Fleas are very important pests. It is estimated pet owners alone spend over £1 billion each year controlling fleas.

Adult fleas are not only a nuisance to humans and their pets, but can cause medical problems including flea allergy dermatitis (FAD), tapeworms, secondary skin irritations and, in extreme cases, anaemia. Although bites are rarely felt, it is the resulting irritation caused by the flea salivary secretions that varies among individuals. Some may witness a severe reaction (general rash or inflammation) resulting in secondary infections caused by scratching the irritated skin area. Others may show no reaction or irritation acquired after repeated bites over several weeks or months. Most bites usually found on the ankles and legs may cause pain lasting a few minutes, hours or days depending on one’s sensitivity. The typical reaction to the bite is the formation of a small, hard, red, slightly-raised (swollen) itching spot. There is a single puncture point in the centre of each spot.  Mosquitoes, bees, wasps and bedbugs cause a large swelling or welt). Also, fleas may transmit bubonic plague from rodent to rodent and from rodent to humans in countries where it is endemic. Oriental rat fleas can transmit murine typhus (endemic typhus) fever among rats and from rats to humans. Tapeworms normally infest dogs and cats but may appear in children if parts of infested fleas are accidentally consumed.

Identification

Adult fleas are about 1/16 to 1/8-inch long, dark reddish-brown, wingless, hard-bodied (difficult to crush between fingers), have three pairs of legs (hind legs enlarged enabling jumping) and are flattened vertically or side to side, allowing easy movement between the hair, fur or feathers of the host. Fleas are excellent jumpers, leaping vertically up to seven inches and horizontally thirteen inches. (An equivalent hop for a human would be 250 feet vertically and 450 feet horizontally.) They have piercing-sucking mouthparts and spines on the body projecting backward. Eggs are smooth, oval and white. Larvae are 1/4-inch long, slender, straw-coloured, brown headed, wormlike, bristly-haired creatures (13 body segments), that are legless, have chewing mouthparts, are active, and avoid light. Pupae are enclosed in silken cocoons covered with particles of debris.

Life Cycle and Habits

Fleas pass through a complete life cycle consisting of egg, larva, pupa and adult. A typical flea population consists of 50 percent eggs, 35 percent larvae, 10 percent pupae and 5 percent adults. Completion of the life cycle from egg to adult varies from two weeks to eight months depending on the temperature, humidity, food, and species. Normally after a blood meal, the female flea lays about 15 to 20 eggs per day up to 600 in a lifetime usually on the host (dogs, cats, rats, rabbits, mice, squirrels, foxes, chickens, humans, etc.). Eggs loosely laid in the hair coat, drop out anywhere especially where the host rests, sleeps or nests (rugs, carpets, upholstered furniture, cat or dog boxes, kennels, sand boxes, etc.). Eggs hatch in two days to two weeks into larvae found indoors in floor cracks & crevices, along floorboards, under rug edges and in furniture or beds. Outdoor development occurs in sandy gravel soils (moist sandboxes, dirt, under shrubs, etc.) where the pet may rest or sleep. Sand and gravel are very suitable for larval development which is the reason fleas are erroneously called “sand fleas.”

Larvae are blind, avoid light, pass through three larval instars or moults and take a week to several months to develop. Their food consists of digested blood from adult flea faeces, dead skin, hair, feathers, and other organic debris. (Larvae do not suck blood.) Pupae mature to adulthood within a silken cocoon woven by the larva to which pet hair, carpet fibre, dust, grass cuttings, and other debris adheres. In about five to fourteen days, adult fleas emerge or may remain resting in the cocoon until the detection of vibration (pet and people movement), pressure (host animal lying down on them), heat, noise, or carbon dioxide (meaning a potential blood source is near). Most fleas overwinter in the larval or pupal stage with survival and growth best during warm, moist winters and spring.

Adult fleas cannot survive or lay eggs without a blood meal, but may live from two months to one year without feeding. There is often a desperate need for flea control after a family has returned from a long holiday. The house has been empty with no cat or dog around for fleas to feed on. When the family and pets are gone, flea eggs hatch and larvae pupate. The adult fleas fully developed inside the pupal cocoon remains in a kind of “limbo” for a long time until a blood source is near. The family returning from holiday is immediately attacked by waiting hungry hordes of fleas. (In just 30 days, 10 female fleas under ideal conditions can multiply to over a quarter million different life stages.)

