HOW TO GET THE LAST TICK. 



tick will starve in from 2 to 8 months, depending on 

 the season of the year. The seed tick takes no food 

 and does not increase in size until reaching a host. 

 It must have the blood of cattle (or horses and mules) 

 for its developnient. 



Soon after reaching a favorable host the seed tick 

 attaches itself to the skin and begins to draw blood 

 at once, increasing in size. In a few days the young 

 tick changes from a brown color to white, and in 

 from 5 to 12 days it sheds its skin, or molts, acquir- 



Fio. 2. — The little brown, six-legged larvae, or seed ticks, crawl from the eggs and 

 soon ascend near-by vegetation . 



ing a fourth pair of legs, and is then known as a 

 nymph. 



In from 5 to 11 days after the first molt the tick 

 again sheds its skin and becomes sexually mature. 

 The male, measuring about one-tenth of an inch in 

 length, is now fully developed and is seen as a smaU 

 brown, oval tick of considerable activity. The fe- 

 male at tHe time of this molting is slightly larger 

 than the male; she is not active, and seldom moves 

 from her original point of attachment. After mat- 

 ing, the female develops rapidly and has been known 

 to become fully engorged in 48 hours after the second 

 molt, but usually from 4 days to a week are required. 



