Ticks climb up grass and plants and hold up their legs "sensing" for prey. They are attracted to hosts by detecting carbon dioxide and heat with sensors on their first pair of legs. They do not jump; they simply crawl aboard, insert their mouths into their prey and engorge themselves with blood. Their saliva gets into the host's body and blood stream, infecting the host with the Borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme disease).
Male and females mate while attached to the host. A few weeks later the engorged female detaches and lays 1000-8000 egs on a leaf. A tick lives one year before dying. The six-legged larvae live and feed on mice, deer, squirrels, livestock and anyone entering their habitat before molting and becoming 8-legged nymphs.
Pyrethrum is an African plant (Chrysanthemum cinerariaefolium, Family Asteraceae). It is important as a source of insecticide. The flowers are pulverized and the active component (pyrethrin) extracted. Pyrethrins attack the nervous system of all insects and inhibit female mosquitoes from biting. They are harmful to fish but less toxic to mammals and birds than synthetic insecticides; being biodegradable they break down easily on exposure to light but they are considered among the safest insecticides for use around food. Permethrin is a synthetic insecticide based on natrual pyrethrum that enhances toxicity to insects and speeds the effects when compared to pyrethrins used alone. Raid is a popular insecticide made of pyrethrins.
Kenya produced 90% of the world's pyrethrum in 1998; production from Tasmania is increasing.
<small>[ 05-26-2005, 12:26 AM: Message edited by: Serenity ]</small>