Newly emerged adult fleas live only about one week if a blood meal is not obtained. However, completely developed adult fleas can live for several months without eating, so long as they do not emerge from their puparia. Optimum temperatures for the flea’s life cycle are 70°F to 85°F and optimum humidity is 70 percent. The cat flea is the most common flea which feeds on a wide range of hosts.

Medication – Relief from itching can be obtained by applying vaseline, menthol, camphor, calamine lotion or ice. Highly sensitive persons should consult their physician for advice.

Repellents – Apply on the outer clothing and to exposed skin. Do not use under clothing. N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide (DEET) is very effective, but should not be used carelessly as severe allergies can develop. Do not apply repellents over cuts, wounds, irritated skin, around eyes or mouth or to the hands of young children.

Control Measures

Flea control is best achieved with a simultaneous, co-ordinated effort involving strict sanitation, pet treatment and premise treatment (both indoors & outdoors).

Inspection – Before treatment, discuss the pet’s habits with family members to determine where resting and sleeping occurs most frequently. Flea activity “hot spots” can be detected by placing white socks over shoes and walking through the residence into suspected areas. Research has demonstrated that these areas will contain the highest amount of eggs, larvae and pupae even after vacuuming. Hot spots for homes with dogs are usually areas where the pet goes in and out of the house, eats, sleeps and spends time with the family at the base of furniture. For cats, check the tops of refrigerators, cabinets, bookcases and higher locations.

One can monitor flea populations by placing a shallow pan of water with a little dish detergent (acts as a wetting agent which breaks water surface tension) on the floor. Position a gooseneck lamp with the light on about five to six inches above the liquid surface. Adult fleas will leap toward the light at night, fall into the detergent solution and drown.

Sanitation – Before vacuuming, collect all items (toys, shoes, clothes, etc.) off the floor, under beds, furniture, in cupboards, etc., to ensure best access for treatment. Also cover fish tanks, remove birdcages, pet food and water dishes and wash or dry clean any pet bedding. Vacuuming carpet with a beater-bar type vacuum where the pet rests and sleeps will help control flea larvae by removing eggs and dried blood faeces (larval food) plus opening up the carpet’s nap for more effective insecticide treatment. Vacuuming must be performed on a regular basis every other day to be effective. Flea larvae do not move far from the site of hatching when there is adequate food (dried blood faeces from adults). Research indicates larvae spend 83 percent of the time deep in the carpet at the base of fibres frequently becoming entwined within the carpet. At pupation, the larva move up the carpet fibre spinning a camouflaging cocoon around itself. Vacuum especially where lint and pet hairs accumulate along floorboards, around carpet edges, on ventilators, around heat registers, in floor cracks, and under and in furniture where the pet sleeps.

After vacuuming, place the vacuum bag in a large plastic rubbish bag and discard in an outdoor dustbin. If the cleaner uses a liquid water medium in a plastic pan (rather than a dust bag) discard dirty water far away from the house.

Treatment  Treatment is best left to a professional pest control company. It is often necessary to complete 2 treatments to eradicate the infestation and it is essential that any pets on the premises are treated by a vet.

Prevention – Trim lawns and weeds to create a drier, less-ideal environment for flea larvae. Avoid piles of sand and gravel around the home for long periods of time. Fence gardens to prevent dogs from roaming freely in heavily infested areas or contacting other infested animals. Discourage nesting or roosting of rodents and birds on or near the premises. Screen or seal vents, chimneys, crevices, etc. where rats, mice, squirrels, may use to enter crawlspaces and buildings. Wash or destroy pet bedding, regularly groom pets and vacuum frequently to remove up to 95 percent of the flea eggs, some larvae and adults. Only about 20 percent of the larvae might be removed when vacuuming since they wrap themselves around the bottom strands of carpeting.

