Pests suck. Some pests literally so. They are an eyesore, they cause unpleasant conditions for you and your herd, and they can cost you money.

As the weather begins to cool and the hair coats on cattle get longer, the lice that have been dormant on carrier animals through the summer begin to reproduce.

The mysterious foothill abortion disease in cattle was first seen in the foothill regions of coastal and central California – and recognized in the 1940s as different from brucellosis. It also occurs in southern Oregon and Nevada.

Cattlemen, Texas Animal Health Commission (TAHC) and USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) are waging a constant battle to keep the fever tick contained in counties along the border to Mexico.

The adage “out of sight, out of mind” may avoid a few of life’s problems, but internal parasites are not one of them. It’s common knowledge there are countless microscopic predators lurking in the cattle environment.

The economic impact of cattle fever ticks, including the southern cattle fever tick, Rhipicephalus (Boophilus) microplus, was so severe in the late 1800s that the USDA started an eradication program in the early 1900s to eliminate the deadly disease bovine babesiosis, which is transmitted by this parasitic pest.