Sometimes people mistakenly believe that fleas from pets do not threaten humans at all. Contrary to popular belief, parasites do not die immediately without a main source of food. According to the general idea, such parasites live quite a long time and reproduce intensively. It is difficult to notice dead fleas, because most often fleas are found crawling in the fur of pets. The reality is such that there are no long-livers among representatives of the species. One adult can live no more than three months. Regardless of this factor, a short period of time is quite enough to cause harm to the reproduction of new offspring.
Animal fleas will not live on humans permanently. The insect jumps onto a food source only when hungry and looks for blood vessels. Environmental parameters also have a significant impact on the lifespan of the pest. In a couple of months, fleas can:
- Inflict one hundred bites on one victim;
- Lay more than 300 eggs, which will then hatch into larvae.
Life on media
Life cycle of a flea
If there is an owner, the insect's quality of life is noticeably higher, especially if the pet does not take care of itself. Experiments have shown that the survival rate of fleas in an apartment that parasitize cats is about 90% for males and 94% for females.
If you do not carry out preventive measures for your pet, the number of pests will gradually increase. Females lay eggs and the individuals cleaned by the animal are replaced by young animals. On average, fleas live in an apartment on cats and dogs for about 20-40 days.
Causes of death of fleas
Under natural conditions, a good half of the pests die as a result of the owner’s hygiene procedures. Unlike incoming parasites, such as mosquitoes, fleas do not leave after receiving the required dose of blood.
The hygienic instincts of animals acquired as a result of evolution are the main cause of death in fleas. At the same time, the thick fur of cats and dogs is a natural protection for the insect from external factors.
How many parasites do animals clean out?
In a week, a pet gets rid of approximately half of the pests living on it, which is about 5-10 fleas per day. In laboratory measurements, animals cleared about 40% of males and 20% of females.
In about three weeks, the cat gets rid of almost 90% of parasites. The remaining individuals who managed to escape the purge can be called long-livers. There have been recorded cases where parasites lasted on a pet for more than 60 days.
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Favorable microclimate for fleas to live in
The above indicators are given for the best living conditions. The flea dies a natural death after about three months. Of course, among the decisive indicators is an optimal microclimate with suitable air temperature and humidity. It all depends on the type of fleas, because parasites on chickens do not leave the body of their victim due to the need to constantly maintain the temperature within 40 degrees.
If a flea lives in an apartment with constant access to food and without exposure to insecticides, it can survive for about three months, but no more. When the room temperature rises to 37 degrees, fleas on dogs or cats can survive for 3 weeks due to their accelerated development cycle. Low temperature conditions have the opposite effect and the life cycle of the parasite is significantly extended.
Domestic fleas live in ideal conditions and are kind of long-lived. In nature, parasites exist much less often, since victims chew out painful bites. The death of fleas is caused by numerous helminths and other parasites, the carriers of which are carried by each insect. That is why the pest strives to get into warm apartments or private houses.
Amazingly, at the pupal stage, fleas can cope with frost and even the effects of various insecticides. The specific biology of the insect helps it survive in the most difficult conditions. When an animal dies in nature, fleas immediately leave its corpse and look for a new habitat and feeding.
Flea Density
Sensitivity to parasites in animals varies and depends on the class and specific breed. Some pets carry out regular and sometimes even overly fanatical grooming, while others are calm about the life of fleas on their bodies.
This factor directly affects the density of pests. In animals that are more tolerant of parasites, this figure is noticeably higher. If a cat or dog is allergic to insects, then they can clean their fur 24 hours a day, even if the infestation is minimal or completely absent.
Scientists have conducted research on the hygiene habits of different felines. Extremely clean cats cleaned out about 20% of parasites each day, or about 70% per week. That is, the average lifespan of one individual was about 5 days .
A less active cat got rid of 4% of insects per day (about 20% per week). It turned out that the parasites barely survived until day 20. You also need to take into account the age of the pet. Young animals are more susceptible to infection than adult animals.
The fact is that young cats and dogs simply do not have experience in hygiene and have not yet learned how to comb themselves properly. Moreover, adult pets have stronger immunity, thicker skin and a different arrangement of capillaries.
Folk remedies against fleas in animals
- Treat your pet's fur with a solution containing essential oils of lavender and cedar (2 drops of oil per 500 ml of water). Spraying should be done daily for two weeks.
- Make a compress from a mixture of camphor alcohol, 3% acetic acid and regular cologne. Hold a plastic bag in the area of the cat's neck moistened with this solution. Then comb the coat well over a bowl of water.
- Dissolve regular table salt in warm water and keep the cat in it for about 10-15 minutes.
- Chop a couple of cloves of garlic and add half a glass of water, let it sit overnight, and rub the resulting solution into your pet’s skin.
- Combing the fur using baking soda; after the procedure, the animal must be washed.
- Treating the animal with lemon spray. Cut the lemon into several parts and boil in a liter of water. Leave the resulting liquid for 6-8 hours, strain and pour into a spray bottle.
After removing fleas from pets, it is necessary to carry out a general cleaning of all areas where parasites may live.
