If you’re a dog owner concerned about your pets health, then you need to be particularly attentive when spring rolls around and ticks become a real threat.
Ticks are technically called “Rhipicephalus Sanquineus”, but more importantly these blood-sucking bugs can carry germs and diseases that can make you or your dog sick. In fact, ticks can give people diseases such as Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, and ticks can pass on diseases that can even be fatal to dogs! Here’s what you need to know about ways to prevent ticks from infesting your dogs.
Referred to by most everyone as “ticks”, these parasites are blamed for carrying the micro-organism that caused the death of so many British war dogs in Singapore several decades ago. And during the Vietnam war, more than 300 U.S. war dogs had died mysteriously from tropical canine hemorrhagic syndrome, and canine hemorrhagic fever. Intensive studies resulted in the finger of guilt pointing directly at the ordinary tick.
Although there are several different species of ticks (wood tick, brown tick, etc.), a tick by any other name is still a tick. Because of resistance to insecticides, the tick is one of the most difficult external parasites to control.
It’s amazing but a female tick can lay up to five thousands eggs! Usually these eggs are places in the cracks of a kennel, under the carpet or hidden away out of sight. Interestingly, eggs are never laid upon the host, whether a dog or a person. The eggs hatch into larvae after about a month or so. Next, the tick larvae will look for a host, such some blood and then fall off to rest.
A few weeks later, the tick larvae transform themselves into nymphs, which are sort of like teenagers. These nymphs looks for another host to grab some more blood, then fall off to rest again. Then, after another few weeks, the nymph transforms into an adult tick. Of course, now the adult tick is ready to seek out another host where it will fill up on blood and mate.
Adult ticks can live for up to 2 years without eating…which is really bad news for dog owners, as this means you can have ticks lurking in ambush.
Out of doors, ticks climb onto branches and into foliage to await the arrival of a host. A dog napping under a bush or walking within jumping distance of the tick is all that is needed to provide the parasite with a host.
A tick inside a home will hang out in dark, hidden places awaiting a chance to latch-on to a host. Here’s a shocking fact, but a tick inside the house can hang out for up to three months lying in wait for a dog or person to walk by. And when the trap is sprung, and your dog or you walk by, the tick can instantly “wake up” and spring onto the victim in a blink of the eye.
Now that you know more about how these nasty bugs operate, you’re in a better position to know ways to prevent ticks from infesting your dogs.