25 



Boiling- water is tlie favourite remedy, but usually loug before the 

 water reaches the tick it is almost cold. The mixture of oue part 

 of kerosene and nine parts of boiling- soap-suds applied as hot as 

 possible to cracks and crevices and woodwork generally is very 

 effective. Oil added to the mixture improves it, because in com- 

 bination with dust it clogs the breathing spiracles of the tick. 



A table is given showing the results obtained by immersing live 

 ticks in 21 different insecticide solutions, many of which show 

 the remarkable vitality of the creature. It seems hardly credible 

 that they should be able to resist immersion for 49 hours in a 

 solution of corrosive sublimate, but according to the table such 

 is the case. 



The life cycle of the tick. — Ticks can live for long periods 

 without obtaining blood from fowls and it seems probable that 

 under these conditions they consume decaying vegetable matter. 

 When feeding on blood in hot weather they feed about once a 

 month and appear to require that period for the full digestion 

 of their meal, after which they moult. The adult female tick 

 begins to lay eggs about a week after she has fed, in small 

 batches (20 to 100). Nuttall reported that it took 10 months to 

 rear the ticks from egg-stage to egg-stage. Adult ticks apparently 

 can travel great distances along fences and in this way may reach 

 new fowl-houses. 



Hosts. — Fowls are most commonly attacked. Turkeys roost 

 on the tops of sheds and in high trees and escape as a rule, but if 

 placed in a poultry-yard they are also attacked and often die. 

 Ducks are not so subject to attack because they feed at night and 

 are generally restless. Pigeons have been found infested, but as a 

 rule they are free. 



Cause of death in tick-infested poult nj. — Many fowls die where 

 comparatively few ticks are present, whilst others swarming with 

 ticks do not die but only become emaciated and weak. In some 

 cases where only two or three larvae were found attached to the 

 bird and very few adults in the woodwork, the fowls died rapidly. 

 From this it woidd appear that a large proportion of ticks do harm 

 by simply sucking blood while others carry the spirochete 

 (*S. marchouxi) . 



Very few fowls recover from tick fever and in the hands of 

 the ordinary breeder there is no known remedy, the disease not 

 being discovered until much too late. For the practical poiiltry 

 farmer undoubtedly the best, if not the only thing to do is to 

 eradicate the tick. 



KxAB (F.). A Proposal for the Control of Certain Mosquitos. — 

 Science, xxxvii, 24th Jan. 1913, pp. 147-148. 



Until about about 10 years ago Reaumur's account of the life- 

 history of Citlex lyipiens was considered applicable to mosquitos 

 in general, and it was usually supposed that in temperate regions 

 all mosquitos hibernated in the adult female state, to deposit 

 eggs and start a new generation with the return of warm weather. 

 Itls now known that this applies only to a very small number of 

 species. The notion that swamps and bodies of stagnant water 



