Flea Control

Flea Control Melbourne

Interesting fact about fleas is that they do not bite humans! Pet fleas only bite pets – dogs, cats etc. Their mouth parts are not designed to bite/pierce human skin, sure they cause irritation and you start scatching.

Fleas respond to vibration when you enter the room. They only start jumping as they sence a possible target to feed on!

Fleas can only jump 150 – 200 mm and once on you they cannot jump any higher, only crawl higher up your leg. All they can do is jump off and fall to the ground. So most fleas when found on humans are found well below the knee, unless infesting couches chairs, beds etc.

Flea Life Cycle:

There are four stages that make up the life cycle of a flea – egg, larva, pupa and imago or adult.

1. The eggs of a flea are tiny, white and oval-shaped. A female flea can lay up to 600 eggs in her lifetime. They are most often laid on the host in batches of up to 50. The eggs can easily roll off of the host and on to the ground, making the areas where the host sleeps, rests or nests a primary location for eggs and developing fleas. An egg may take from two days to two weeks to hatch.
2. These eggs are commonly found indoors in floor cracks and crevices, along skirtings, under rug edges and in furniture. Outdoors sand and gravel provide very suitable conditions for the development of the larvae, hence the common, but erroneous, name “sand fleas.” Pets bedding especially prone, so clean and air bedding often.
3. The eggs hatch in to small, worm-like larva that are covered in bristles, have no eyes and have mouths that are made for chewing. The larvae feed on organic matter such as the feces of mature fleas, dead skin, hair and feathers.
4. In the pupal stage, the larva is covered in a silky cocoon. Adult fleas emerge from this pupal stage within approximately five to fourteen days or may remain resting in the cocoon until they sense vibration, pressure, heat, noise, or carbon dioxide that signifies that a potential host and blood source is near.
5. Once the pupal develops in to an adult, it must feed on blood before it is capable of reproducing. Overall, the cycle from egg to adult can take from two weeks to eight months. If a flea does not emerge from its cocoon, it can survive for several months without eating however, a newly emerged adult flea will die within a week if it does not obtain blood.

A typical flea population consists of 50% eggs, 35% larvae, 10% pupae and 5% adults with this population developing best under warm, moist conditions. Under ideal conditions, ten female fleas can multiply to over a quarter million fleas of different life stages, in just 30 days!

 DOES YOUR DOG HAVE FLEAS?