CONTROL 369 



destruction of indigenous rodents in a wholesale manner, and 

 the clearing away of brush land in tick-infested areas. 



Another means of destruction of -spotted fever ticks has been 

 found in grazing sheep on tick-infested lands. Range sheep have 

 been found to destroy ticks in large numbers by the ticks becom- 

 ing entangled in the wool and starved. Five hundred sheep were 

 found to destroy 25,000 ticks in a season. 



Ticks which infest the lairs of their hosts, attacking only at 

 night and for brief 'periods, can be more easily handled. In 

 this case thorough disinfection by fumigation or by spraying 

 with a disinfectant, and thorough cleanliness in stalls, coops, 

 kennels, huts or other host homes will effectually destroy them. 

 The disease-carrying tampan, Ornithodorus moubata, of Africa is 

 an example of a tick which can be controlled by such methods. 

 Dirty, poorly kept native huts are the ideal habitats for tampans, 

 which secrete themselves during the day in crevices, thatched 

 roofs or debris, after the manner of bedbugs. Plastering houses 

 with mud, building of smudges, fumigation and cleanliness are 

 methods which usually succeed in keeping out ticks. Crevices, 

 bed sheets and other places which might harbor ticks should be 

 dusted with pyrethrum insect powder. 



The nearly allied 0. savignyi of Abyssinia, which conceals itself 

 in dusty soil to a depth of one inch, can best be destroyed in in- 

 fested camp sites, environs of wells, etc., by harrowing the sur- 

 face of the ground, strewing dry grass and brush over it, and 

 burning it from around the edge of the infested area toward the 

 center. Spraying with antiseptics has been found practically 

 useless, since even the total immersion of ticks in strong antisep- 

 tics for an hour or more fails to kill them. 



The fowl tick or " miana bug," Argas persicus, and the Ameri- 

 can hut-infesting species of Ornithodorus, 0. talaje and 0. turicata, 

 can be controlled by methods similar to those used for the 

 tampan. 