Climatic conditions
All insects are afraid of low temperatures, including fleas. If the thermometer drops below 0⁰C, then the young animals will die in 3-5 days . The pest will survive up to +5⁰C for at most 10 days. The minimum temperature level when a flea can more or less exist is +10⁰C. The chance of survival in this case is 50/50.
Young animals are more vulnerable to low temperatures than adults. Larvae with laid eggs stop developing already at +13⁰С. At +10⁰С all offspring die.
Like other insects, a flea can hibernate, but provided that the temperature does not drop below +8⁰C. Heat also negatively affects the life of parasites. If the thermometer rises above +35 degrees, the pest will die in a matter of days. Dryness can also be considered a critical factor. Low air humidity has an extremely negative effect on both the offspring of the insect and the adults. The larvae begin to die inside the cocoons. In the summer months, when the heat stays at 30⁰C, the flea population decreases.
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Methods for eliminating fleas in animals
Pets must be treated first. There are many means for these purposes.
Special shampoos . The product is applied to the pet’s fur while bathing, after 3-5 minutes it is washed off with clean water, then the animal must be thoroughly combed.
Sprays and drops are very effective in controlling fleas. The drops should be applied to the animal's skin along the ridge to prevent the drug from being licked off. The spray is applied to the entire coat by spraying.
Anti-flea collars are used not only to get rid of parasites, but also as a preventive measure. Biological or chemical flea collars for dogs and cats can be purchased at veterinary clinics or pharmacies.
How long can an insect live without food?
Young animals that have just entered the adult stage must begin to feed within a week, otherwise they will simply die of starvation. In the most favorable climatic conditions, the individual survived for 2 weeks. It is also worth noting that insects at this stage are especially active in terms of feeding and cause much more discomfort to their host.
If the female has not previously fed on blood, then the life cycle of the newly emerged young increases noticeably - up to 30-40 days. In rooms with high humidity, this figure can approach 70 days. Similar conditions can be found in basements and attics of multi-story buildings. Whereas the parasite’s more familiar habitat – the fur of a pet and its bedding – is characterized by low humidity.
As soon as the flea finds a host, it begins to feed intensively. Literally within a day, the pest noticeably increases in size due to a good protein load. If the parasite is shed, then within 12-16 hours it loses its entire accumulated supply of proteins and decreases in size. After another 12 hours, due to lack of food, the insect may die.
If a flea has access to blood for about 2-3 hours a day, then this is considered malnutrition. For normal development, the insect needs periodic feeding. If a flea begins to feed from its owner, then after a while it develops a kind of drug addiction to the blood. A female fertilized on a carrier raises young animals that have already been planted on animal protein.
After 5 days of feeding on blood, shed fleas quickly die: females can last about 4 days, and males only 2 days . The survival rate of the parasite outside of a pet increases noticeably if it has fed on blood for no more than 12 hours, because the threshold for drug addiction has not yet been overcome.
Room treatment
Today, the choice of products in stores to combat parasites is very large - you can find drugs in the form of aerosols, concentrated solutions, various powders and pencils.
Concentrates have the greatest effect and are low cost. One bottle of this product is enough to treat the entire apartment. However, the drugs are very toxic and have an unpleasant odor; the procedure must be carried out with gloves and glasses, in the absence of children and animals.
The most famous con, “Taran”, “Dobrokhim”, etc.
Aerosols in cylinders can be used to treat office and residential premises. They are not affordable for everyone, but they are very convenient and easy to use, and sometimes have a pleasant aroma.
The treatment should be carried out with the windows and doors closed; it is possible to ventilate the room 2 hours after the procedure.
The following brands are popular: “Raptor”, “Dichlorvos”, “Reid”, etc.
Powders and pencils : mainly used to remove flea larvae in places where they are most concentrated (basements, attics, cellars). They are low cost and have a good effect in getting rid of parasites.
You can purchase the following names: “Phenaxin”, “Tornado”, “Baygon”, etc.
If you are unable to cope with harmful insects on your own, you can use the services of a special service that will professionally help solve the problem quickly and reliably.
The preparations used by the services are highly toxic, so it is better to leave home for 2-3 days during treatment, and upon return, thoroughly wash the floors and wipe all surfaces with special products.
Where do fleas live without a host?
For a full-fledged existence, an insect needs a host. If an adult somehow got into a living space where there are no cats, dogs or birds, then the flea can parasitize a person for some time. In the absence of at least some source of food, the pest lives behind the baseboard, window sill, under furniture, or climbs into the cracks between building panels: where there is high humidity.
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What determines the lifespan of fleas?
The duration of a flea's existence is influenced by a number of factors:
- Ambient temperature and humidity. At low humidity and temperature, bloodsuckers will live longer than at high temperature.
- Constancy of the state of the environment. If the temperature fluctuates frequently, the parasites fall into a state of torpor. Thanks to him, bloodsuckers live longer.
- Food. If a flea goes hungry, it will live even longer.
A flea is primarily a parasite. Nature provides that their reproduction depends not so much on timing and speed, but on the number of offspring each female produces. You should not hope that in your home such an important process of reproduction will somehow stop on its own.
