What types of ticks are there?

The most important things in brief

• Ticks are very popular in our part of the world in late spring, summer and autumn.
• But what types of ticks are there in Switzerland - and which ones are dangerous for humans and animals?
• Scientists are currently assuming that there are a few species that are up to mischief here.
• Some of these are particularly dangerous for dogs, while the common woodbuck and other species pose a risk to humans.

In principle, ticks, which usually only grow a few millimeters in size even when saturated, can be dangerous as early as March, when the temperatures are unusually high. As a rule, however, the high season starts in May. Around 900 different species of these arachnids are known worldwide. In Switzerland, new species are constantly being added to the native representatives due to climate change. Researchers are currently assuming eight species of ticks that are native to us.

It's almost always the common wooden goat

Not all of these eight species are dangerous to humans or animals - but the common woodbuck is. As the best-known and most widespread type of tick in Europe, it thrives throughout Switzerland and is found almost everywhere, in city gardens and parks as well as in nature, for example in meadows, clearings, in the forest and in the undergrowth. If a person is bitten by a tick in Switzerland, it is usually from this species.

The bite of this tick is usually not noticed, often the area only starts to itch after hours. By then, however, the transmission of tick-borne encephalitis (FSME) or Lyme disease may have already taken place. Dogs and cats are also not safe from the bite of the common wood beetle, and the bloodsucker also infests mice, birds, deer and stags.

Four other species of ticks that affect humans

Humans are potential hosts for four other species of ticks found in Switzerland. For example, there is the hedgehog tick, which not only uses the eponymous spiny mammals and other wild animal species (foxes, martens and Co.), but also dogs and cats as well as us two-legged friends as hosts and can also transmit Lyme disease and TBE. The pigeon tick, on the other hand, prefers pigeons, as the name suggests, but also bites people.

The Hyalomma tick, which comes from Asia and Africa and is increasingly spreading in Europe, grows up to two centimeters long, where it appreciates the increasingly mild winters. It chooses larger animals such as dogs, but also humans as hosts, whereby it can infect us with tick-borne spotted fever and Crimean-Congo fever. The tick of the genus Ixodes inopinatus, which is slowly migrating to us from more southern regions, transmits Lyme disease.

Examine dogs and cats thoroughly

If you often walk your dog in meadows and forests, you should check it regularly for ticks. Our four-legged friends (yes, cats are also affected) like to choose the brown dog ticks, sheep ticks and alluvial forest ticks that are also widespread in Switzerland as hosts. (By the way, you can find tick protection products here.)

While cats can often remove the parasites completely themselves thanks to their fine, sharp teeth, dogs cannot do this. Incidentally, the alluvial forest tick also occasionally chooses people as bite victims; she sometimes transmits TBE. What makes it so dangerous for dogs is that this tick can also carry the Babesia protozoa that cause potentially deadly canine malaria.