Life Cycle Of Tick, Effects, Control

Hi, welcome to this blog on life cycle of tick, meaning and it’s effects or importance.

Table of contents

1. Meaning of ticks
2. Life cycle of tick
3. Economic importance or effect of ticks
4. Control of ticks

Meaning of Ticks

Tick is an ectoparasite of cattle, sheep and goat. The body of tick is divided into two segments – head region and abdomen. It has four pairs of tough leathering integument and possesses a toothed hypostome – a piercing organ for sucking blood of The Host.

Life Cycle of Tick

The life cycle of most ticks occurs in four stages. These include the egg, the larvae, the nymphs and the adult stages. Each stage requires a separate host.

Egg: A mature female tick, after sucking blood from it’s host, drops down and lay her eggs in the ground under grass and then dies.

Larvae: The egg hatches into a larvae with six legs. The larvae crawls into the grass and attaches itself to the skin of any animal passing by. The larvae feeds on the blood of the host and then falls to the ground.

Nymphs: The larvae now on the ground moult into a nymph with eight legs. The nymphs also crawls and attaches itself to a second host. It feeds on the host and later drops to the ground.

Adult: The nymphs now on the ground finally Moult into an adult tick, which crawls into the grass and attaches itself unto a third host. If the adult tick is a female, it insert its mouth parts immediately into the skin of the host and sucks blood. But if the adults tick is a male, it does not fix itself to the host but crawls on the skin in search of a female tick to mate with. After mating with the female, the male dies. When the female has sucked enough blood it falls on the ground and lays its eggs and the whole circle is repeated.

Economic Importance or Effects of Ticks

1. They cause great annoyance and irritation to thier Host.
2. They act as vectors of diseases, e.g, tick fever and heart water disease.
3. Injuries from their bites may become ulcerated wounds.
4. Injuries or wounds caused may become sources of secondary infection.
5. They suck the blood of The Host, thus leading to anaemia in host animal.
6. Damage of the skin by tick on host reduces the quality of skin or hides.
7. The loss of blood may lead to loss of weight and death of host animal.

Control measures of Ticks

1. Animals should be kept in clean surroundings.
2. Animals should be dipped in insecticide solution regularly to destroy ticks or spray them with ascaricide solution.
3. Practice rotational grazing or are paddlocking.
4. New stocks are to be isolated to ensure that they are free from infection.
5. Animal bedding should be changed regularly.
6. Ticks should be handpicked from the body of the Host animals.

Revision Questions

1. What is tick?
2. Briefly explain the life cycle of tick.
3. List Five economic importance or effects of ticks
4. State four control measures of tick in livestock production.