CATTLE TICK ERADICATION 247 



lating bunches of cattle, there was no money to be made in 

 raising cattle. With the present outlook, men are fencing their 

 lands, and there is sharp competition for every heifer or cow 

 that can be bought. If our authorities will pass a tick law, and 

 see that it is rigidly enforced, we can clear out the ticks in twelve 

 months. ' ' 



To return to the remedies, dipping is undoubtedly the best 

 method of eradication, provided an efficient dip be used. 



Dr. Theiler (South Africa) has stated that the eradication of 

 ticks by starvation "must undoubtedly lead to success in every 

 case where we are able to keep the place, for a sufficient length 

 of time, free from such animals as act as hosts," and that a 

 period of fourteen months would be a safe one to adopt in at- 

 tempting the eradication of the red, brown, and Bont ticks in 

 South Africa by the starvation method. Careful experiments 

 made at Gonubie Park, Cape Province, showed, however, that a 

 fenced-in area of 160 acres, from which all stock had been ex- 

 cluded for twenty-one months, at the end of that period w'as still 

 infested with a considerable number of ticks, and no doubt would 

 have remained so indefinitely, owing to the insufficient barrier 

 presented to the ticks by the fencing, and to the impossibility of 

 excluding wild game. The conclusions drawn from these ex- 

 periments, which included also grass burning, are that the star- 

 vation method reduces the number of ticks, and if combined with 

 burning, still further reduces it, but that the method fails to 

 eradicate the ticks, and is inferior to a system of dipping at 

 regular intervals with an efficient dip. Burning doubtless des- 

 troys a number of ticks if it is done when they are on the top of 

 the grass, but pasturage is usually such a scarce and valuable 

 commodity in this country that burning it is rather too drastic a 

 remedy. Also in regard to the starvation method it must be re- 

 membered that there are practical difficulties in the way of en- 

 closing large areas so as to prevent ground game or birds gain- 

 ing access to it, and bringing in ticks, besides acting as hosts to 

 the ticks already on the ground. 



•With dipping and starvation combined, the ticks which get 

 on the cattle are being killed off, and simultaneously those ticks 

 which do not find a host are dying of starvation. Also, if a suit- 

 able dip be chosen, the ticks which get on immediately after dip- 

 ping die. In other words, dipping means quick destruction of a 

 certain proportion of the ticks, combined with the slower process 

 of starvation of the remainder. 



