Sanitation of Pet Bedding As a Management Tactic for Indoor Brown Dog Tick Infestations

Brown dog ticks, Rhipicephalus sanguineus, spend the majority of time off the host. Within a home of a kennel environment ticks are highly likely to be present on or within bedding materials. Improved sanitation is one way to suppress populations of brown dog ticks and this includes extermination of ticks in these refuges. This study aimed to determine the necessary precautions needed to ensure 100% mortality of ticks within laundry. An initial experiment tested the impact of exposure to hot water on adult tick survival and found that at a temperature of 55°C no ticks survived. Subsequent experiments evaluated the use of conventional washing and drying machines. When using a washing machine it is necessary to wash laundry containing adult or nymphal ticks on the hot setting (45°C) in order to achieve 100% mortality in the tick sample. Several different detergents were examined for effect on tick survival. However, the results were unchanged. When using a conventional dryer even the minimum time of 10 minutes on a regular heat setting caused 100% mortality in the ticks. Sanitation is an important part of integrated pest management and the knowledge gained by this study will ensure that the technique is successful for brown dog tick control.