Cattle Tick

Cattle Tick 

(Boophilus calcaratus), an arthropod animal of the family Ixodidae. It feeds on the blood of cattle, sheep, horses, and camels. The size of the hungry tick is 2-3 mm, but when the tick is full of blood it is as large as 18 mm. Cattle ticks are prevalent in the USSR in the southern Ukraine, the Caucasus, and Middle Asia. The female deposits eggs in soil cracks under rocks. From the eggs six-legged larvae hatch; these attack an animal, suck its blood, and, moulting, turn into eight-legged nymphs, which then become the adult ticks. The whole cycle of development takes place on the same host animal (as the cattle tick is a single-host tick) and lasts 50 to 60 days. There are two or three generations per year. The cattle tick causes exhaustion in the host animals and transmits piroplasms, which cause the disease of cattle called piroplasmosis. Cattle ticks are controlled by using acaricides to destroy them.