Fleas
Control
For a free survey and quote please contact us on 01387 209861 or 07766 113673 or via the contact form.
Life Cycle & Disease
Fleas lay hundreds of tiny white oval-shaped eggs every few days. The larva is small, pale, has bristles covering its worm-like body, lacks eyes, and has mouth parts adapted to chewing. The larvae feed on various organic matter, especially the faeces of mature fleas. The adult flea’s diet consists solely of fresh blood. In the pupal phase, the larva is enclosed in a silken, debris-covered cocoon.
Besides the problems posed by the creature itself, fleas can also act as a vector for disease. Fleas transmit not only a variety of viral and bacterial diseases to humans and other animals; the most well-known being bubonic plague and myxomatosis.
Fleas are the insects forming the order Siphonaptera. There are 1000+ species, the majority of which are parasitic to one animal species only; the majority of flea bites on humans are caused by the cat flea (Ctenocephalides felis). They are wingless, with mouth parts adapted for piercing skin and sucking blood. Fleas are external parasites, living by hematophagy off the blood of mammals and birds.
Fleas are wingless insects (1/16 to 1/8-inch (1.5 to 3.3 mm) long) that are agile, usually dark coloured (for example, the reddish-brown of the cat flea), with tube-like mouth-parts adapted to feeding on the blood of their hosts. A flea can jump vertically up to 7 inches (18 cm) and horizontally up to 13 inches (33 cm). This is around 1200 to 2200 times their own body length, making the flea one of the best jumpers of all known animals
Their tough body is able to withstand great pressure, likely an adaptation to survive attempts to eliminate them by mashing or scratching. Even hard squeezing between the fingers is normally insufficient to kill a flea.