Sheep Ticks

The threat posed by sheep ticks Ixodes ricinus is through their capacity to transmit diseases that affect humans, birds and animals.



The principal human disease is Lyme disease and this can cause severe disability or even death.  In animals, the range of diseases includes redwater in cattle, and tick borne fever, tick pyaemia and louping ill in sheep.  Louping ill is of particular interest as it involves a cycle affecting grouse and sheep, and thus can severely reduce the economic earning capacity of moorland.



Domestic stock can be used to kill ticks effectively.  If sheep are dosed with a pour-on acaricide (principally Dysect, Crovect or Spot-on) any tick biting the sheep will be killed.

One of the problems of tick control is that ticks do not respect man-made boundaries and neighbours need to be involved in any tick control work.  Ticks are moved around an area on wild hosts, which also cross boundaries, and a coordinated approach is the only way to tackle the problem.



Habitat management has an important part to play in tick control by reducing the amount of deep litter available (for example, bracken beds) which provides ideal breeding conditions for ticks.



A Members Briefing is in preparation that will be published in February 2013.

​Snaring in Scotland

The Wildlife & Natural Environment (Scotland) Act 2011 now requires all Scottish snares to be "tagged" with a unique ID number issued by the local police force in order to identify the snare's operator. After some initial confusion, it has now emerged that applications for snaring ID numbers must be submitted in person at your local police constabulary HQ. Snaring Forms are available to download and must be submitted with either a passport or photocard driving licence, as well as a recent passport photograph and a cheque for £20.

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Your local police constabulary will process the form and pass it on to Strathclyde Police HQ at Pitt Street in Glasgow, who in turn will forward an ID number by post. Waiting times for ID numbers are still unknown and may take as long as two weeks.

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All snares set in Scotland must have an ID number and a letter indicating which species is being targetted (ie "F" for fox, "BH" for brown hare and "R" for rabbit) by the 1st April 2013.

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There is no recommended format for the tags, but they must be easily legible and securely fastened to the snare. Some suppliers are now producing hard plastic tags which can be attached to the snare with a cable tie, while others offer stamped aluminium tags which can be threaded on to the tail of the snare.​

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