Fleas FLeas and More Fleas - Page 1

Integrated Flea Control
by Barb Ogg, PhD, Extension Educator

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Highly magnified view of a cat flea (male).
Jim Kalisch, UNL Department of EntomologyDogs and cats are at risk of getting fleas. In Nebraska, flea infestations usually get started in the summertime, after pets come in contact with infested pets or after they walk in areas where infested animals have spent time. In the U.S., the most common flea species carried by both cats and dogs is the cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis. Compared with other flea species, the cat flea has a very wide host range. Wild animals carrying cat fleas include raccoons, opossum, skunks and foxes.

Sometimes petless families have to deal with fleas after a visit to the pet store or after the kids have played with a neighborhood dog or cat. A flea infestation may result, after a flea infested wild animal, like a raccoon takes up residence in a chimney or crawlspace.

Fleas are small, dark brown insects whose bodies are hardened and compressed from side to side. Fleas do not fly, but have strong hind legs which they use to jump from host to host.

Flea bites are extremely irritating to pets. Large infestations or extreme sensitivity may result in intense itching and weight loss. Fleas have been known to transmit diseases. Fleas on cats and dogs are the intermediate host for Dipylidium caninum, better known as the double-pore tapeworm, which infests dogs, cats and sometimes, humans.

Because fleas do not spend their entire life on their host animal, they are nearly always associated with animals that regularly return to the same nesting sites.

Beginning about 1995, the number of flea infestations decreased, due to the use of effective animal care products that kill adult fleas on the animal. But, extension entomologists and pest control professionals have seen an increased number of flea infestations in the last few years. Experts do not understand the reasons for this increase. Some people believe cat fleas may be developing resistance to the pet-care products, but this has not been verified.

Life Cycle


Highly magnified view of flea larvae
with the tip of a pin.
Barb Ogg, UNL Extension in Lancaster CoIn order to understand all the steps needed to eliminate a flea infestation, it is important to understand the flea life cycle. Adult female and male fleas need a blood meal before mating. The female flea lays 30–50 eggs on the animal each day. She may live 4-25 days. The eggs are not attached to the animal and fall off wherever the animal sleeps or walks. The eggs fall into the carpet, pet bedding or yard.

Indoors, eggs hatch into tiny, light-colored wormlike larvae which live deep among the carpet fibers, in cracks and crevices or pet bedding. Outdoors, flea larvae are most likely found in shady locations, often where animals spend time. Larvae feed on organic matter. After several larval stages, the larva spins a tiny silken cocoon and pupates within it. Adult emergence from the pupa is stimulated by vibration and an increase in carbon dioxide, which indicates a host is present. The newly emerged adult immediately jumps on the host and begins feeding.

The entire life cycle usually takes a month or so; time is dependent on temperature and humidity.

Please Read... We are providing information about flea control to help you, the consumer, be more informed about flea control so you can make more intelligent decisions about products. We recommend you work with a veterinarian before you use flea products on your pet. It is important to read and follow label directions. It is also important to use a product on the animal for which it is labeled. Products which can be used on dogs may not be appropriate for cats.



Flea Con

Flea Control: Organic Beats Toxic! Cheaper Too!
In a nutshell:
1) don't panic!

Fleas are nothing more than a minor nuisance. Panic can lead to poisons for you and profits for the panic mongers.

2) keep a paper thin layer of DE (diatomaceous earth) wherever a vacuum cannot reach

3) vacuum once every three days, tossing a little DE on the floor first

4) if you have a pet:

flea comb every three days (every day if fleas are found)

wash bedding every three days

5) do not use toxic gick!

No flea bombs, no boric acid, no borate powders (and this definitely includes the fleabusters product), no flea collars, no pyrethrins.




Now for the verbose details ...



Don't Panic!
Marcia Larkins, D.V.M., chief of the companion and wildlife drugs branch in the FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine says fleas are "Just a nuisance. They generally cause a lot of itching and scratching. They may also cause some discomfort due to possible allergic flea bite dermatitis."

