444: STATE BOAKD OF AGRICULTURE. 



times, which, as surely as the traditional peck of dirt, would come to make its 

 seven years' sojouru, not only in the best of families, but as the guest of the 

 fairest. This disease, very appropriately christened the itch, of those — ought 

 we say *'good old times?" — was caused by the irritating presence of a wee 

 animal, the itch mite. A near relative causes the mange, or scab, of our 

 domestic animals, which are more polite terms of the same thing, the itch. 

 The "red spider" or "red louse" of our poultry houses and the large wood 

 ticks, whose bite is so painful to ourselves and the lower animals, are also near 

 congeners. 



ORDER ARACHNIDA, OR SPIDERS- 



These tormenting pests are not insects at all, but belong with the spiders. 

 They have only two divisions of the body, head and abdomen. Their eyes are 

 simple ; they are without antenna?, and when mature always have eight legs. 



SUR-ORDER ACARI]S'^A. 



The mites (Fig. 13) have rounded, non-articulated abdomens, can suck as 

 well as bite, while many have at first but six legs. 



The habits of mites are very varied. Some, like those in question, are para- 

 sitic ; others, like the wee red spider, are very destructive to plants on whose 

 juices they subsist. Still others, like the cheese and sugar mites, are destructive 

 to the articles which give them their names. They are often met singly and as 

 often in great numbers. A lady of my acquaintance has been much annoj'ed 

 of late by noticing myriads of these minute creatures upon her windows. 



IXODES (ticks). 



The largest of these animals are the ticks, which are often found on cattle 

 that feed in the woods. Nor do the "wood ticks" confine their blood-thirsty 

 attacks to our domestic animals, as many of us well know by painful experience. 

 Often, as a boy, did I have to pay a painful penalty for those delightful strolls 

 in the grand old forests, laid on by one of tliese same ticks, " Ixodes unipunc- 

 tata" (Packard). One feels the darting pain, and upon immediate examina- 

 tion finds the cruel tick deeply buried, and so firmly anchored that the at- 

 tempted liberation tears the head from the body. As a lad I wondered at this 

 firm hold, but as I came to know the structure of the mouth organs, I ceased 

 to wonder. Both their jaws and their glossoid or tongue are covered with teeth, 

 each of which takes hold to prevent the extraction of its possessor. Tlie ticks 

 at first have but six legs. They are not enough of a pest in the Northern 

 States to warrant a furtlier consideration at this time. 



The red mite (Fig. 13), which attacks our poultry in such alarming num- 

 bers, is the Dermanyssus gallina?. It is soft-bod- 

 ied, oval in form, and, though very small, is 

 from its crimson hue, easily discerned without a 

 microscope. Tlie young have only six legs. I 

 have found by actual experiment that they could 

 infiict quite a painful bite, even upon our own 

 persons. I have reason to believe that they may 

 cause horses much annoyance, when the horse 

 stable and hen roost are one and the same. The 

 ointment made of sulphur, lard and kerosene 

 works a spccdv cure of this evil among the poul- 



FlG. 13.— HEX. MITE MAGNIFIED. , Tl , ^ ' 1 It- 1,,*^ flw,f fl, ! -. "on ..-, r» ,^; ,, f 



try. 1 have no doubt but that thi.s same omt- 



