This is the typical case where the pigeon tick was first mistaken for a bed bug. The girl sent me this video:
…and wrote that she found such a creature in her apartment and decided that it was a bedbug. But then she doubted it, because none of her family members had bites on their bodies.
Indeed, this is not a bedbug or even an insect at all. This is an argas tick, most likely a pigeon tick Argas reflexus.
Distinguishing such a creature from a bed bug is quite simple. The most obvious sign is the absence of a visible head with eyes and antennae, which the bed bug has:
But in addition, the tick has a completely different pattern on the upper part of the idiosoma, which is not similar to the clear transverse lines on the bed bug’s abdomen.
Plus, the most reliable sign is that a tick has 8 legs, while a bedbug has 6.
But even more interesting than identification is the question of where this pigeon tick came from.
Where did this tick get into the apartment from?
Argas reflexus is a parasite that feeds on pigeons and other birds in their nests. And they appear in houses when they have to leave their habitable bird nests and look for other feeders.
In the first letter the author of these footages wrote to me that she has a cat and a parrot living at home, but they have never been outside and she has never noticed these parasites on them before. But when I wrote that it was a pigeon tick, she replied that she lives on the 16th floor of a 16-story building, and there is an attic above her apartment.
So everything fell into place: this tick spent his entire short life swarming in pigeon nests in the attic of an apartment building, and when the chicks flew out of all the nests and the source of food for him disappeared, it went with many of its fellows to look for other premises where animals or people may live and where it can find another sources of blood.
A girl sent me this video in December. Around this time, real winter begins in the countries of Central Asia and pigeons stop breeding chicks. And it is obvious that this parasite crawled into her apartment in search of warm-blooded animals exactly from the attic. This, by the way, is another sign that this is Argas reflexus.
On the contrary, the fowl tick Argas persicus looks similar, but parasitizes mainly large birds – chickens, geese and turkeys, and therefore is found mostly in private homes in rural areas.
Such ticks can bite both people and pets, although they are not able to constantly feed on their blood, much less reproduce on such a diet. Therefore, the best thing you can do if you find them in your home is to close all the windows in the attic with mesh so that the pigeons can no longer fly in there, build nests there, hatch chicks and feed such parasites. And ideally, after such isolation in the attic, you need to disinfect it using acaricidal agents so that to kill ticks that are already living there.
I remind you that you can send me photos and videos with insects and mites for identification, so that you know exactly what you have found in your home and what measures should be taken after such a discovery (and whether anything needs to be done at all).
