JOURNAL 



OF 



ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY 



OFFICIAL ORGAN AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGISTS 



Vol. 5 OCTOBER, 1912 No. 5 



THE TICK PROBLEM IN SOUTH AFRICA 



By William Moore, School of Agriculture, Potchefslroom 



One of the most important and interesting problems in Economic 

 Entomology is the role played by ticks in the spread of certain diseases 

 and how these ticks may be destroyed. There is probably no other 

 country in the world where the tick problem assumes the proportion 

 that it does in Africa. Most of the articles dealing with ticks which 

 are available for the entomologist abroad do not consider the problem 

 as it is presented to the entomologist and stock farmer in Africa. It 

 is therefore — with the object of expressing the situation as it is in 

 South Africa, that this paper is written. 



Ticks and the Diseases Transmitted. In South Africa it is not 

 one tick and one disease which must be dealt with, but a number 

 of ticks producing a number of different diseases. Boophilus decolo- 

 ratus Koch, the blue tick, carries Texas cattle fever (known in South 

 Africa as redwater) — and Spirochcetosis, the latter being a disease 

 of cattle, horses and sheep. Amblyomma hehrceum Koch, the Bont 

 tick, transmits a disease of sheep, goats and cattle, known as heart- 

 water. The organism causing the heartwater has not yet been 

 observed, and it therefore differs from the other diseases transmitted 

 by ticks, which are caused by Protozoa. Hcemaphysalis leachi 

 Audouin, the dog tick, transmits the organism causing malignant 

 jaundice, a rather fatal disease of dogs. Rhipicephalus appendi- 

 culatus Neumann, the browoi tick, transmits East coast fever and 

 gall-sickness of cattle, and may also transmit Texas cattle fever. 

 Rhipicephalus capensis Koch, the Cape brown tick, transmits East 

 coast fever. Rhipicephalus simus Koch, the black-pitted tick, 

 and Rhipicephalus evertsi Neumann, the red tick, transmits East 

 coast fever and gall-sickness, while R. simus may also transmit 

 Spirocha'tosis, and R. evertsi is the carrier of biliary fever of horses. 



