Photo credit: Denni ScnappPosted on 02/10/2017 4:25:17 AM PST by imardmd1
Photo credit: Denni Scnapp
FleaScience
Summary
Cat fleas can survive and reproduce on a diet of human blood alone. However, in normal settings they don’t live or breed on humans. Females must feed freely for many hours to be able reproduce on humans. This doesn’t happen outside of laboratories.
Survival
Cat fleas can survive solely on a diet of human blood. They’re capable of living for 139 to 185 days if fed on human arms for 15 minutes each day.2 10 minute feeding intervals can keep females alive for up to 30 days, and males for 17 days.1 In a recent study, fleas had continuous access to human blood for 12 days in an artificial setting. A significant number of fleas survived, especially when dog hair was added to their cages.
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Reproduction
Fleas can produce eggs on human blood if they’re allowed to feed freely. They can’t reproduce when the feeding duration is limited to 10 or 15 minutes.12 Dog fleas, a related species, only produce viable eggs after 12 hours of freely feeding on man.2 Cat fleas can lay viable eggs after 3 days of free access to human blood through an artificial membrane.3
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Fleas & Humans in Natural Settings
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Fleas are well-adapted for living on furry hosts, not hairless humans. They have a difficult time to attaching to people and remaining undetected. Oftentimes fleas are seen and killed before they can feed.
(Twelve references, from 1914 to 2009; lots of comments)
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(Excerpt) Read more at fleascience.com ...
And we definitely need that headed into the week end
The democrats have been surviving on it for decades .
Human fleas are called liberals.
Good site for all pet owners
Learned long ago once the life cycle of this tiny scourge is know they are easy to control.
Especially the part about the pupa emerging up to 5 months after merging from the egg.
No wonder there a pain to get rid of.
A few years back, we discovered something called a “flea trap”.
It’s box shaped, has a small 3W light bulb in it as a source of heat; it has open sides and the bottom is a tray with a flea pheromone spiked sheet of very sticky flypaper.
Anytime our cats came home with fleas, we’d treat them with the neck drops, but then we’d put the trap in the center of a room and count the fleas that sought it out. One trap can strip a typical room of fleas overnight (we’d see a hundred or more fleas stuck in the stickum.) It’s not unusual to collect 20 or 30 fleas in a single hour.
Google search for a product called Flea Stopper.It gets sprinkled on your carpet and it breaks the life cycle of cat and dog fleas.
LOL. Welcome to FreeRepublic.
Thank you for that.
As one who provides lodging services to many flea guests (courtesy of 2 dogs & a cat), I will try the flea trap upon the next infestation. Bout drove us crazy last year.
Be wary of the very cheap ones, you get what you pay for. I’ve yet to see any of the effective flea traps in retail stores, I’ve only found them online. Some people make their own, apparently effective. The old-fashioned solution was to put a bowl of soapy water on the floor beneath a standard night light, the soap bubbles trap them, no sticky paper necessary. This doesn’t work very well with pets present in the room, they’ll try to drink it or knock it over.
Thank you. The biggest flea problem we have...our dogs have allergic reactions to flea bites. They chew/lick themselves silly. If we don’t get on top of the infestation immediately, the subsequent vet trips and meds will cost a LOT more than several quality flea traps. I will gladly add them to our arsenal.
And, then there’s the cat climbing up on me and nuzzling my face while I’m on the couch...and fleas springing off her into my mustache. Shivers.
Fleas. New speak for Muslims?
Food grade diatomaceous earth helps, too, but there’s dust from it. Have you tried that? Nontoxic, generally effective but a little messy.
Our house once got an infestation of fleas. I would be sitting next to my wife, both of us in shorts, with our legs touching and a flea would crawl between our legs and bite me and never bother her. Took several bug bombings to get rid of them.
Good morning.
“Nontoxic, generally effective but a little messy.”
Imho, very messy. We use it to, and it is effective. Cuts their little legs off.
5.56mm
An interesting change of puce too!
I’ve read about diatomaceous earth, but haven’t tried it yet. It sounds effective, but like you said...a little messy.
The biggest worry we had...the vet said our dogs may be allergic to dust! If freezing temps didn’t ultimately knock out the fleas, we would need to consider dust. Luckily, the fleas left after a few freezes. And the dogs stopped chewing/licking.
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