As a young boy, Saturday was Cattle Dip day. It was the day we woke up very early to take our Zebu-like cows to the communally constructed and managed cattle dip. The dogs provided extra security and rearing of the cows and would also be forced to take a bath in the cattledip.
The cattledip trip was to eradicate the ticks that bugged our milk-producing, blood-giving and meat-issuing mammals. It was a very essential weekly exercise as failure to do so would mean that the cows would be malnourished, hides damaged and worse still this Athropoda was a carrier of notorious cow diseases that would lead to huge losses to us.
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Ticks are external parasites that live on the blood of the ir host, in this case it was our much depended-on cows.
Over a period of days, they would get engorged with blood to almost bursting from taking too much blood. The idea is to overfeed since they do not know when the next host will be available. A small scratch on the tick will give a gush of blood. After a while they drop from the host after getting full to mate and fill the earth by laying eggs. They then stealthily stalk a potential host in preparation for another blood fest.
These are merciless parasites that can suck a cow's blood to death, thus the importance of a weekly cattledip bath. Their favourite spots are around the neck of the cow and other fleshy areas. I guess they fight each other for these spots. Others are so notorious, they go for the lining of the eyes and inside the ears. They are shameless, unforgiving and a death squad to other living creatures.
They have no interest in survival of the host or whether the hosts eats or not, whether the host is sick and needs attention, whether the host needs greener pastures, whether the hosts needs any changes or reforms to better its lives or whether the cake the host eats is preserved or should be baked larger for all.
Their sole selfish interest is to suck and suck and suck until not even air comes out. They then drop and look for a fattened tick to mate and have a coalition with as they murderously lie in wait for another host to plug their filthy needlelike sharp mouths to spread the tribal agenda.
In case the ticks find that their host is no longer giving quality blood or is dead from their blood sucking adventures, they just drop off, go through a round of more mating and coalition building as they hide in the security of the long grass, living on their enlarged, engorged bellies waiting for the host to revive or for a new host.
In short these are the operating rules of a tick:
The cattledip trip was to eradicate the ticks that bugged our milk-producing, blood-giving and meat-issuing mammals. It was a very essential weekly exercise as failure to do so would mean that the cows would be malnourished, hides damaged and worse still this Athropoda was a carrier of notorious cow diseases that would lead to huge losses to us.
.jpg)
Ticks are external parasites that live on the blood of the ir host, in this case it was our much depended-on cows.Over a period of days, they would get engorged with blood to almost bursting from taking too much blood. The idea is to overfeed since they do not know when the next host will be available. A small scratch on the tick will give a gush of blood. After a while they drop from the host after getting full to mate and fill the earth by laying eggs. They then stealthily stalk a potential host in preparation for another blood fest.
These are merciless parasites that can suck a cow's blood to death, thus the importance of a weekly cattledip bath. Their favourite spots are around the neck of the cow and other fleshy areas. I guess they fight each other for these spots. Others are so notorious, they go for the lining of the eyes and inside the ears. They are shameless, unforgiving and a death squad to other living creatures.
They have no interest in survival of the host or whether the hosts eats or not, whether the host is sick and needs attention, whether the host needs greener pastures, whether the hosts needs any changes or reforms to better its lives or whether the cake the host eats is preserved or should be baked larger for all.
Their sole selfish interest is to suck and suck and suck until not even air comes out. They then drop and look for a fattened tick to mate and have a coalition with as they murderously lie in wait for another host to plug their filthy needlelike sharp mouths to spread the tribal agenda.
In case the ticks find that their host is no longer giving quality blood or is dead from their blood sucking adventures, they just drop off, go through a round of more mating and coalition building as they hide in the security of the long grass, living on their enlarged, engorged bellies waiting for the host to revive or for a new host.
In short these are the operating rules of a tick:
- Suck, suck, suck and more sucking
- Blood, blood, blood and more blood as long as it is not our blood
- We dont care, we dont care and we dont care anymore what happens to the host
- Mate, mate, mate and more mating within our species
- Our siblings must also suck, suck, suck and more sucking
- We lie in wait, waiting for the next victim of our blood sucking lifestyles
- Suck, suck, suck and more sucking
It is therefore foolhardy for any cow to assume, think, imagine or believe that a tick can liberate it from hunger, thirst, disease or malnourishment.
It is foolhardy for any cow to assume, think, imagine or believe that any tick will only suck as little blood as possible so that the cow can live longer. Nay, ticks suck as much blood as possible at times to the detriment of their bellies.
It is foolhardy for any cow to assume, think, imagine or believe that any tick will lead it to greener pastures, give it pastureland reforms and the change of environment it direly needs.
It is madness for any cow to trust its life or that of its siblings to any tick. Death and fast death is the ultimate in such an arrangement.
It is suicidal to be led by a host of ticks.
Interestingly, we led the cows and the ticks to the cattledip with the assurance that only the cows will survive the bath. I don't know now, I only hope that our inept government has not incited communities to create cattledips where only the ticks survive or where the cows get out with broken limbs, bruised, poisoned by tick-prescribed insectcides, suffocated or drowned.
Other than the weekly cattledip bath, the other solution was a natural one. As we grazed the cows, there was a certain kind of bird that followed the herd, some kind of tick-pecker, perching on the cows backs and on the neck pecking out the ticks one by one.
Is there such a bird or flights of such birds in Kenya and will they show themselves up in good time to save the cows from these ticks?
lol, spray insecticides in Parliament?
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