Huge Fleas

Huge Fleas are one of the most common parasites in houses, especially those near lakes and forests that offer a protective habitat for fleas. At the same time, they can be observed in any part of the zone with a mild climate since they are able to adapt to various conditions. The appearance of fleas points to the infestation by these insects and the need to take urgent measures..

Huge Fleas

Fleas are marvellous creatures! They are ectoparasites (parasites that live outside their hosts’ bodies), exploiting their hosts both by using them for nutrition and to stay well protected from the harsh outside environment beyond their host’s fur.

Big fleas even have little “fleas” of their own as well, but more on that a little later. I borrowed the headline from a book by Robert Hegner, who in 1938 used superb illustrations and narratives to explain the world of parasitology. This in turn is perhaps derived from the nursery rhyme, The Siphonaptera (the group of insects to which fleas belong):

Big fleas have little fleas,
Upon their backs to bite ‘em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas,
and so, ad infinitum.

There are about 80 different flea species in Australia and more than 2,000 globally. Even birds have their fleas, and because birds are essentially dinosaurs, I pose the question: was Tyrannosaurus rex feeling that flea bite, too?

When did fleas start living with us?

The dog is man’s closest companion and the cheeky cat a close second. When this relationship was forged, and up until very recently, we shared our human fleas with the dogs and cats, and vice versa.

With better sanitation and improved housing conditions, the human flea has essentially disappeared from Australia. This left a duel between the cat flea and the dog flea. The clear winner is the cat flea that now dominates Australian cities and is the primary culprit behind the itch which commonly afflicts cats and dogs.

The cat flea is so successful because the cities, houses and in fact Australian climate is just perfect for this parasite. The cat flea could not ask for more.

The cat flea adults are blood-sucking, so they stay on the dog or a cat (or even us!). Their immature eggs drop on the ground where they develop into larvae. These larvae need sandy soil, 80% humidity and 25℃ warmth – pretty close to what we enjoy on a daily basis in many parts of coastal Australia.

Fleas evolved through the millennia to drink blood and produce large number of eggs. Each adult female can produce around 40 eggs a day. That is a lot of eggs if your pet has just 20 adults and half are females. It adds up to 400 a day and 12,000 in a month! What’s more, 20 fleas is not that many for an Australian dog; some dogs or cats harbour hundreds of fleas.

Fleas are bloodthirsty creatures, but their digestive tract cannot use all the blood and so much of it comes out as dried faeces (“flea dirt”).

This dried blood drops into the animal fur and further drops wherever the animal spends most time. Maybe your sofa, maybe your carpet. That is exactly where eggs drop as well. The larvae that hatch from the eggs are surrounded by pieces of dried blood – their daily meal. The adult fleas thus feed not only themselves, but also their offspring.

It is nice to live with humans. We provide the perfect niche not just for our pets but also their fleas.

Huge Fleas

Fleas are not only a nuisance, but they can also be dangerous. They carry diseases that can infect your pet, like tapeworm, roundworm and even plague. Not to mention the stress and misery they cause your pet.

If you have a flea problem, you’ve probably tried a lot of solutions: powders, sprays, collars, and more.

Fleas are known to be some of the most resilient pests in existence. That’s because they’re so tiny and they reproduce so quickly—it’s hard to know where they came from or how to get rid of them.

List Of Huge Fleas