photo by V. Yakimenko (Omsk Research Institute of Natural Focal Infections)
In some cases, the habitat of ticks is expanding southward. Thus, in Western Siberia in the 1960–1970s. range of the meadow tick
moved south, from the forest to the forest-steppe zone. The reason could be a combination of several factors: acaricidal treatment of forests and a change in the structure of rodent populations, the main hosts of the tick (Yakimenko, 2013).
Based on modeling of changes in climate and biotopes as a result of human activity, it was shown that in the 21st century. One can expect a reduction in the range of the taiga tick on the territory of states bordering Russia from the west, and by the end of the century this process will also take place in the European part of Russia (Yasyukevich, 2019). Presumably, in the Moscow region and the regions bordering it in the west and north-west, the taiga tick will disappear. A similar process will take place in areas to the south, where, due to climate warming, the forest will retreat, giving way to drier habitats.
At the same time, there are prerequisites for a significant expansion of the range of the taiga tick in the Kamchatka Territory and its appearance in the Magadan Region, and these forecasts are already beginning to come true. Thus, taiga ticks were recently discovered in the vicinity of Magadan (Dokuchaev, 2015). These ticks have been found on the Kamchatka Peninsula for quite a long time. At the same time, no larvae or nymphs were found there, which would be indirect evidence that the taiga tick can go through a full life cycle in this territory (according to the Federal Budgetary Institution of Health “Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology in the Kamchatka Territory” for 2022). Probably, the ticks are brought there by migratory birds.
Stages of the life cycle of ixodid ticks using the example of a widespread species - the European forest or dog tick Ixodes ricinus
. © CC BY-SA 3.0, photo by Alan R. Walker
Interspecies alliances
Pavlovsky's mite Ixodes pavlovskyi
was first discovered in the Russian Far East in the middle of the last century. The range consists of two separated parts - eastern and western, located in the Far East and Western Siberia. In morphology, genetic characteristics and activity it is similar to the taiga tick. It serves as a carrier of the same infectious agents as the taiga tick, although their occurrence in these two types of ticks differs significantly (Rar et al., 2017).The movement of the Pavlovsky tick population to the north coincided with another phenomenon—the discovery of its hybrids with the taiga tick. Interspecific hybridization is a fairly common phenomenon among closely related species of ixodid ticks. However, in the vast majority of cases, these interspecific hybrids are not capable of reproduction.
Thus, in Russia and Estonia, in places where the ranges of taiga and European forest ticks overlap, ticks with morphological and genetic characteristics of hybrids were found (Bugmyrin et al., 2015). However, the offspring obtained by laboratory crossing of these two species turned out to be infertile.
The entire range of the Pavlovsky tick is located within the distribution area of the taiga tick, and molecular genetic analysis revealed ticks with a hybrid genotype in all habitats of the Pavlovsky tick in the Tomsk and Novosibirsk regions and the Altai Republic. In some places, the relative abundance of hybrids exceeded 30%, and among them there were hybrids of both the first and second generations (Kovalev et al., 2015; Rar et al., 2019). All this suggests that these two types of ticks are capable of not only interbreeding, but also producing fertile offspring.
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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Generations of generations
Depending on the species and environmental conditions in which ticks are forced to live, the number of generations per year can vary greatly. In some species, the cyclicity of breeding seasons is confined to the seasons of the year or external environmental conditions.
There are species that develop from egg to death within a year. Others can produce up to 20 generations per season. Ixodid ticks are long-lived. These arthropods do not have time to fully develop in 1 season. Their lifespan ranges from 2 to 4 years depending on environmental conditions and hunting luck.
Source
Material for analysis
Experts recommend that after detecting the parasite and removing it, sending it to a laboratory for analysis. If a dangerous virus is detected, the person is given emergency assistance in the form of a vaccine or immunoglobulin administration.
The body of a living or dead parasite should be kept in a glass jar in a humid environment. Initially place a cotton wool moistened with cool water on the bottom. Within 24 hours, the material must be sent to the laboratory.
In a situation where a tick has escaped in an apartment, you should vacuum it thoroughly, since catching it is problematic due to its small size. Throw the contents into a trash can outside. In the absence of an epidemiological threat, there is nothing to worry about. The wound heals without special therapy within a week. If there is an allergic reaction, treat the affected area with antihistamines and antiallergic drugs.
Parasites can live on plants, in beds, and house dust. To get rid of dust mites, you need regular wet cleaning, fresh air; in the fight against mites on indoor flowers, spraying and the use of special products are effective.
Varieties.
Most often, microscopic mites cause allergic reactions, asthma and various dermatitis in humans. Representatives of large species are capable of spreading dangerous infectious diseases if the pathogen is contained in their saliva. The main enemies of humans, animals and plants are the following:
Ixodid ticks.
Round, arachnid-like animals are brown in color, reaching a size of 1.5 mm. They live in the root zone of plants, feeding on their tissues, which leads to the rapid death of the crop. Most often found in the bulbs of ornamental flowers (tulips, gladioli, etc.).
Flat beetle mites.
They have a flattened oval body of orange-red color. Small, up to 0.4 mm in size, visible to the naked eye in large clusters. They live on leaves, stems, and buds. They cause the flower to wither and then the plant to dry out.
