Declaring War On Ticks Part 1

Every year as the warm weather approaches, dog owners really should be more and more apprehensive about those gluttonous, disease-carrying ?Rhipicephalus Sanquineus?. This dangerous creature can certainly infect man with Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, bring about paralysis, as well as even kill dogs and puppies.

Referred to by almost everyone as ticks, these parasites are blamed for carrying the micro-organism that caused the death of so quite a few English war dogs in Singapore many decades ago. And during the Vietnam conflict, more than 300 U.S. war dogs had died mysteriously from tropical canine hemorrhagic syndrome, and canine hemorrhagic fever. Intensive research resulted in the finger of guilt pointing specifically at the everyday tick.

Although there are numerous different varieties of ticks (wood tick, brown dog tick, etc.), a tick by any different name is nonetheless a tick. Simply because of level of resistance to insecticides, the tick is one of the most problematic external parasites to manage.

The female tick could lay up to five thousands eggs in the crevices of a kennel, wall, or under the carpeting in the home. Eggs are never placed upon the actual host animal. After 20 to thirty days have passed, the eggs hatch and become larvae. The larvae then seek out out a host pet, gorge themselves on his or her blood, then fall off again in order to hide.

Six to twenty-three days later, the larvae molt and become eight-legged nymphs. The nymphs acquire another blood meal from a dog, drop off once more and go into hiding. Twelve to twenty-nine days later, the nymph tick molts and becomes an adult. As an adult, it once more looks for the animal, engorges blood, and mates.

From the time the eggs hatch ? and before the tick becomes an adult ? it returns to the host dog more than once to feed upon the canine's blood. Once hatched however, the tick can easily reside within any property for up to a couple of years with out needing a host animal to feed upon.

Out of doors, ticks climb onto branches and into foliage to wait the arrival of a dog host. A animal sleeping underneath a bush, or walking within leaping range of the tick is all that is necessary to provide the parasite with a host. In the home, ticks could come out from beneath rugs and carpeting, climb walls, table and chairs, and also even up as high as wall pictures, to await the passing of a dog. They may even have to wait as much as six months, but a tick can instantly sense the approach of a animal and leap on it as it passes.