You're going to be fine. Fleas are nothing more than a minor nuisance.

Yes, they do bite people. Yes, they did help spread disease hundreds of years ago - but they need a source of disease to spread it - and that is, these days, virtually unheard of in North America. I think that horse flies and mosquitoes are about a thousand times more dangerous - mostly because they can go get disease from far away and bring it to you. How freaked out do you get over a mosquito bite? And if you have a flea problem in your house, those fleas can only bring to you disease that is already in your house.

You're going to be fine. Fleas are easy to control cheaply and organically.

I hesitate to mention the plague, but it is a tool that the fear mongers use. And this is, by far, the scariest thing possible with fleas, so let's take a proper look at it.

To get the plague you also need rodents. But not just any rodents, the rodents must have the plague. The fleas must bite the rodents and then bite you. Since fleas don't travel far, and this page is about controlling fleas in your home, you would have to have rodents with the plague in your home. Nearly all plague cases involve rodents living far away from people's homes. Therefore, the odds of you getting the plague from a flea in your home is about one in a skillion jillion. You have a better chance of being elected president and then getting hit by lightning on your first day in office.

From the Center for Disease Control: "human plague in the United States has occurred as mostly scattered cases in rural areas (an average of 10 to 15 persons each year). ... Most human cases in the United States occur in two regions: 1) northern New Mexico, northern Arizona, and southern Colorado; and 2) California, southern Oregon, and far western Nevada." And nearly all of those cases were in undeveloped areas. Usually undeveloped land far from most people. The people that do catch the plague are often researchers studying the rodents.

Since this is the scariest thing that can be thrown at you, do I really need to talk about anything else the fear mongers will try to toss your way in order to scare you into parting with your money?

I wonder how many people die every year from flea poison? I'm having a hard time finding that data, but I did find this anecdotal report: From http://www.prescriptionbeds.com/people_sick.htm "My good friend acquired asthma after prolonged exposure to boric acid. (carpet treatment) Subsequently, she died from an asthma attack. This happened over a period of two years!!!"

If anybody finds good info on sickness/death coming from flea control toxins, please share that informati

 cont'd

I have to say "don't panic" because I have personally witnessed panic. And this panic led to dropping $560 for "natural" toxic gick that came with a "guarantee" to be free of fleas for a year. And yet the fleas remained. And then the panic went way beyond that and everybody moved out of the house.

Panic means profits! It is scary how easily people will panic and then do all sorts of unreasonable things. And there are lots of less than ethical folks out there stirring up the panic so they can make money. Don't be that gullible!

You're going to be fine. With a little knowledge, a little time and about 20 bucks, the fleas will be all gone.

Know your enemy!

Wikipedia has some good info. At the time of this writing, it is pretty accurate and I expect it will become more accurate as time passes.

There are four stages in a flea's life: egg, larva (maggoty-like-thing), pupa (in a cocoon) and adult.

Egg-to-egg life cycle is usually two to four weeks. Under the right conditions this can be a little shorter (12 days), or much longer (8 months).

An average fertile female flea lays about 200 eggs per month and 500 eggs over her entire lifespan. Some folks want to shock you (panic means profits!), so they compound this tidbit of data along with the life cycle information. So, suppose you have a flea worthy of the flea olympics and can lay 500 eggs per month - a real performer! I'll name her Helga. And combine with that the perfect flea nursery so that those eggs can become adults in, say 14 days. So, on day one, Helga has an amazing day and lays 50 eggs! Helga's best performance ever! 14 days later, Helga's bratty kids pop out as adults. Flea sex. Eating. And then each brat squeezes out 50 eggs. Helga is so proud! So, that's 2500 eggs. 14 days after that you have 125,000 eggs! You could then say "a single flea could be responsible for 125,000 eggs in one month!" Sunnuffabitch! Where's my checkbook!

