Mites - Part one

Mite (Latin Acari) is one of the oldest inhabitants inhabiting our planet. Contrary to the erroneous opinion, ticks do not belong to insects, but are representatives of a detachment of arachnids.

Description of ticks. What does a tick look like?

In size, these representatives of arthropods rarely reach 3 mm, in general the size of the mites varies from 0.1 to 0.5 mm. As well as it is necessary a spider-like, at mites there are no wings. Adult mites have 4 pairs of legs, and in specimens that have not reached puberty, there are three pairs of legs. Without eyes, the mites orient themselves in space with the help of a well-developed sensory device, thanks to which they can smell the victim for 10 meters. According to the structure of the body, all kinds of ticks can be divided into leathery, with a fused head and chest, and hard (armor), in which the head to the trunk is attached movably. The supply of oxygen also depends on the structure of the body: the first breathe through the skin or the trachea, and the armor has special spiracles.

What do mites eat?

By the method of feeding the mites are divided into:

Description of the main types of mites:
Ixodid mites: the body of adults is covered with hard chitinous plates and is quite impressive in size - mites of this species often reach 2.5 centimeters in length. Ixodes ticks live in latitudes with a temperate climate, meeting in the foliage of trees and various shrubs throughout the entire Eurasian continent. This kind of ticks "paralyzes" with pleasure on forest and domestic animals, on cattle, does not disdain at the same time and the person: after clinging to the skin of his victim, he is ready to eat blood from a few days to 2-3 weeks. The female of the Ixodes tick is very prolific and is able to save 17 thousand eggs per season.

Argas pincers live in crevices of houses and economic buildings, often live in abandoned bird nests. Parasitize on domestic animals and poultry, special preference is given to the kuratniki, they often attack a person. The tick bite is quite painful, after it there is a strong itch and a profuse rash at the site of the lesion. The parasite has soft leathery covers, and its head is considerably drowned in the inner side of the body, which makes it barely noticeable.

Armor pliers mostly inhabit the soil, although there are also species that prefer to live on trees. As such, there is no parasitism in armor mites: they are fed by live plants, mushrooms, lichens and their plant remains, and they do not disdain carrion. Nevertheless, the armored tick is dangerous for animals and birds, as it is a carrier of helminths, in particular - banded worms.

A gambling mite selects nests of birds, chicken coops and burrows of rodents - mice and rats, because it parasitizes on their owners.The life of this small tick (the size does not exceed 1 mm) is about 6-7 months, but in such a short time it inflicts great damage on poultry farms, causing the hens to lose their feathers and huge combs on their skin with toxic saliva.

The subcutaneous tick is parasitic on animals and humans, which has been on their body for several years and is fed on dead cells of the skin, causing unbearable itching and irritation in their "master". The female of the hypodermic tick lives 2.5 - 3 months, saving for this time up to 80-120 eggs, from which already in a couple of days viable nymphs appear.

Scabies mite - a parasite that causes an unpleasant and sometimes difficult to cure disease - scabies. It gives a lot of trouble to both animals and man, doing in their skin the smallest moves, feeding on the skin secret and causing severe itching and redness. The lifespan of this tick varies from 1 to 1.5 months, but for a given period the female manages to repeatedly lay eggs.

Ear mite. The main "breadwinners" of this parasite are cats and dogs . For a person, it is safe, but the animal delivers many unpleasant sensations in the form of combing the auricles with their subsequent inflammation.

Dust mite (bed linen). On living organisms it does not parasitize, as it feeds on exfoliated epidermis, accumulations of dust, fluff or feathers. It is one of the causes of asthma in man. This kind of ticks quite fertile: for four months of life the female lays about 350 hundred eggs.

Spider mite . Absolutely harmless to birds, animals and humans, as it is a full "vegetarian" and feeds on plant juices, settling from the bottom of the leaf and sucking out the juices. It is a carrier of the harmful rot of gray plants.

Water (sea) tick. It lives in standing or flowing reservoirs with fresh water, and some specimens prefer saline marine elements. This kind of ticks parasitizes on water insects and molluscs.

Predatory tick. It feeds on its relatives, that is why it is sometimes specially populated by man in greenhouse and hothouse economy for fighting a spider mite.

Ambarny (flour, bread) mite . For a person, in principle, it is safe, but for grain or flour stocks it is a serious pest: products are clogged with waste products of the flour mite, which leads to its decay and the formation of mold.

The pasture mite lives in the southern part of Russia, in Kazakhstan, Transcaucasia, the mountains of Central Asia, in the south of Western Siberia. Mostly settled in forest-steppe or woods. Dangerous for animals and humans, can be a carrier of encephalitis, plague, brucellosis, fever.