It is important to poison these parasites completely. It is necessary to destroy both adults and larvae and egg laying. Only after this can we hope that the parasites will disappear completely.
Man and fleas
Unlike head or pubic lice, fleas avoid human contact. The parasite can linger on clothing for a couple of days and periodically attack its owner, but the insect’s natural habitat is animals with widespread hair.
Under artificially created conditions, fleas have demonstrated the ability to live on human blood. But in the natural habitat this is rare. The parasite is too large to reproduce safely on human skin. And it is much more convenient for him to move on fur than on a bare or bristly surface.
It is extremely unlikely that fleas will reach a person's head. The most they can do is jump to ankle level. And as soon as the pest begins to move higher, the person will immediately feel it. Once on the skin, a flea simply bites, drinks blood and tries to leave the uncomfortable place as quickly as possible. The bite can be compared to a mosquito.
Can they live in an apartment without animals?
To fully answer the question of whether fleas can live in an apartment without animals, it is necessary to consider the features of the insects’ life cycle. The optimal conditions for their full development are the following: constant temperature maintenance within 21 - 23 degrees, humidity - about 80%.
If the above conditions are maintained, the life expectancy of fleas is from two to three months.
A particularly important factor for adult parasites and their larvae is the presence of a constant source of food. The absence leads to a slowdown in the development of the nymph and the absence of the ability to reproduce in the adult. In the absence of food, the life expectancy of the parasite increases.
A similar thing happens when the ambient temperature drops. At higher values, the development of the nymph occurs faster, and the life expectancy of an adult insect is reduced, often by more than half. During this time, one female manages to lay from 400 to 600 eggs.
Fleas can live without animals in an apartment for two to three months. Mostly they do not live on the pet’s fur, but, for example, on its bedding. When the need arises, the blood-sucking flea attacks the animal; immediately after saturation, the flea jumps off.
How fleas get on people
Humans are attacked by fleas that live on domestic animals. These insects move very quickly, jumping half a meter, which is a lot for them, because the size of the flea itself does not exceed 3 mm. While scratching or shaking the animal, it can shake off the flea and throw it a very long distance. A flea, in search of food and a secluded place, can jump on a person and bite.
The flea does not always live directly on the victim. They can hide and lay eggs in secluded places. Most often this is a bedding, a doghouse, a house - any place where it is warm, dry, dark. They can also hide in carpets and other textiles with folds or pile. They can get stuck in cracks in the floor, behind baseboards, and in other dark places. Accumulations of garbage also become a haven for them. Fleas can wait in such places for quite a long time. But as soon as a victim appears next to them, they attack. The flea navigates by smell. The smell of animals is much stronger for them and attracts them more than humans. But a hungry flea is not so picky, so it will bite a person too.
Bites and damage caused
The flea's mouthparts are ideally suited for piercing the skin of a warm-blooded animal. A flea bite is quite painful because it is not accompanied by the injection of an anesthetic into the punctured area. Instead, the flea secretes enzymes that prevent the blood from clotting. Meanwhile, the pain of the bite is considered the least of the problems caused by the blood-sucking parasite. In fact, flea bites can lead to the following consequences:
· allergic reaction;
· infection with serious diseases;
· infection of the wound when scratching.
The greatest danger to humans are dangerous diseases carried by fleas. The specificity of the disease is determined by the specific type of blood-sucking parasite. Some species spread helminthic diseases, infection of which can also have serious consequences for humans.
- Fact! The mouthparts of these insects lack a blood-sucking proboscis like those of bedbugs and mosquitoes. In order to get to the blood vessel, they have to literally drill into the layer of skin.
If you notice fleas in your home, immediately take measures to eliminate them. We recommend professional flea treatment for your apartment from our service. Call us or email us and you will never see these parasites in your apartment or on your pet again.
Prevention of fleas in the apartment
Prevent the proliferation of blood-sucking insects. Frequent wet cleaning, with the addition of special toxic agents. Frequently wash clothes and be sure to iron them with a hot iron. We vacuum carpets and sofas. We treat with a special spray, powder in the corners and behind the baseboard. Treatment of pets at the veterinarian or independently. All this will help get rid of these annoying insects forever. And improve the quality of life for yourself and your pets.
Sources
- https://TaraKlop.ru/blohi/skolko-zhivut-blohi/
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- https://parazitdoma.ru/blohi/skolko-zhivut-bez-zhivotnogo
- https://combat-dez.ru/blohi-skolko-jivyt-bez-jivotnyh-v-kvartire/
- https://dezvredexpert.com/bloxi/vidy-blox-i-fakty/skolko-zhivut-bloxi/
- https://ruspoll.ru/blohi/gde-zhivut-blohi-v-dome-esli-net-zhivotnyh.html
- https://apest.ru/blohi/vse-o-blohah/skolko-zhivut-blohi/
- https://bezbukashek.ru/blokhi/prodolzhitelnost-zhizni-blox
- https://klopam-net.ru/bloxi/bloxi-skolko-zhivut-v-kvartire-bez-zhivotnyx.html
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