Flea is the popular name for some of the small wingless insects of the order Siphonaptera (several authorities use the name Aphaniptera since it is older, but names above class rank don’t need to follow the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) rules of priority, so most of taxonomy experts use the most familiar name). Fleas are external parasites, living on hematophagy of mammals and birds. Hematophagy is the habit of certain animals that feed on blood.
Fleas are small and their size can range from 1/16 to 1/8-inch (1.5 to 3.3 mm) long, agile, typically dark colored, that’s why fleas usually live in dark places to cover their existence there. They are wingless insects with cylindrical mouth-parts adapted to feed on the blood of their hosts. Their bodies permit easy movement through the hairs or feathers on the body of their host’s (or in the case of humans, under clothes). Their legs are long, the posterior pair well adapted for jumping. The flea body is hard, smooth, and covered with many hairs and short spines directed backward, which also helps its movements on the host. Its hard body is able to resist great pressure, probably an adaptation to survive scratching. Even hard squeezing between the fingers is generally insufficient to kill the flea; often it is necessary to catch them with some adhesive tape, crush them between the fingernails, roll them between the fingers, or put them in a fire-safe area and burns them with matches or a lighter. They can also be drowned.
Fleas go through three life cycle phases which are known as larva, pupa and imago (adult). The flea life cycle begins when the female lays after feeding. Adult fleas must feed on blood before they can become competent of reproduction. Eggs are laid in batches of up to 20 or so, usually on the host itself, which easily roll into the ground. As such, areas where the host rests become one of the basic habitats of eggs and growing fleas. The eggs take around two days to two weeks to hatch. Flea larvae emerge from the eggs to feed on any available organic material such as dead insects, feces and vegetable matter. It is very disgusting and dirty, isn’t it? Given there is enough supply of food, larvae should pupate and weave a smooth cocoon within 1-2 weeks after the 3 larval stages. After another week or two the adult flea is fully ready to emerge from the cocoon. Once the flea reaches adulthood its primary goal is to find blood because it’s needed in order to reproduce. Adult fleas only have around a week to find food once they emerge, though they can survive two months to a year between meals. They are small but have an amazing population.
There are so many places that can be the fleas host for reproduction at home. Most of the places are pets and household goods such as carpets, sofas, beds etc. Pets bring the fleas into our household. Actually, fleas have a lot of species, but some well known flea species are:
“Cat flea (Ctenocephalides felis), “Dog flea (Ctenocephalides canis), “Human flea (Pulex irritans), “Northern rat flea (Nosopsyllus fasciatus), and “Oriental rat flea (Xenopsylla cheopis)
These are the common fleas which live around our life. On my last post about “What causes carpet fleas?” it mentioned that most of the carpet fleas are caused by pets. Since you now know how fleas grow, our pets as the host bring the fleas inside only to end up in your carpets and the type of carpet fleas will be one of the species above. Why should you need to know what type of carpet fleas they are? If you know what type of carpet fleas they are, you are able to know how they live and their characteristics. There are some different characteristics between them and of cause there are different ways to get them out from your carpet. For example, some fleas can be killed with pesticides only, while some others can not be killed by pesticides. That’s why you need this information in order to find the best way to get carpet fleas out of your carpet.
Next we will talk about the detail type of carpet fleas and what disease the carpet fleas can cause.