CATTLE INSECTS 149 



The BITING CATTLE LOUSE "^ (TricJiodectcs scalaris) 

 Order — Mallophaga 



This species of louse is common the world over 

 and is often very abundant; they do not seem to 

 be as injurious as the sucking lice attributable to 

 the fact, probably, that they do not suck blood ; they 

 are smaller than the sucking lice; they are gener- 

 ally found in more abundance in the spring of the 

 year ; at this time eggs and adults are easily found. 



Control — Same as for the suckino: lice. 



Southern cattle tick ^ (Boophilus anmtlatiis) 

 Order — Acarina 



One of the ticks, thus not a true insect. It is the 

 carrier of Texas fever, a blood disease caused by 

 a minute protozoan parasite working in the red 

 blood corpuscles; the ticks drop from the cattle 

 when full grown and lay eggs, sometimes as many 

 as 3000 among the grass; the young ticks which 

 hatch must find their way to the cattle to live, and 

 these young ticks will introduce the disease to 

 healthy stock ; infested Southern cattle often intro- 

 duce the disease into Northern herds, but as our 

 cold winters kill the ticks, the disease disappears 

 unless reintroduced in Southern ticks brought north 

 the next season. 



Control — Thoroughbred Northern cattle are 

 now taken south and there inoculated and only a 

 mild form of the disease produced: the ticks are 

 now being gradually exterminated from the coun- 

 try by dipping infested cattle in an arsenical solu- 

 tion at certain intervals throughout the season. 



7 Osborn— U. S. Rii. Ent.. Bull. =;, p. 209. 



8 Mohler— U. S. Bu. An. Ind., Bull. 78. 



Ellenberger and Chapin— U. S. Dept. Agr., Ear's' Bull. 1057. 



