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A Little Bit About Fleas
18 September 2009
Fleas
Fleas are wingless but have 6 legs which are well adapted to jumping.
Even on heavily infested animals it can be very difficult to spot a flea so it is best to check this by looking for flea dirt. This can done by combing the dog / cat over a damp tissue. As the flea dirt is made up of dried blood, it soon dissolves and leaves red marks on the tissue.
The cat flea will infest dogs and man where as a dog flea will only normally stay on a dog. The hedgehog flea will infest both cats and dog
The egg of the flea can be laid on the host or in dust or debris. The eggs are not sticky so once they have been laid they will be scatterd all over the environment. Even if a dog is kept in one room you can imagine how far the eggs are scatterd when the dog shakes itself. The egg will hatch over a period of days (usually 2 – 16) into a larvae which look like very tiny maggots, they feed on skin,flea dirt and other organic debris found in carpets, dust etc but more importantly the eggs of the tapeworm. Depending on temperature the larvae will pupate (1 to 2 weeks). The pupal period will last between 2 weeks and several months. They hatch when the time is right for them such as when an animal walks past – vaccuming, vibration and seasonal temperatures can cause them to hatch.
Once hatched the flea will jump onto its target animal where it will live quite happily off the animals blood. It will lay upto 50 eggs per day which are scatterd wherever the animal roams. When the flea bites its target animal, it releases a chemical which prevents the blood from clotting, the flea can then have a feast on the blood. Some animals are alergic to this chemical and can come out in rashes, the spots can then get infected by bacteria. Animals can soon go out of condition when they are infested with fleas, and cats in particular tend to groom a lot more thus resulting in a thinner coat. Fleas carry lots of diseases including myxomatosis of Rabbits. They are also the intermediate host for the tapeworm (this happens when larvae are eating debris out of the carpet and tape worm eggs are ingested)
Control
It is very important that not only the animal is treated but also the environment. Their are various ways of dealing with the problem. We know that once the eggs hatch, the larvae migrate to dark areas where they will pupate, once they are in the pupal stage they become virtually impossible to kill. When dealing with the flea infestation the first thing to do is to vaccum and then wash all of the bedding. It is worth giving the whole room a good vaccum particularly around the edges as this will stimulate any pupae into hatching. Then the edge areas need to be sprayed with an insectacide (houshold flea spray) preferably containing an IGR (insect growth regulator) this will kill any living larvae and any that are missed will ingest the IGR making them usless to mature. Bob Martin produce a liquid wich will stick to any pupae preventing them from hatching. The carpet and bedding can be dusted with a carpet shake n vac product (Rug Patrol) Which is best left down for a couple of hours., before being vaccumed. We then need to treat the animal, there are various spot on treatments which can either kill the flea or break its life cycle. Spot on treatments need to be continuous to mprevent further infestations. It is not unusual to see a flea a couple of days/weeks after the house has been treated as these will be pupae that have been lying waiting to hatch – However as soon as they feed on the cat they will either die or there larvae will not mature (due to the IGR). For immediate results using an IGR you can give the animal a tablet which will kill all the fleas on the animal (these tablets are only effective for 24 hours) and then 24 hours later you can apply the spot on IGR
Most importantly the animal must be treated for Tape Worms after any flea infestation as Fleas are the host for this parasite.
There are various products what you can feed the cat, which will make the cat unpalatable namely garlic tablets and protect um
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