Get Rid of Fleas by Knowing the Flea Life Cycle
Prevent Flea Infestation, Cat Flea Allergy, and Flea Bites on People
Sep 11, 2009
Understanding the flea life cycle is essential to feline flea control. Since a flea infestation can happen seemingly overnight, leading to flea bites on people, and possibly a cat flea allergy, it's important to stay on top of the problem.
Fleas Love Hot Weather
This is why fleas often get the upper hand during the summer months in northern areas, and are a year-round problem in places where winters are mild. The combination of heat and humidity is hard on people, but fleas love it, and show it by reproducing with wild abandon.
There are four stages in the flea life cycle: egg, larva, pupa, and adult.
Which Came First? The Flea or the Egg?
In the case of a flea infestation, obviously the adults did. Fleas feed on blood, which they get from any animal, including cats, dogs, deer, and other animals. When they bite, they inject a little saliva into the host, to make it easier to feed. This flea saliva causes itching and irritation, and can lead to flea bite allergy in animals sensitized to it.
Flea infestation problems begin when adult fleas hitch a ride into the house on either an animal or a person. Now the female fleas can happily start laying up to 50 eggs a day. At this rate, it's easy to see how only a handful of fleas can become many in an extremely short time.
Flea eggs are very small, and hard to see. They're not sticky, so they fall off the animal, and are concealed in carpet, bedding, and between floorboards in the house. Outdoors, they fall onto the soil.
The eggs hatch anytime from two days to several weeks later. The warmer the weather, the shorter the incubation period, which means lots of flea larva very quickly in hot weather.
Flea larva feed on flea dirt, which is a nice word for flea feces. Flea dirt is seen as black specks in the fur on pets with a flea infestation. It falls off when the cat scratches or shakes himself, making it available for the larva's next meal.
In as little as five days, the larva spins a cocoon, and becomes a pupa. The pupa hatches within three to five days during the summer, or it can hibernate in the cocoon for up to a year.
What ultimately emerges from the cocoon is an adult flea, ready, willing, and able to find a host, and start the flea life cycle all over again.
This is Why Pet Flea Control is Challenging
Many cat owners don't understand that not only must they get the adult fleas off the kitty, but they must also remove flea eggs and larva already present in the house. Otherwise the feline will become reinfested as the next generation of fleas hatches, and seeks a nice warm meal of blood.
There are many chemical means of environmental flea control, but a safe flea control method is to have the carpet steam cleaned. Even flea eggs and cocoons can't withstand steam, so it's a very effective method of preventing future flea infestation.
At the same time, adult fleas must be removed from the kitty, so they can't continue to lay eggs. Bathing a cat is a great non-toxic flea control measure. Avoid flea shampoos that contain permethrin, as this pesticide is toxic to cats. A mild shampoo will do, as the fleas either drown, or are smothered by the lather. When the cat is dry, use a flea comb to remove any survivors.
Vacuum the house daily, paying special attention to areas where the kitty sleeps. Wash all bedding in hot soapy water to kill flea eggs and larva.
Keeping cats indoors will help to prevent fleas from coming into the house in the first place.
It can be an uphill battle to get rid of fleas once a flea infestation is present. Understanding the flea life cycle helps the pet owner to fight the battle effectively.
Source:
What is the Life and Life Cycle of the Flea, & Why is Flea Control So Difficult?
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