320 INSECTS AND OTHER SMALL ANIMALS 



them very small, they are not insects and of course are 

 not bugs. 



The bodies of animals of this class are generally 

 divided into two segments and have four pairs of legs. 

 They have no antennae and but a partial metamor- 

 phosis, or none at all. The animals of this class, except 

 the mites, give farmers very little trouble. 



Mites. --These little animals have the appearance 

 of having the whole body included in one sac-like piece. 

 When they are full of the blood of the animal to which 

 they have attached themselves, these sacks become 

 quite distended. The chicken mites, or chicken spiders, 

 are a great pest in the poultry house. These little 

 mites remain in cracks and crevices in the poultry 

 house during the day, but at night, while the poul- 

 try are roosting, they come out to suck the blood 

 of their victims. They sometimes remain in hiding 

 on the body of the chicken where the feathers are 

 thick. 



If the roosts and interior of the poultry house are 

 well soaked with cresol or with kerosene, these trouble- 

 some mites will be exterminated. 



Ticks. --These animals are like mites, but are usually 

 much larger. 



The southern cattle tick is a parasite on cattle, and 

 is the means of conveying the disease known as the 

 Texas fever from one animal to another. 



When the female tick is ready to lay her eggs, she 

 drops from the animal to which she has attached her- 

 self and deposits them on the ground. The eggs soon 

 develop into seed ticks, which fasten themselves to 

 cattle that may be within reach. Here the seeds re- 

 main till they mature. Passing the cattle through 



