Almost every person has experienced a flea bite in their life. Often the wound is very itchy, inflamed and swollen. What you need to know about the bites of these insects:
- What does a flea bite look like?
- How to distinguish a flea bite from the bites of other insects?
- How long does it take for parasite bites to go away?
- What danger do flea bites pose?
- What can I use to eliminate itching and redness?
- What preventive measures are there?
What types of fleas do you encounter at home?
A flea under a microscope
There are many types of these insects. However, dog, cat and rat fleas most often find themselves in our apartments and houses . In addition to them, there are also specialized, human ones. But they are not as common as the ones listed above due to the purposeful maintenance of cleanliness of the body and home by people.
Different types of fleas, as a rule, each prefer to live on their own host. However, they can bite many other animals . It also goes to humans. If the “beloved” owner is not nearby, then insects are able to live comfortably on other victims. For example, on cats you can find a population of fleas, up to 25% represented by human fleas. And vice versa. Thus, these insects will definitely not be left without food.
The human flea is generally cosmopolitan . It can be found not only on all pets, but also on other animals. For example, horses. However, these bloodsuckers do not spend all their time on the host. So, many of them very calmly continue to live in rodent burrows, bird nests and other habitats of animals when they leave their home.
In addition, these parasites with enviable success are able to withstand long-term lack of food - up to 1.5 years! Therefore, it will not be possible to get rid of fleas by temporarily moving to another home in the hope of starving them to death. In this case, only offensive-exterminating tactics will help in the fight against aggressors .
Folk remedies
If these jumping insects have not managed to multiply to large numbers, and there are isolated cases, you can try to cope with them using folk methods. The advantages of such methods include their low cost and harmlessness to people (especially important in homes with small children). If insects have multiplied in large numbers, these control methods will help reduce their population, but they are unlikely to be able to eliminate them completely. This is a huge disadvantage of all safe and inexpensive methods.
Fleas do not like the strong smells of wormwood, mint, citrus, eucalyptus and tansy. Place herbs around the house, wipe the floors with their infusions and oils. Place your pet in the bedding. This method is reliable and simple, but its effect is short-lived. You will have to periodically refresh with fresh infusions as the herbal smell fades. As not only preventive measures, but also as an effective means of expelling parasites, decoctions of wormwood, tansy and eucalyptus are used. In a combination of 2/1/1 parts, the settled mixture is sprayed in areas of expected accumulation. Several of these procedures can replace some radical remedies, such as sprays, which are very popular.
A dry mixture of baking soda and salt is another handy and safe remedy. You need to sprinkle it on furniture, floors and carpets. Leave for a day. Afterwards, thoroughly vacuum and wet clean. The mixture copes with both fleas and their larvae. But this method is very time-consuming. Yes, and it will be difficult to clean up all the soda scattered during processing at one time.
Turpentine and kerosene for treating floors are an excellent remedy for fighting fleas. Add one thing to the water for washing floors (150–200 grams per bucket of water) and a little laundry soap. The “bloodsuckers” will die from this solution within a few minutes. True, after washing the floors with this product, you need to ventilate the room for a long time and wash the floors throughout the house, moving the furniture.
Features of feeding and flea bites
Fleas are surprisingly very voracious insects. They drink much more blood than they can contain . As a result, excess “food” protrudes at the rear end of the body. The question may arise: why such wastefulness? However, here nature has provided for everything.
The younger generation feeds on the waste products of adults. And since flea feces contain a lot of undigested blood, they become a valuable source of nutrients for young animals that are not yet able to provide their own food. So we can say that this is a “waste-free production”. Nothing goes to waste. Having attached itself, one flea can feast for up to 4 hours if it is not disturbed. In this case, all excess blood comes out and prepares food for the larvae.
One flea can bite its victim up to 30 times. The distance between bites is 1-2 centimeters . They look like randomly located clusters of red spots. Most often the legs are attacked (fleas jump up to 50 cm in height). However, pets who like to sleep on your bed can bring these parasites there too. In this case, you can expect the bites to be visible all over the body.
What are the signs of fleas in the house?
What do flea bites look like?
First of all, of course, the bites themselves . Sometimes they resemble an allergic reaction. Especially if there are a lot of them.
Another sign is restless behavior in pets . They begin to itch a lot, lick themselves, and run away from their usual bed (there, as a rule, the concentration of fleas is maximum). Cats often try to climb higher to escape from annoying insects.
The third sign is the presence of the insects themselves. If there is a severe infestation or if you have light-colored floors, fleas may be directly visible. If you look closely. From above they look like small, black, shiny, moving dots . Sometimes you even manage to catch some specimens. If you see such people, immediately sound the alarm. Fleas multiply very quickly and there is no point in delaying their destruction . Either poison yourself or call a disinfection specialist.
Why do fleas bite some and not others?
If you are looking for the answer to the question why fleas only bite me , then it is posed incorrectly. In fact, insects bite everyone, but they are most interested in people with thin skin. In such a person, the blood vessels are in close proximity to the skin. In addition, fleas react acutely to the natural body odor.
