Fleas

Fleas are parasitic insects that feed on the blood of their host. They have been in existence for 100 million years and are believed to have fed on dinosaurs. Of the 2,000 known flea species in the United States, the most common is the cat flea. Though its name implies otherwise, the cat flea can also be found on humans and other animals including dogs, raccoons, ferrets, skunks, and birds.

More About Fleas

Fleas can be hard to spot, and they reproduce rapidly. A single female can produce more than 2,000 eggs in the span of 50 days! Pets can bring fleas into your home, resulting in a high degree of discomfort and potential danger to animal and human hosts. Not only are their bites uncomfortable, but fleas can spread disease, including the deadly bubonic plague.

What Do Fleas Look Like?

Fleas are dark, reddish-brown insects that grow up to 1/6” which is about the size of a sesame seed. Their bodies are flat and consist of a head, thorax, abdomen, six legs, two eyes, and two short antennae. The flea’s body is covered with hard protective scales called sclerites and tiny hairs that help them attach to their host. The mouth of a flea consists of three mouthparts — two laciniae, an epipharynx, and the labium — used to pierce the host’s skin and suck its blood. The flea’s back legs are longer than the front, which enables them to run quickly and jump up to 13 inches horizontally and 7 inches vertically!

The flea’s life cycle has four stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. A couple of days after mating, the female adult lays 40-50 eggs on the body of her host. Because the eggs have nothing to adhere them to the host, they typically fall off and continue their development where they land. Within a week, the eggs hatch into larvae and, after another week, the larvae spin cocoons to become pupae. After another couple of weeks, the pupae develop into adults. Each stage of the cycle can move more slowly or quickly depending on environmental conditions. This flexible life cycle can take as little as two weeks and as long as two years for a flea to become an adult.

New adult fleas must have a blood meal within a week or they die. Generally, a flea usually lives between two and three months. However, fleas are capable of surviving a few months between meals if they don’t expend energy. A female flea can lay 2,000 eggs over the course of her short lifetime, quickly causing a serious infestation on their host and the areas it frequents.