SEASONAL RAMBLINGS
Our regular diarist shares her own tried and tests recipe for fly repellant and turns her attention to ticks. FLY REPELLENT INGREDIENTS 2 tbs surgical spirit 2 tbs vinegar 1 tbs washing up liquid (I use Fairy Liquid) 1 tsp citronella 1 tsp eucalyptus 1 large mug of strong tea Add water to make one litre of liquid Method Stir well as if you making home brew. (Warning: keep away from eyes)
T
he fly repellant method above works for me and uses no harsh chemicals. I apply the mixture using a weed spray bottle with a wand allowing me to reach even the most reluctant alpaca. I find they will stand and enjoy the spray mist; homemade fly repellent can be used on horses, goats, sheep you name it…husbands… kids.
Talking about shows and ticks
Isn’t it great that we have had our first halter show of the year? (See the South Of England Show report.) Everyone was so excited to get back to business, meet up with friends and catch up on the latest gossip. Let’s hope this sets a trend for more shows to come. But we do need to take care and be sensible when mixing with everyone – I don’t know how I will manage without hugging or kissing? Oh well, I suppose I will just have to keep my hands to myself! Last year some people seem to have had a lot of trouble with ticks. The problem increases in spring as they emerge in warmer weather. My shearer, good old Colin Ottery, said he lost count of the ticks he came across when shearing last year. He reckons he could be a rich man if he charged for every tick he squashed. Ticks are commonly found in long grass including meadows and woodland. Often, they will attach themselves to the skin where the fibre is thin, including the areas around the ears and nose, or where the animal is close to the ground,
50 Alpaca #86
including under the belly, lower legs and feet. Alpacas will scratch with their back feet and transfer the ticks to other parts of the body. When ticks attach they gorge on the animals’ blood and as a result double or treble in size. In some animals ticks can transfer diseases, including anaplasmosis, tickborne encephalitis babesiosis, ehrlichiosis and Lyme disease. Lyme disease is a serious infection which can be passed dogs, cats and humans. In Australia there is a big tick problem and some owners use tick collars on their alpacas. In the UK you can get Seresto tick collars for dogs which are water resistant; the collar has a specially designed mechanism which uses a ratchet release system if an animal gets caught up or tangled. The collar works slowly releasing the dosage allowing the active ingredients to spread across the animals’ skin at a controlled and steady rate. It kills fleas and ticks and in turn helps prevent infections carried by them. A fleas’ life cycle lasts from several weeks to a month and may continue much longer in the right conditions. A single flea can lay up to 50 eggs each day. In one month, 10 females could lay 15,000 eggs on your pet; the pet could spread fleas everywhere, if a dog, these would be spread around your home environment. I wonder if they work on alpacas? I am so glad I have just bought in some more hay. We were gagging for rain, not having had a reasonable amount of rain for a month and more; now its rained for the last 24 hours and the cold wind is bitter. But I can’t see any alpacas in the shelters eating their way through the new hay...costly beggars! Time for a break – coffee and biscuits will do nicely.