People who suffer from allergies to the bites of various types of insects react instantly to fleas. They feel itching, headaches, and discomfort in the chest area. A person may also experience fever, difficulty breathing and migraines.
If a person does not suffer from allergies and has sufficiently thick skin, then flea bites are invisible. People may not even feel them, since miniature parasites will not cause discomfort.
What are the consequences of domestic flea bites?
First, we note that the proximity to these insects is by no means pleasant. At least from a hygienic point of view. Fleas live in dirty places, and their larvae feed on the feces of adults . This alone makes you think about a more careful attitude to sanitary standards in the room.
Another annoying fact is that pet flea bites are quite painful . The fact is that, unlike bedbugs and many other blood-sucking insects, when fleas bite, they do not inject any substances into the victim’s skin that have anesthetic and other effects . Therefore, their bites are often sensitive. Although, of course, everything is individual. There are extremely unresponsive people who do not pay any attention to such insect attacks.
However, the saliva of these parasites causes at least redness at the site of the bite . Often these spots itch and itch for several days. Local swelling appears due to inflammation of the skin area.
But this is not the most dangerous consequence. Some insects transmit dangerous diseases when bitten . Most of them are completely curable with modern medicine. However, they should not be started, since success in treatment largely depends on the stage of the disease at which therapy was started.
What can I use to eliminate itching and redness?
First of all, you need to remember that you should not scratch the bite area so as not to introduce various bacteria there.
To eliminate the unpleasant symptoms of flea bites, you can use folk and pharmacy remedies.
Folk ones include:
- 250 ml of vinegar + 500 ml of water (1 glass of water + 1 teaspoon of soda; 1 glass of water + 1 teaspoon of ammonia). Wipe the bite area with the resulting solutions.
- apply a freshly brewed tea bag for 5 minutes;
- wipe the wound with aloe juice.
These methods are used when there are no medications at hand and when there are a small number of bites.
Pharmacy products include the use of antihistamine gels and ointments - Fenistil-gel, Miramistin, Zayedochka, Sulfur ointment, etc.
Diseases transmitted by flea bites
All types of fleas can be contagious and carry pathogens of various diseases . The most famous of them is the plague. In the Middle Ages, it “mowed down” most of Europe. At the moment, with timely treatment, it is successfully managed. However, in advanced cases the consequences are very sad, even fatal.
Plague stick
Plague is caused by a bacterium called the plague bacillus. Microbes enter the digestive tract of fleas when they suck blood on sick animals. The fact is that in the last hours of an infected creature’s life, plague bacteria enter the bloodstream en masse . If at this moment the fleas drink their blood, then along with the food they receive the causative agents of the plague. Bacteria do not die in the body of insects, but continue to multiply intensively.
The bacilli are transmitted to subsequent hosts in two ways. On the one hand, many microbes are contained in flea feces , which they regularly excrete. This is how plague bacteria can enter a wound on the body of a person or animal. Scratching the injury site also helps with this. Therefore, it is important not to touch these areas of the body with your hands , but if you find a flea bite, first of all disinfect the wound . This will destroy any possible harmful bacteria that the bloodsucker could leave behind.
Another way for plague pathogens to enter the host’s body through a flea bite is through the insect’s saliva . In general, it is not contagious. However, sometimes bacteria multiply so strongly in the body of an infected aggressor that they clog the passage in the digestive tract. Therefore, the blood, encountering an obstacle, can flow back along with the infection, infecting the host.
One way or another, no matter how the infection occurs, fleas are directly involved in it. In addition to plague, these insects can transmit tularemia, typhus, parasitic dermatitis, worms and some other diseases . All of them have very unpleasant consequences. Therefore, under no circumstances should we postpone the fight against these insects. Take measures to destroy them as soon as you find fleas in the house.
_____________________
How to get rid of fleas, read here - Fleas in the house: how to get rid of them?
Various theories
There are several theories that address this issue. Let's look at each of them in more detail.
Theory No. 1. Blood
Fleas choose people with the first blood group, since it turned out that it is considered the sweetest. Parasites do not touch a person with blood types 3 and 4, because they do not like it to their liking.
Theory No. 2. Leather
Not every insect is able to bite through the skin hard enough to get to the blood vessels. This is why fleas choose people with thin skin, which is much easier to deal with.
Theory No. 3. Body
Experts say that fleas choose people whose bodies smell of sweat. Most often they bite people in the armpits, groin or back.
Of course, it is impossible to say that the listed theories are correct. People react to bites individually, which depends only on the characteristics of their body. The answer to the question why fleas do not bite everyone directly depends on the factors mentioned above.
Read about other insects:
– Cockroaches in an apartment: how to get rid of them?
– How to get rid of moths: methods of control
– Bark beetles: who are they?
– Ants in the garden: benefit or harm?
– Insect pests: where is danger lurking for us?
