What do dog fleas look like?
Dog fleas are very small - the body length is about 2-4 mm, the chitinous cover has a large number of bristles, allowing the insect to be firmly held and quickly move in the dog's fur. Fleas jump very far, they can jump to a distance that is 3 times greater than their visibility zone, up to about 18 cm. We can say that fleas themselves do not know where they are jumping.
Dog fleas are very hardy - they can easily tolerate sudden changes in temperature and humidity, quickly get used to the action of chemicals and develop resistance to popular insecticides.
The mouthparts of a dog flea are best adapted to the skin of dogs, but if there is a lack of food, the flea is quite capable of biting a cat or person. If unfavorable times come for fleas, such as a sharp drop in temperature, they can hibernate for up to several months, after which they will begin to look for food again.
Can fleas from dogs spread to people?
Many dog lovers are interested in the question of whether it is possible to fearlessly contact their pets without becoming infected with fleas and the diseases they carry. Stroking a street dog once will not transmit parasites to you, but it will easily transmit germs! And if your pet dog begins to itch after a walk, then you need to take action as quickly as possible. If there are a lot of fleas, they will begin to spread and may even bite your legs. The blood of animals is the main food of fleas; it is easy for them to hide in their fur, and weak hair will not allow dog fleas to settle on a person and lay eggs. So don’t worry, fleas won’t be able to live on you!
But in what cases can dog fleas bite people? They attack humans only when they need to satisfy their hunger. The favorite habitat of fleas is the bedding of dogs and cats, garbage - near these places there is a high probability of being bitten by fleas. For example, you took your dog to the country, and some fleas remained on its blanket. In this case, they can attack any living creature in the apartment in order to survive and continue to reproduce.
In addition to dog fleas, humans are often plagued by cat fleas. Outwardly, these insects resemble particles of dirt, and only when the fleas begin to jump can their presence be noticed. Female cat fleas do not lay eggs in the cat's fur - for these purposes, fleas shave targets in the floor, upholstery of upholstered furniture, and carpets.
Cat fleas can parasitize cats, dogs, horses, and humans, and therefore are capable of transmitting diseases. Fleas from cats are much more likely to cause discomfort to humans than cats.
Important: To prevent fleas from appearing on your dog or cat, you should check their fur regularly. If parasites were found as a result of the check, you should bathe your pet with shampoo, treat its bedding with a special product (spray, gel, shampoo), and then put a flea collar on the dog. Don't worry, you won't be harmed by the inspection: if fleas are detected, they will try to hide and not bite you.
Treating the premises where the animal lives
If a dog has fleas, it is necessary to treat the apartment where it lives and its sleeping place. If only the animal is treated, the insects may return when the drug wears off.
Apartment processing
The room is processed in the following ways:
- Chemical. These are solutions, powders and sprays containing insecticides - fipronil, permethrin, organophosphorus compounds. Solutions are used to treat surfaces, powders are poured where fleas can live - in all corners, in furniture, under window sills and baseboards. Aerosols have a faster effect, but only with direct contact with parasites. The most effective products are Phenaxin powder, Karbofos concentrate, Raid and Raptor sprays.
- Mechanical. Insects die if all the doors and windows in the house are opened for several hours in frosty winter. But in this case, damage to engineering communications may occur. If it is precisely established where the fleas live, it is recommended to scald the area with boiling water.
- Professional. In this case, they call specialists who treat the room with cold or hot fog. The smallest drops of insecticidal solution can penetrate into the most inaccessible places, destroying all insects.
- Folk. To get rid of parasites, use pine sawdust, kerosene, wormwood, etc. Insects die only after treatment with kerosene; other methods are used as additional ones. Plants are used to prepare decoctions and infusions, then wipe all surfaces in the room with the liquid several times a day.
Dog house treatment
To kill insects in a dog house, you need to burn the litter. To prevent the parasites from returning, tansy or wormwood branches are placed near and inside the booth. Periodically they need to be replaced with fresh ones. They return to the treated apartment when the period specified in the instructions for the drug used has expired.
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How does a dog flea bite a person?
The flea's mouthparts are designed exclusively for feeding on blood. These parasites have a very good sense of smell - fleas identify their prey by the carbon dioxide released during breathing. When a flea comes into contact with the skin of its victim, it immediately begins to bite into the skin and suck blood. Mostly fleas bite a person's legs, but with a large number of bloodsuckers, their target can be the entire human body. Due to the rather short proboscis, the flea sometimes has to plunge into the wound along with its head and part of the body.
Insects of this species are capable of making very strong bites, which after a certain time begin to itch very much. As a result of constant scratching, unsightly spots appear on the skin, which look quite ugly and can develop into a rotting wound if an infection occurs. Therefore, treat the affected area immediately and do not touch it.
The flea does not mask its presence and does not secrete an anesthetic substance during the bite, unlike bedbugs and ticks, which are thus able to parasitize the human body with impunity. During a bite, saliva is injected into the wound, which has a special composition that prevents blood clotting. With this saliva, dangerous bacteria, including those that cause fatal diseases, can enter the human blood. Fleas do not have such a mechanism, but this does not mean that they do not carry diseases.
Having made one bite, the human flea makes another 3-4 bites nearby, after which it leaves the human body.
