I. Characteristics of ticks Ticks, commonly known as wall ticks, flat ticks, grass crawlers, dog beans, etc., are parasitic insects that live on the body surfaces of domestic animals and rodents. It is reddish-brown or grayish-brown, long ovoid, dorso-ventrally flattened, from the size of a sesame grain to the size of a rice grain. More than 800 species of ticks are known worldwide, and more than 110 species have been found in China. The common ones in the Central Plains include the long-horned blood tick, the blood-red fan-head tick, and the tiny cow tick. Beijing 306 Hospital Emergency Department Fu Qiang The life of a tick consists of four stages: egg, larva, worm and adult, of which adult and worm ticks have eight legs, while young ticks have only six legs. Ticks are active in spring and fall, more active in summer, and largely inactive in winter. Ticks are generally parasitic on thin, untouchable parts of the animal’s skin, and can bite and suck blood from people after leaving the animal’s body and attaching to grass. The female ticks are shaped like castor seeds after they have swollen with blood. Second, the danger of ticks tick bite can cause allergies, ulcers or inflammation and other symptoms, more serious is the tick can spread a variety of diseases. Ticks are known to carry 83 kinds of viruses, 14 kinds of bacteria, 17 kinds of regression fever spirochetes, and 32 kinds of protozoa, most of which are important natural epidemic diseases and zoonotic diseases, such as forest encephalitis, hemorrhagic fever, Q fever, tick-borne typhus, hare fever, etc., which pose great danger to human health and animal husbandry. C. Prevention and control of environmental and domestic animal ticks Rodents, domestic animals, and poultry are susceptible to tick infestation and are the main objects of inspection and prevention and control. Environmental treatment: remove weeds, clean livestock enclosures, and improve environmental health can effectively prevent the breeding of ticks. Some ticks usually live in the walls of the barn, the ground, the cracks in the feeding trough, should block all the cracks and small holes in the barn, blocking before the withdrawal of tick-killing drugs to the cracks, then cement, lime, yellow clay blocking, and fresh lime milk powder brush stables; with tick-killing liquid to the walls, doors, windows, columns in the pen do stagnant spraying, keep the barn dry. Extermination of rodents should be accompanied by insecticidal treatment to prevent ticks from attacking the population after they have strayed. Treatment of livestock and poultry: If livestock and poultry are found to carry ticks, they can be inspected promptly and burned after being removed with tweezers. When there are more ticks, insecticides such as fenthion, chlorpyrifos, and cis-cypermethrin can be sprayed, or livestock can be given regular medicated baths to kill ticks. The public should take good personal protection when using insecticides. Pets kept at home in cities and tick-free areas of China are usually free of tick parasites. If you travel with your pet to areas with ticks, you should check carefully for ticks attached to your pet’s body surface when you return. IV. How to do personal protection You should try to avoid sitting and lying for a long time in the main habitat of ticks such as grass and woods. If you need to enter such areas, you should pay attention to good personal protection and advocate wearing long-sleeved clothes; don’t wear sandals; tie your pant legs or tuck them into your socks or shoes; wear light-colored clothes to make it easier to find out if there are ticks climbing on them; try to smooth the surface of knitted clothes so that ticks are not easy to adhere; after each day’s travel activities, travelers should also carefully check their bodies and clothes to see if there are ticks stinging into or climbing on them, and after finding ticks Remove them immediately. Applying repellents to exposed skin, such as mosquito repellent (recommended only for those over 2 years of age), can remain effective for several hours. When using shades or sunscreens, apply the shade or sunscreen first, then the repellent, and wash the repellent off before going to bed. Soak camping equipment such as clothes and tents with insecticides such as permethrin and repellents containing DEET. V. Treatment of ticks Ticks are often attached to the human scalp, waist, armpits, groin and under the ankles, etc. Once a tick is found to have bitten and burrowed into the skin, alcohol can be applied to the tick to relax or kill the head of the tick, then remove the tick with pointed tweezers, or use cigarettes or incense to gently scald the part of the tick exposed outside the body so that its head slowly exits on its own. Pay attention to safety when scalding ticks. Do not pull the tick raw to avoid pulling the skin or leaving the tick’s head inside the skin. After removing it, do local disinfection with iodine or alcohol and keep an eye on your body condition. If you have symptoms such as fever, inflammation of the bite site and erythema, seek medical attention to diagnose whether you have a tick-borne disease and avoid missing the best time to treat it. Even if a tick bite is not detected, people returning from a trip to an infected area should always observe their physical condition and be alert for tick-borne diseases in infected areas if they develop symptoms such as fever. When a tick is found, whether on the surface of a human or animal body, or free on a wall or ground, do not touch it directly with your hands or even squeeze it, but use tweezers or other tools to pinch and then burn it; disinfect the tick if it inadvertently comes in contact with your skin, especially if the tick squeezes through the effluent. Those with a history of tick bites or field activities should seek medical attention as soon as suspected signs or symptoms such as fever appear and inform the doctor of the relevant exposure history.