AWOL - Dr Mohammed's FACT FILES

Ticks and Mites

What are Ticks and Mites?

Ticks and mites are a group of arthropods which in general terms feed on the host's blood which can cause severe anaemia as well as transmitting many diseases.

There are about 30,000 species of ticks and mites from medium to minute in size. The body is composed of an anterior part (mouth part) and posterior part (body).

Common life cycle ~ egg - larvae - nymph - adult

The engorged females (fully filled with blood) drop off the host animal to lay their eggs under stones, in crevices of walls, in cracks of wood and under the bark of trees. The females lay all their eggs in one batch which typically number around 18,000 and die. Once hatched and within 15 to 30 days (depending on the air temperature) the larvae climb on to grasses to attach themselves to a suitable passing host to suck blood. After engorgement larvae moults to nymphs (this may occur on the animal or on the ground). These nymphs in turn moult to adults where the male typically dies after fertilisation and the egg bearing females drop to the ground and the life cycle starts again.

The exact life cycle depends on the number of hosts that a particular type of tick needs to complete its life cycle, they can be classified into:

• One-host ticks - In which three stages of the life cycle of the tick takes place on the same animal (larvae - nymph - adult).

• Two-host ticks - In which the larvae gorge themselves on the animal's blood and then moult to nymphs who then gorge themselves before leaving the host for moulting to adult on the ground. The adult then seeks another host to feed and gorge themselves on before the female adult drops to the ground and lays its eggs.

• Three-host ticks - In which each stage of the life cycle occurs on the ground so at each stage they need to find their way back to an animal which maybe the same animal or any warm blooded animal that is close to hand.

Click on the picture to see the AWOL case history of this dog that suffered a typical tick infestation

Medical importance of Ticks and Mites

They suck the host blood. Cause irritation, itching and severe damage to the skin. They hide themselves in areas of the body where the animal can’t reach to clean them off. They cause severe anaemia, weakness and emaciation They can cause tick paralysis in animals and human alike.

They transmit lots of disease for example Equine encephala mellitus, Rickettsial disease, Q-fever of man, spotted fever heart water of sheep, spirochetes of cattle, relapsing fever tularaemia in man and rabbits. They also transmit all species of parasitic blood diseases.

Control of Ticks

For killing ticks on animals that AWOL deals with we remove all that we can see and dip them in Vaseline to prevent engorged females from laying their eggs followed by a Dectomax (Ivermectine) injection.

Steps to stop re-infestation include clearing the ground of litter and controlled burning to destruct eggs, larvae and nymphs as well as spraying the walls, trees and cracks with an insecticide as such as diazinon, butox or amitraz.

Blocking cracks with mud or cement is also a very useful and inexpensive way to kill eggs.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

Obviously AWOL does not charge for any treatment so it is your donation that allows AWOL to continue to help these poor people and their animals so please donate whatever you can. To find out how you can donate to AWOL please Click Here.

UK Registered Charity No: 1124154

This page was updated on 22-Feb-2012

Egyptian Charity Luxor No: 7 Registered 2009