Appearance of a flea
Animal fleas differ in appearance and way of life - some are constantly on the host’s body, others drop in to drink blood and then jump back to their shelter. All of them are united in the family of common fleas. There are several types of them. A cat flea is significantly different in appearance from a dog, rat or human flea.
Life cycle of fleas
However, it may well feed on the blood of someone other than its owner, not disdaining to dine on the body of any warm-blooded mammal. This type of flea is so tenacious that, if it gets onto the body of a rat, for example, the “natives” completely survive. It’s not easy to notice a flea among your pet’s fur; insects are most visible on light-colored fur. The parasites are small in size, barely reaching half a centimeter in length. Although an adult female carrying eggs may well be up to one and a half centimeters!
If you look at an insect under a microscope, you can see that it is far from just a dark dot. The laterally compressed body is narrow and very smooth, although it has bristles that make it easier for the flea to move and stay in the host’s fur. The head and chest of the parasite are covered with ctenidia - special growths in the form of combs. On the abdomen, in the back, fleas have a special sensory organ, the pygidium. It contains tactile hairs that detect air vibrations. Fleas have a piercing-sucking mouthpart. When piercing the victim's skin, the parasite does not inject an analgesic substance into the wound, so the bite is felt immediately and very painfully. Are fleas from a cat capable of getting to people? Do they bite humans? The method of movement of fleas is crawling or jumping.
Fleas jump using their strong hind legs. If there is no pet nearby, the parasite easily satisfies its hunger with human blood; it is not difficult for the insect to jump on it.
The period of complete development of an individual from egg to adult takes from 10 days. During this time, a worm-like larva develops from small white eggs up to half a millimeter in size. The larva is approximately 5 millimeters in length. After the third molt, an adult cat flea emerges from the pupa.
Why are cat fleas dangerous?
Are cat fleas dangerous for humans? Without a doubt! Although parasites cannot live on the human body, since the skin is very smooth, and a flea simply cannot stay on it for long, they bring a lot of trouble to people.
How dangerous are fleas on a cat?
The bites of cat bloodsuckers are painful, and if the bitten person has a tendency to be allergic to insect saliva, then the consequences can be very dire - from dermatitis to Quincke's edema and even death. Flea bites themselves cause pulicosis and sarcopsillosis - severe types of dermatosis.
Cat fleas are dangerous to humans because they are carriers of several dozen types of diseases!
Among them:
- plague;
- rickettsiosis;
- brucellosis;
- helminthic diseases, etc.
Cats do not carry parasites all the time. Fleas live in their litter and can easily hide in carpets and furniture. Residents of the first floors often suffer from an invasion of parasites in the autumn-spring period, when they climb into the home through cracks in the floor.
Even if the cat does not go outside, and the possibility of infection from other animals is excluded, you yourself can infect it by accidentally bringing in an adult from the street or after contact with another animal.
You can completely destroy cat fleas if you treat not only the animal, but also the apartment with insecticides (permitrin, spinosad). By the way, a treated cat is the best weapon against bloodsuckers that pester you from the same basements. If you apply a long-acting drug to your pet, in search of food, fleas move to it and die, also not being able to reproduce.
Conclusion
If your furry pet is restless, often scratches itself and chews something out of its fur, check whether the cat may have fleas. Is the proximity of these parasites dangerous for people? Despite the fact that the human body is not adapted for cat fleas to live on it, and the blood is not suitable for reproduction, insects may well become a source of dangerous infection and cause skin diseases.
That is why the fight against fleas should begin immediately after detection, and the prevention of the appearance of bloodsuckers - from the moment a cat settles in your house.
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What consequences can dog flea bites cause?
If a dog has any parasites, the risk of their carriers being transferred through fleas to the human body increases. You don’t have to have pets to bring fleas into your home—prolonged physical contact with a stray dog can have the most negative consequences.
The degree of danger of dog fleas to humans depends on many factors, so possible harm can be expressed in the following:
- the occurrence of an allergy in a person to the saliva of a bloodsucker - itching, dermatitis appears, chronic skin diseases worsen, body temperature rises, respiratory and intestinal disorders worsen;
- brucellosis develops, which can lead to damage to internal organs;
- from the previous “carrier” a person can get endoparasites – worms, tapeworms, and other types of parasites;
- A flea bite can cause many dangerous diseases: encephalitis, ulcers, typhus, plague. This happens extremely rarely.
Preventing fleas
To remove dog fleas from an apartment, disinfestation should be carried out in parallel with the treatment of pets.
Some immatures may live anywhere in the house. Animals need to be kept clean, dog shampoos should be used regularly, and flea drops, anti-flea collars, and sprays should be used periodically. Folk remedies - vinegar baths, baths with essential oils - will be useful. The following measures will help as general preventive measures:
- regular cleaning of the house - dry and wet;
- change of bed linen - at least once every 10 days;
- checking the condition of basements, garages, cellars for the presence of fleas;
- plants with a tart smell such as wormwood and geranium will scare bloodsuckers away from your home.
How to detect the presence of fleas in the house?
If you begin to notice itching on your legs, especially at night, then there is a high probability of fleas in your apartment. Detecting them is quite difficult, but there is a special detection method:
- determine which room the fleas have settled in;
- lay several sheets of white paper or a white sheet on the floor;
- leave the room for a few minutes, then check the white canvas - if black dots appear on it, which disappear when approached, these are fleas.
