TEXAS FEVER 141 



This is very successful in killing the ticks and at the 

 same time does not materially injure the cattle, and has 

 been found superior to any of the dips tested. After 

 dipping, the animals should not be unduly exposed to 

 the hot sun or driven long distances, but should be given 

 plenty of good food and water. Dipping should not be 

 done till after the cattle have shed their winter coats. 

 The method usually adopted in dipping cattle is to 

 construct a narrow swimming tank with a chute at one 

 end for the entrance of the cattle, and a sloping exit 

 and a dripping floor at the other. 



The "soiling method." — This method of freeing the 

 cattle of ticks is based upon a knowledge of the life 

 history of the ticks. The time required for the female 

 tick to lay eggs and the latter to hatch, in other words, 

 the time spent on the ground, is rarely less than three 

 weeks, and the time required for the seed ticks to molt 

 and mature, or the time spent on the cattle is usually 

 from twenty to forty-five days. When the cattle are 

 to be freed from ticks, they should be kept in a small 

 tick-free enclosure for three weeks, when many of the 

 ticks will have fallen off. They should then be removed 

 and placed in a similar enclosure for another three 

 weeks, and to make sure of the job, they should 

 remain two weeks in a third enclosure. By this time 

 the youngest ticks that were on the cattle at the start 

 will have matured and dropped off, and as the animals 

 are removed from each pen before they could possibly 

 have become reinfected with seed ticks that hatch from 

 the eggs of the females that fell off, they are now tick 

 free. The same pens cannot be used repeatedly for 

 this purpose without thorough disinfection. Care should 

 be taken that hay fed the animals in these pens is from 

 non-infested fields. 



Morgan, of the Louisiana Station, has outlined what 

 is known as the "feed-lot" method of ridding cattle 

 and pastures of ticks during a single summer. In this 

 method a portion of ground is set apart, one-half of 