A quick pass at some rational math. Let's say that Helga lays a more realistic 12 eggs. And we will go ahead and assume that half of those will hatch as male fleas. So at the two week point there are 6 females laying 6 more female eggs. So at the end of the month there are 36 females laying 12 eggs each. 432 eggs at the end of the month.

Further, this is assuming a lot of optimal things about the mating, finding food, the optimal egg, larva and pupal environment, the fastest possible egg-to-egg cycle with no consideration for mortality at all of the different stages.

The reality check is that it's a hard life to be a flea. The larva compete for food (their favorite food is flea poop, but they'll eat most forms of organic matter). In a clean house, it can be so difficult to find food, that hardly any larva become pupa. Hot and/or dry conditions can be deadly too. Even under the best conditions, flea mortality is often more than 80%. Assuming that Helga beats the odds and becomes a granny within the one month time frame, then she might have personally laid one female egg that survives to lay more eggs. That one might lay 12 eggs. If helga managed to lay another 12 eggs, you have a total of 24 possibly viable eggs at the end of the month, most of which will probably not make it to adulthood. So when you read outlandish numbers like 125,000, I think you're reading something that is trying to get suckers to part with their money.

For a small, one bedroom filthy house with five filthy cats, and nobody ever does anything about it .... I could see a breeding pair of fleas growing to a family of 20 in two months. Left without intervention, I could imagine a maximum of a thousand adult fleas living there. 50 to 100 per cat, and the rest looking for a host.
 

O NOT USE Pyrethrins/Pyrethrum

This is another edge case poison. Like borates, it is often pushed as "natural" or "least toxic". I discuss it in detail here because, while it is a lot less toxic than other stuff, it is still toxic and if you are considering using it, you should get a grip on just how toxic it is.

From this fantastic document on Pyrethrin/Pyrethrum Toxicity: "Pyrethrins are a common cause of insecticide poisonings. According to a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) survey of poison control centers, they cause more insecticide poisoning incidents than any other class of insecticides except the organophosphates. Symptoms include headaches, dizziness, and difficulty breathing."

DO NOT USE Flea bombs

Think about how they work. They put poison on everything. If you touch a wall and then eat a grape, you just ate poison. Of course the product is labeled to say that you need to clean everything afterward so that you don't poison yourself. Somehow I doubt folks clean everything that the flea bomb can reach. And besides, isn't the whole idea with the flea bomb is the convenience? Just set it off and come back the next day. Cleaning EVERYTHING doesn't sound really convenient.

My reading suggests that for the flea bombs to work, you need to set a new one off once a week for three to six weeks. That's a lot of poison. And even then. some people say that the fleas are still not gone.

DO NOT USE Flea collars

Pretty straight forward. Poison on your pet.

And they stink!

Summary

With hardwood floors, I just toss out a little DE in the nooks and crannys. With carpets, you need to add in some regular vacuuming with some DE mixed in. The light traps help you to make sure you are making good progress. After the fleas are gone, keep a little DE in nooks and crannys and in pet bedding - just as a preventative.

I have great hopes about the dehumidifier and the heat approaches. We'll see what information shows up on these fronts over the next few months/years.

Fleas are nothing more than a minor nuisance and are easily controlled with with some really cheap, safe products and a little patience.

Fleas are nothing more than a minor nuisance

Tell that to the dozens of dogs that I've sat next to as they received their blood transfusions.

If a dog needs a transfusion due to fleas, that is due to an ignorant owner not properly caring for thier dogs. Fleas are very manageable. I am so happy we don't have fleas here in NE Montana.
I still use DM around the house because I absolutely can't stand spiders indoors, if they are outside I will leave them alone, but if any bug comes into my home they are DEAD!

Granted, the owners let things get way out of hand, but I still say fleas are more than just a "nuisance".


I try to stay "natural" (DE, pennyroyal plants, ect) as much as possible, but when it comes down to it, I'd rather use the minimum of "toxins" necessary than allow my dogs to suffer creepy crawlies on their bodies.

Lemon Joy dish soap works wonders to kill fleas and you can wash your dishes with it so its good all around.