PESTS OF THE SHEEP TICKS, SCAB. 255 



Hood. When sheep are shorn the Ticks leave them and go onto the 

 lambs, which then suffer very much. At this time they may he 

 destroyed with ease by dipping the lambs in a solution to be hereafter 

 described. This remedy should not be neglected, as no flock will 

 thrive when infested with Ticks. The insect produces a living pupa 

 (see engravings), which is roundish and red in color, and nearly half 

 as large as the Tick. The louse is also a great pest to sheep, and is 

 destroyed by the dipping. 



The worst pest of the sheep, however, is the minute Scab Mite, 

 invisible except when dropped onto white paper, when it appears as 

 fine dust which moves. When a lock of wool from a scabby sheep is 

 laid upon a sheet of white paper this moving dust is seen, and this is 

 one test of the presence of the disease in its early stages. After a 

 time, when the mites have burrowed in the skin, and the scabs have 



Upper Side. Under Side. 



SHEEP TICK, NATURAL SIZE PUPA OF SHEEP SHEEP LOUSE. SHEEP SCAB MITES. 



AND ENLARGED. TICK ENLARGED. 



formed, the sheep exhibits a sorry aspect. The wool is ragged and 

 loose, and in places is torn off by the rubbing of the sheep against 

 fences, buildings or trees, or even upon the ground, when nothing else 

 offers, and the body is covered in places with rough scabs or inflamed 

 patches, with a multitude of small, wateiy blisters. These blisters 

 break and exude a yellowish matter, which mats the wool and forms 

 hard crusts, and these rapidly spread, until, by neglect, the sheep 

 perishes in the greatest misery. It is this insect which, gathered in 

 the wool, to which some of the scabs and crust adheres, attacks 

 the hands of the wool sorters, and produces the disease known as the 

 wool sorters' itch. It is akin to the Itch Mite, which produces the 

 disease known as the itch, which so much troubles persons whose 

 habits are the reverse of cleanly. The engravings show the character 

 of this pest, but experience alone can give a realizing knowledge of 

 its injuriousness. Sheep have died by thousands, and whole flocks 

 have been lost from its ravages, when its first appearance has been 

 neglected. One diseased sheep is sufficient to carry the disease into 

 o, flock, and so rapidly does it spread that in a few weeks thousands 



