Pasture Improvement and the Control of Sheep Tick (Ixodes Ricinus L.)

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Abstract
The sheep tick is confined almost entirely to rough, poor hill and moorland pastures. Agricultural improvement of these pastures involves (among other things) reduction in the depth of the vegetation layer and partial or complete destruction of the moisture‐holding underlying ‘mat’ of decaying vegetable matter. Assessment of the tick populations on improved and on comparable control areas showed a reduction in tick population following upon pasture improvement. But a fairly considerable degree of improvement is required to bring about a satisfactory reduction. Ticks were not completely extirpated even by ploughing. It is probable that pasture improvement affects tick population mainly by reducing cover and thus the humidity.Unfortunately, effective pasture improvement is not economic on hill and moorland grazings in general. Such improvement as is practicable could only be a supplement to other control measures.Since the sheep flock supports almost all the female ticks on a pasture, control is most likely to follow from the development of an efficient acaricidal sheep dip.
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