One of the dangers that a person can be exposed to when going for a walk in the forest is a tick bite. In itself, an unpleasant meeting with this insect does not cause harm. But you should not forget that the forest tick is a carrier of such a dangerous disease as encephalitis. Therefore, when going to nature, you should know what to do if you are bitten by this insect. So, today we propose to learn about what this tiny but dangerous creature is, and how to deal with the forest tick.
What is this insect?
The main problem in the fight against ticks is that they are very small. As a result of this, a person does not feel that a dangerous insect has crawled onto his body. So, the length of the latter, as a rule, does not exceed three to four millimeters. However, when the insect has already “done its job” and drank our blood, its size increases significantly. We all probably know what a forest tick looks like. But once again it will be useful to remind about it. So basically the body of this insectconsists of a slightly flattened abdomen. As a rule, it is painted black or brown. Sometimes it has a red border. The head and proboscis are very small. They are quite difficult to see with the naked eye. Since forest ticks, photos of which are familiar to us from childhood, belong to the class of arachnids, they have eight tenacious legs that allow insects to easily climb the body of a person or animal, reaching the most “tidbit”
Habitat for forest ticks
The European forest tick, as its name implies, is found almost everywhere in Europe, with the exception of the northern, northeastern, southeastern and southwestern parts of it. In addition, there are three not so large habitat isolates of this insect: the Caucasian-Anterior Asian, Crimean, and also the northwestern part of Africa.
As a rule, the wood mite is found in dark and damp wooded areas. These insects hide in grass, low shrubs, and dense undergrowth. By the way, many believe that ticks can fall on a person or animal from trees. In fact, this is not so, because these insects almost never rise to a height of more than half a meter. However, getting on the body of the victim, the tick becomes active and deftly climbs up, reaching the most “delicious” areas in its opinion.
When should you be wary of a tick bite?
In most of their range, these insects are active from mid-May to mid- or late June. Also, ticks can be dangerous in late summer - early autumn. Therefore, during these periods, you should carefully examine yourself and your clothes after returning from a walk in nature.
Why is a tick dangerous?
Despite their tiny size and painless bite, these insects are very dangerous. First of all, this is due to the fact that forest ticks serve as carriers of viral tick-borne encephalitis and tick-borne borreliosis. In addition, in more rare cases, these insects can be carriers of pathogens of such dangerous diseases as Q fever, listeriosis, erysipeloid, tularemia, and paroxysmal rickettsiosis. Therefore, if you find a tick on your body or a trace of its bite, you should immediately seek medical help in order to protect yourself from the serious consequences of possible diseases.
Where does the tick bite?
Once on the body of a person or animal, a forest tick can spend up to several hours searching for a suitable place to bite. Most often, these insects choose areas with delicate skin (neck, groin, head, etc.), since the capillaries here are located closer to the surface. Therefore, when examining yourself for a tick bite, pay the most attention to the listed areas of the body.
What does a tick bite look like?
As we have already mentioned, it is almost impossible to notice that you have been bitten by a forest tick. First of all, this is due to the tiny size of the insect. And besides, when the tick sticks its jaws into the skin, it secretes saliva, which has the properties of an anesthetic. Biting through the skinthe creature, with the help of its proboscis, sticks to the capillaries and begins to suck out blood. If you do not find a recently attached tick by examining yourself and clothes after a walk, you will later find it when the insect's abdomen has increased several times in size due to the drunk blood.
But how to recognize if a bite has occurred if the insect has not yet become clearly visible? It's not at all difficult to do this. So, at the site of the bite, you may notice a slight redness, in the center of which there will be a tiny body of a bug, resembling a splinter from afar.
Bitten by a tick - what to do?
So, if you find the bite of this insect, the first thing to do is to remove it from the skin. This is not as easy as it might seem, due to the fact that such tiny but dangerous mites secrete a special adhesive substance, through which the proboscis of the bug is firmly attached to the wound it has made. It is this feature that creates certain difficulties when extracting an insect.
How to remove a tick?
In order to pull this insect out of the skin, you must first loosen its body from side to side in the most accurate way in order to destroy the sticky mass allocated to it. At the same time, be sure to remember that when removing a tick, in no case should its proboscis remain inside. After all, it is he who is the source of infection. Therefore, for these purposes, do not use sharp tweezers, since you will simply bite off the body of the insect with them, and the head with the proboscis will remain insidewounds.
So, when you loosen the tick a little, try to grab it closer to the head and gently pull it up. Most likely, you will be able to pull out the insect completely. But if, despite all efforts, the proboscis remains inside, there is no need to try to somehow extract it. Just treat this area with brilliant green, and in a few days it will come out on its own.
I would also like to note that the conventional wisdom that the tick will come out of the wound by itself if it is smeared with oil, alcohol or some other substance is just a myth. In fact, extracting this insect from the skin is possible only in the manner described above.
Should I see a doctor after a tick bite?
If you removed a tick from your body, it is recommended to save this insect by placing it in a box or jar and take it to the hospital for analysis. In the laboratory, doctors will find out if he is a carrier of pathogens of a particular disease.
But what if for one reason or another you did not save the body of an insect? If you are very worried about the possible consequences, you can immediately seek medical help. After all, if you are bitten by an infected tick, it is better to start treatment as soon as possible. However, due to the fact that such infections occur quite rarely, it makes sense to start by observing the bite site for several days. So, if in the first two or three days you see a pink spot, then you should not worry - this is a completely normal reaction, and very soon there will be no trace of it. But ifthe stain does not come off or even increases in size, then it makes no sense to wait any longer: you need to get an appointment with an infectious disease specialist as soon as possible, who will examine you and prescribe certain tests. However, even if the results of the tests do not show you have an infection, you should carefully monitor your condition for another month. In the event of the slightest sign of encephalitis or other disease, you should immediately consult a doctor.
Tick-borne encephalitis symptoms
Often, this disease is disguised as a cold or a common malaise. Also, often the symptoms of encephalitis begin to appear only 30 days after infection. These include the following states:
- weakness in the neck, as well as in the arms and legs;
- increase in body temperature. Often a fever cannot be brought down for several days.
- appearance and intensification of headaches, nausea, vomiting, dizziness;
- development of photophobia, the appearance of hallucinations, stunning consciousness;
- numbness of the limbs, weakness and pain in the muscles, the occurrence of convulsions, epileptic seizures and even paralysis.
Tick-borne borreliosis symptoms
As a rule, in the first 20 days after infection, there are no symptoms of the disease. But after that, some signs may appear:
- The bite mark changes color and grows in size.
- Appearance of nausea and vomiting. The occurrence of fever and pain in the joints.
- The appearance on the body of characteristic spots, rashes,nodes.
- Violation of cardiac activity, the development of muscle weakness and convulsions.
- Several months after infection, disturbances in the functioning of the nervous system may begin.
How to deal with the forest tick?
In order to protect yourself and your loved ones from the bites of these small insects, which can cause very dangerous consequences, when planning a trip to nature, you should follow a number of rules. So, it is best to choose clothes that are tight-fitting to the body with narrow elastic bands that fit around the wrists and ankles. Also, do not neglect the hood or at least a scarf or bandana. In addition, thermal underwear that tightly fits our skin perfectly saves from ticks. In addition, it makes sense to use one of the many tools designed to repel ticks and other insects. Moreover, today they are almost universally available for sale. It is also recommended that you regularly, and preferably every hour, examine yourself and your companions for the presence of ticks on their clothes or body. All of the above preventive measures in general do not guarantee you salvation from these dangerous insects, but they reduce the likelihood of meeting them to a minimum.
