6 HOW TO GET THE LAST TICK. 



infested pastures they must be given the same con- 

 sideration as cattle. 



In describing the life history of this tick it is cus- 

 tomary to start at the point where the fully devel- 

 oped and fertilized female, engorged with blood, 

 loosens her hold on the skin of the cow and drops to 

 the ground, where she at once searches for a hiding 

 place under grass, leaves, or other litter affording 

 protection from the direct rays of the sun. She 

 begins laying her eggs in from 2 days to 3 weeks 

 later, in spring, summer, or fall, while during the win- 

 ter months this process may be delayed anywhere 

 from 2 weeks to 3 months. The eggs are voided from 

 an opening on the underside of the body, just back 

 of the head, and appear in a gradually growing, 

 grapelike cluster, and may be from a few hundred to 

 as many as 5,000, 95 per cent of which will hatch 

 under favorable conditions. Egg laying may be 

 completed in 4 days in summer, or may be prolonged 

 as much as 5 months during winter. When laying is 

 finished, the mother tick is small and shriveled, and 

 soon dies. 



The eggs are very small, oval-shaped, and brown- 

 ish in color, and as laid they are coated with a sticky 

 secretion which causes them to adhere in clusters 

 and no doubt keeps them from drying. In from 19 

 days in summer to 6 months during the fall and 

 winter the eggs begin to hatch. The little brown, 

 six-legged larvae, or seed ticks, crawl from the eggs 

 and soon ascend near-by vegetation, thereby increas- 

 ing their chances of reaching a host — which is abso- 

 lutely essential to their further development. As 

 soon as opportunity is offered they attach themselves 

 to a passing or resting cow, or in exceptional cases 

 to horses and mules. Failing to find a host, the seed 



