Eureka weekly sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1887-1902, 1898-04-23
AN INTERESTING SUBJECT.
The Cattle Tfck-How IL Breeds
and Works

anu w Orks-
The following letter from w. Z.
Hill, a government inspector, on the
cattle tick, was read at the Carson
meeting Of cattemen. II will interest
every cattleman in the State:
SAN DIEGO, Cal, February, 1898.
Mr.. Geo. ii. Bayley. Berkeley, Cal.
DEAR SIR: Your letter of the 18th
is at hand and note the question
asked herein. See note at end OF copy.
If you fully understood the life history
OF the cattle tick (Boophilus Bovis) l
hardly think you would have asked
the question because you could have
answered 1t in the negative yourself.
When the young tick is first hatched
it is so very small that il is almost i'm
possible to see it with the naked eye,
or find it on an animal. While il re-
mains so small, therefore, it would
be almost impossible to determine to
Q certainty, even by inspection,
whether or not these small
ticks we're on an animal. When
these ticks first get onto an ami
NAL they crawl in under the hair next
the skin, here they seem to obtain
nourishment and commence to grow,
at this time they have only six legs
three ON side. After having been
on the animal five or six days they
moult Coming out OF the old skin with
eight legs); in another week they
moult again, and even now they are
only about the size OF fully gorged
flea. After the second moult they at
tach themselves to the animal, where
they commence to grow quite rapidly,
and in from twenty to twenty-five
days they have attained their full
growth and gorged themselves full OF
the animals blood, when they loosen
their hold and drop to the ground. In
about five days, if the weather is suit
able, the tick will commence to lay
eggs, and in about five more days the
tick will have completed the egg lay
ing. The mother tick will die at the
side OF the eggs she has laid. A fully
goreed tick will lay about 1000 eggs,
and II the weather conditions are
favorable the eggs will hatch in from
twenty-five to forty days.
The ticks are at first lively little fel-
lows, as seen by the aid OF magnify.
ing glass. They may remain on cattle
Tor months without showing any in
crease In size. When ticks in infected
pastures are hatched out all OF them
are not likely to get on cattle the same
day or week, and there might be
months difference in many cases
therefore they would not all mature
and fall off at the same time. So, you
see, there might be ticks on cattle in
injected pastures of all sizes at the
same time. For the above reasons ii
would not be safe to take cattle from
the infected area or district to the safe
area during the part OF the year when
the weather is such that tick eggs may
hatch.
l have endeavored to explain the
life history OF the tick that you might
have q more clear idea OF the difficult
ties and unreliability of inspections
made in pastures. for ticks while they
are small it is almost impossible to de-
termine to certainty therefore it will
not do to take any chances in that di-
rection. Yours respectfully,
w. E. HILL.
Question asked: What il cattle were
inspected and no ticks found would it
be safe to take them from infected dis.
tricts to Modoc county,