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The pests live in four life stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult fleas, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Adults are commonly found on pets and feast on their blood for ...
The adults are roughly 1.5 to 4 mm in length and are laterally flattened. They are dark brown in color, are wingless, and have piercing-sucking mouthparts that aid in feeding on the host's blood. Both genal and pronotal combs are absent and the adult flea has a rounded head. Most fleas are distributed in the egg, larval, or pupal stages.
Without a host to provide a blood meal, a flea's life can be as short as a few days. Under ideal conditions of temperature, food supply, and humidity, adult fleas can live for up to a year and a half. [16] Completely developed adult fleas can live for several months without eating, so long as they do not emerge from their puparia. Optimum ...
Flea adults, larvae, or eggs can be controlled with insecticides. Lufenuron is a veterinary preparation (known as Program) that attacks the larval flea's ability to produce chitin , necessary for the adult's hard exoskeleton , but it does not kill fleas.
The most infamous flea-to-human transmitted disease is the bubonic plague, which was caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis.
Some people think there are insects called sand fleas that bite you. But some experts say the creature that bites you and the sand flea are likely entirely different beasts.
By stage 2 (days 1–2), penetration is complete and the flea has burrowed most of its body into the skin. Only the anus, the copulatory organs, and four rear air holes in fleas called stigmata remain on the outside of the epidermis. The anus will excrete feces that is thought to attract male fleas for mating, described in a later section.
Although many species of flea require a blood meal before they can copulate, that is not the case with Ceratophyllus gallinae. [6] As with other fleas, the life cycle consists of eggs, the larval stages, a pupal stage and an adult stage. [7] The larvae have chewing jaws and it is only the adult fleas that are capable of biting the host.