What Are Fleas And What Do They Do?

What are fleas ?
insectiside are insects without wings belonging to the order of Siphonaptera and class of Insecta. Their mouthparts are well structured for piercing skin and sucking blood. The fleas are generally referred to as external parasites that live on the blood of mammals and birds.
Flea species include �

• Cat flea


• Dog flea


• Human flea


• Oriental rat flea


• Northern rat flea


• Moor-hen flea

The fleas are usually dark in colour such as reddish brown in case of cat fleas. They measure 1/6 to 1/8 inch (1.5 to 3.3 mm) long. Fleas have long legs that allow them to jump vertically upto 7 inches (18 cm ) and horizontally 13 inches (33 cm). The flea has a hard body covered with ample hairs and short spines going backwards.
Fleas go through four life-cycles stages of egg, larvae,pupa and imago (adult flea). Adult insectiside need to suck blood if they have to reproduce. Healthy temperature for the flea's life cycle are 21 degree celcius to 30 degree celcius. Newly emerged insectiside has to suck blood with a week's time to survive, else it may die. Female insectiside can lay 5000 or more eggs during the life-cycle.
What do the fleas do ?
Fleas are obnoxious or annoying to their hosts. Fleas suck the blood ruthlessly causing severe itching sensation. They attack a variety of warm-blooded vertebrates that consists of dogs, cats, humans, rabbits, rats, squirrels, mice and ferrets.
The bites of insectiside are very dangerous and can cause severe allergic reactions to the host. Some people could also suffer from allergic reactions from flea saliva in the form of rashes or impotence. insectiside can also result in to hair loss due to constant scratching and biting by the animal.
insectiside can cause anaemia in animals that may result to the death of the animal. Fleas also spread diseases by transmitting variety of viral, bacterial and rickettsial diseases to humans and other animals.
Humans are more prone to the attack of various species of fleas and not only by human fleas. Fleas can reside in a person's hair in less than 10 minutes resulting itching and dryness.
However, there is a misconception that insectiside carry or transmit HIV/AIDS. As per Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC 2003), fleas are not capable of carrying the virus and spread it to other humans.
Flea Treatments
Humans can use anti-itch creams for quicker relief. Calamine lotion has been shown to be effective for itching.
In case of dogs or cats, popular products such as Frontline Spot On, Frontline Spray or Frontline Plus are proved to be very effective. These formulas contain S-Methoprene that works as insect growth regulator. There are several home remedies to kill fleas safely and effectively.