SolveYourProblem.com Article Series: Dog Care
Fleas, Ticks & Bugs
The
Life Of A Tick
Each year as the warm weather approaches,
dog owners should be increasingly apprehensive about those
gluttonous, disease-carrying “Rhipicephalus Sanquineus”. This
dangerous creature can infect man with Rocky Mountain Spotted
Fever, cause paralysis, and even kill dogs and puppies.
Referred to by most everyone as “ticks”, these parasites are
blamed for carrying the micro-organism that caused the death
of so many British war dogs in Singapore several decades ago.
And during the Vietnam war, more than 300 U.S. war dogs had
died mysteriously from tropical canine hemorrhagic syndrome,
and canine hemorrhagic fever. Intensive studies resulted in
the finger of guilt pointing directly at the ordinary tick.
Although there are several different species of ticks (wood
tick, brown dog tick, etc.), a tick by any other name is still
a tick. Because of resistance to insecticides, the tick is
one of the most difficult external parasites to control.
The female tick will lay up to five thousands eggs in the
crevices of a kennel, baseboard, or under the carpeting in
the home. Eggs are never deposited upon the host animal. After
twenty to thirty days have elapsed, the eggs hatch and become
larvae. The larvae then seek out a host dog, gorge themselves
on his blood, then drop off again to hide.
Six to twenty-three days later, the larvae molt and become
eight-legged nymphs. The nymphs obtain another blood meal from
a dog, drop off again and go into hiding. Twelve to twenty-nine
days later, the nymph tick molts and becomes an adult. As an
adult, it once more seeks the dog, 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
on the canine's blood. Once hatched however, a tick can live
in a house for up to two years without needing a host dog to
feed on.
Out of doors, ticks climb onto branches and into foliage to
await the arrival of a dog host. A dog napping under a bush,
or walking within jumping distance of the tick is all that
is needed to provide the parasite with a host. In the home,
ticks will emerge from beneath rugs and carpeting, climb walls,
table and chairs, and even up as high as wall pictures, to
await the passing of a dog. They may even have to wait up to
six months, but a tick can instantly sense the approach of
a dog and jump on it as it passes. #
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SolveYourProblem.com
: 2009
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