Tick Infestation
What Is Tick Infestation?
Tick infestation is a term used to refer to a heavy concentration of the arachnids, either in nature or on an animal. Dogs and cats are highly susceptible to tick infestation, as their fur offers great cover and dense protection. There are many tips, tools, and chemicals which have been devised to counter tick infestation, but the most important thing that you can do is to be aware and educated. Some ticks are harmless, such as the common brown dog tick, and are little other than pesky and gross to look at. Others, however, such as the deer tick, are nearly impossible to detect. A tick infestation of this type could be fatal to your dog, and anyone who comes into contact with him.
Tick infestation occurs most often during the spring and early summer seasons, when feeding and reproductive drives are the strongest for the ticks. Opportunistic and often undetectable, the tick will wait silently on a stalk of field grass, in a shrub or bush, or on the trunk of a tree, in wait for his next free ride. Mammals and birds are the most desirable hosts, and the tick will almost immediately grip into the flesh for security and feeding. These specialized mouth parts give him a phenomenal grip and instant access to your blood. The female will engorge herself, deposit her eggs, and fall off of the host animal. The male of the species doesn’t stay as long, but engorges until he falls and dies as well.
The larvae of the ticks will continue to feed on the readily available blood source until they reach the nymph stage. This stage is possibly the most dangerous form of tick infestation, as the deer tick nymph is responsible for over 70% of the Lyme Disease cases in North America per year. The nymph will become an adult tick soon enough, and the cycle of infestation will begin again, only this time with much greater force and numbers. As the tick has a life span of approximately 2 months, your animal need only go untreated for four months in order to be completely infested with up to 5,000 ticks. Not good. Not good at all.
If you have noticed tick infestation in your yard, you may want to consider a few tips to reduce the issue. Firstly, you will need to spread a strong pesticide over the area before you attempt to go in and cut back the overgrown foliage. You don’t want to give these little devils any excuses to attack you. Once the pesticide has settled in and done its job, you will want to dress up like a tightly wound mummy and ravage the overgrowth before any more ticks get the brilliant idea to settle there.