Pets – There are many formulations as shampoos, aerosols, dips, sprays, dusts (powders), collars, dab-ons, spot-ons and monthly tablet or oral liquid treatments. Usually, the most effective pet treatments are available through licensed veterinarians.

That concludes this article entitled Fleas In Manchester, Lancashire & Cheshire

Fleas In Manchester, Lancashire & Cheshire is a post from: Cheshire Pest Control

Free Phone 0800 019 8382

Pest Control Wasp or Bee?

Pest Control Wasp or Bee? – as a pest controller covering Manchester, Cheshire and Lancashire it has become apparent that there is a great deal of confusion, especially in the under forties between wasps and bees and even between honeybees and bumblebees.

Perhaps in these heath and safety obsessed days schools no longer have the summertime nature rambles of my youth and that is a great pity.

At a distance it is possible to the untrained eye to confuse wasps and honeybees but bumblebees should never be in doubt.

This One's A Wasp

A wasp is any insect of the order Hymenoptera and suborder Apocrita that is neither a bee nor ant but in terms of common understanding we are dealing in North West Britain with just three species which we term wasps, The Common Wasp (Vespula vulgaris), The German Wasp (Vespula germanica) and the relative newcomer termed the ‘Euro Wasp’ (Dolichovespula media).

The biology of wasps and bees is very different.

In the late autumn a wasps’ nest dies out completely and is never re-used. The workers and males die but the newly produced queens hibernate for the winter before waking in the spring to start nest building.

At the first sign of warmer weather the young queens emerge from hibernation and commence nest building, mixing rotten wood with saliva to make ‘wasp paper’ with which to construct the nest.

She will lay 15 – 20 eggs in cells inside the nest and tend these until the first workers emerge to take over the nest building process.

An Average Wasps' Nest

Any reports of wasps’ nests prior to June, and certainly any in late April or May will always turn out to be a bee species of which there are many.

Wasp nest building continues throughout the summer and in the autumn the nest produces immature queens and males which then mate. A single wasps’ nest may produce over 2000 new queens.

This is the one that makes the honey

The bee which makes the honey unsurprisingly is the honeybee (Apis mellifera) but a staggering number of people confuse the honeybee with the bumblebee (Bombus spp.)

The honeybee has an altogether different lifecycle to the wasp, the entire colony surviving the winter, and hence are seen much earlier in the year.

A feature of the honeybee is the way in which new colonies are formed. In late spring and throughout the summer the colony will produce new queens which split or ‘bud’ from the old colony taking several thousand worker bees with them; these are called swarms and can actually be heard in flight.

A honeybee swarm Manchester 2007

This causes alarm in many people who will then ring a pest control company and declare that a ‘wasps’ nest’ has just arrived.

Clearly we know immediately that we are dealing with a bee swarm and can often point them in the direction of a beekeeper who may be able to remove the swarm unharmed.

Contrary to urban myth, and indeed the web sites of many local councils, honeybees are not a protected species in Britain and there are circumstances where there is no alternative other than to destroy a colony.

Frequently they establish a colony or ‘hive’ in a chimney stack and where this is venting a gas fire this is clearly dangerous and it is often necessary to destroy the colony.

After destroying the colony the owner of the property has a legal and moral duty to have any honeycomb removed from the stack as if it is left in place it will be robbed out by wild or commercial hive bees, resulting in the death of those colonies.

The Bumblbee Bombus terrestris - Male

A responsible pest controller will not destroy a colony unless arrangements to remove the honeycomb are in place.

The bumblebee has a lifecycle similar to a wasp in that only the new Queens survive the winter and start new nests in spring. A bumblebees’ nest is an insignificant affair, now where near as intricate as a wasps’ nest and rarely contains more than 300 workers at most whereas a honeybee colony or wasps’ nest may have upwards of ten thousand inhabitants.

Another common myth is that bees can only sting once and whilst this is true of the honeybee, the bumblebee like a wasp, can sting multiple times.

Bumblebees are however extremely placid and will only ever sting as a last resort and therefore it should rarely be necessary to destroy a bumblebee nest.

That concludes this article entitled – Pest Control Wasp or Bee?

Pest Control Wasp or Bee? is a post from: Cheshire Pest Control