Dr. Odede of Sidai Africa is featured in Daily Nation news article. He says that farmers are grappling with the problem of tick control mainly because of poor tick control methods, failure to spray as recommended, partial tick control in the herd and ticks developing resistance to acaricides used over the years.
Many farmers only control the big ticks when they physically notice them on their animals. That means they do not control the pests in the initial stages and the small brown ear ticks, which are not visible without closer examination.
Ticks also hide in areas where most farmers do not check, and in case of large herds, physical examination becomes impossible.
Some farmers also do not spray or dip weekly as recommended. And if they spray, some do not do it correctly, leading to incomplete coverage of the acaricide on the whole body.
Farmers are advised to follow the recommended spraying procedure, which takes 10 to 15 minutes for every animal using a good knapsack sprayer