Ticks are rather small arachnids, the sizes of which sometimes do not exceed 0.5 mm. They have 8 legs and fused head and chest. Today we’ll talk about where and how long the tick lives .
How ticks live
Ticks have mastered a variety of habitats. This may be forest litter, and water, and plants. And some of them began to parasitize. Now ticks can be found on almost any type of animal, both on land and in the aquatic environment. To understand how much a tick lives, you need to understand the nature of its nutrition.
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 for when it will be possible to cling to the body of an animal, person or bird. And having seized such a moment, he chooses a place suitable for feeding for a long time. Having eaten, the female again leaves in the forest litter and proceeds to lay eggs. From this moment until the appearance of the adult, several stages pass, lasting from three to five years. And for 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, turning as a result of this into a large "bean."
In order to eat, the female will need almost a week. And then you can fall off to digest blood and engage in offspring. Males also do not disdain blood. They need it to support the body until the moment of mating. True, they drink it much less and get enough of it in 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
By the way, the tick can be considered the most indifferent to food creature on our planet. Unable to eat normally, starving, he can live about 11 years!
The presence of food leads to amazing transformations of this insect. So, argas mites, which live in dry and warm places and do not threaten a person, have no more than 13 mm in length without food. But, having lunch, these crumbs increase hundreds of times!
The most dangerous for humans are ornithodor ticks that live in the steppe, desert and semi-desert zones. They can do without food for 10 years, but at the first opportunity they infect a bitten person with serious illnesses.
So how long does a tick live?
On Earth, there are more than 48,000 different species of ticks. Among them are those that cause diseases, for example, encephalitis or hemorrhagic fever, and those that feed exclusively on plant sap. From their way of life and depends on its duration.
A tick bite is not necessarily dangerous. Many of us do not even suspect that we were bitten. But remember that in nature there are dangerous individuals, it is necessary.
After all, there are scabies and home mites - dust, eating only dry scales of human skin, but at the same time capable of causing severe allergies.
Regardless of how long the tick lives, we still need to clearly know that mindfulness, cleanliness and composure can help to avoid communication with this insect. When coming home from the forest or returning from the cottage, be sure to examine yourself. And if you find a tick on the body, seek help from doctors. Good luck to you!