Beyond Chemicals: Exploring Greener Options for Tick Control

Abstract

Ticks are obligate haematophagous ectoparasites that feed on a variety of vertebrate host animals. They transmit a wide range of disease-causing organisms and are of great medical and veterinary importance. Several characteristics of ticks confer them outstanding attributes to serve as vectors of pathogenic agents, viz., the wide host range and tendency to feed on several hosts during life cycle ensures ample opportunity to acquire and transmit pathogens, hardiness and longevity enable them to survive long periods in unfavourable environmental conditions, high reproductive potential ensuring maintenance of large populations and a high frequency of host-vector contact. Conventional methods for tick control are based on the use of acaricides and insect growth regulators. The continuous emergence of ticks and tick-borne diseases (TTBs) and acaricide resistance of ticks necessitated the development of new and