Fleas
Flea Species fleas10 There are around three thousand known flea species throughout the world although the predominate flea in modern homes is the cat flea. The cat flea is responsible for around 70% of all flea complaints.
Description
Fleas belong to the order Siphonaptera. They vary in size from 1 mm, such as the rabbit flea to the mole flea that can be up to 8 mm long.
Fleas can vary in colour from light brown to nearly black, although most that are encountered are reddish brown. they are flattened from side to side in appearance, allowing them to move dog more easily through hair and fur, and have back facing bristles. They have muscular limbs adapted for jumping and can cover up to 135 times their own length in a single jump. They can also jump 10,000 times in succession in an effort to latch onto a suitable host. Fleas have no wings, reduced or no eyes and piercing mouth parts.
Adult fleas live on warm blooded animals and although they show host preference they will feed on other sources in the absence of their normal host.
Life Cycle
Adult fleas feed on blood and after every feed, the female lays 4 - 8 eggs in the fur or feathers of its host or more usually its nest or bedding. Cats bedding may support a flea population of 8000 pre - adult and 2000 adult fleas.
A single female is capable of producing up to 1000 eggs in her life span. The eggs hatch after about a week and the leg less, white thread like larvae feed on organic waste including undigested blood and excreta left by the adults. The larvae are about 1.5 mm long at this stage and identified by their eye less, brown head, biting jaws, 3 segmented thorax and 10 segmented abdomen covered bristles, with peg like protrusions on the final segment.
The larvae become grey in colour as they grow and after about 2 - 3 weeks, having moulted twice, reach a length of 5 mm. At this stage they begin to spin silken cacoons in which they pupate.
3 days later the cacooned larvae moult to reveal a creamy - white pupa, these turn brown as they mature to become adults and are capable of remaining dormant for 8 months, until stimulated to emerge for a feed.
It is known that fleas breed close to their hosts in dust, sweepings, dirt, cracks and crevices and general rubbish.
The whole cycle from egg to adult takes about a month in summer months, much longer at lower temperatures.
Nuisance Factor
Fleas will go unnoticed until, towards August and September, either people are bitten or pets begin to suffer. When hungry, fleas will jump onto people, (not their preferred host) feed on a little blood, then leap off again and await a more suitable host. Bite to humans can cause intense reddened irritation around a central red spot which can last for up to 2 days. First bites are not usually responsible for serious reactions although subsequent ones mat lead to hypersensitivity among some people for a few days.
It is thought that upto 50% of skin disease suffered by cats and dogs are caused by allergic reaction to flea bites which attack all pets at some time or the other in their life.
Fleas Are capable of spreading serious disease. The most critical of these being the infectious Bubonic Plague, transmitted to man by the rodent flea that carries the causative bacillus from the infected rats. The flea is also responsible for carrying murine typhus.