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- Fleas
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- Flea eggs and larvae
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- Flea shampoos for cats
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- Folk remedies for fleas
Most consider living flea can only be on an animal. Yes, sometimes she bites a person, but still the main food and shelter is a pet. But this is an erroneous opinion. Fleas can live without food for a long time, so even after a long trip you can find living individuals at home. Knowing how many fleas live without an animal in the apartment, the owner is more likely to understand that you need to destroy them yourselfrather than wait for "favors from nature."
Life Span of Fleas in Nature
In the conditions most suitable for an insect flea life lasts about 3 months. During this time, one female lays 400-600 eggs, and each insect can make about a hundred bites. Only by fulfilling this “minimum plan” does the bloodsucker die naturally.
Suitable conditions are matching certain moisture and air temperature. So, rat fleas prefer cool humidity: about 14 degrees heat and more than 55% humidity. Insects that live in apartments feel good in such conditions. Flea life will lose its meaning without quick access to food.
If the insect is in conditions of elevated temperatures, all phases of its development are much faster. An adult insect becomes much larger. Under normal conditions, the formation of larvae takes about 30 days, while in heat it is 7. The development of eggs ends after 14 days, another half a month the insect exists in the pupal phase.
In nature, flea lifespan does not differ in duration under any conditions, since the carriers themselves kill them by biting them from the wool. No less parasites die from infections. There are also individuals who in their life manage to change several owners, some of which die.
Interesting!
The fallen animal is immediately abandoned by insects, since they are not capable of feeding on the blood of a dead individual and living on it.
How long do fleas live on pets?
It has long been known that fleas cannot live on humans, much less settle on them. They attack a person and his pets just to get enough of their blood.
A flea usually lives in an apartment, choosing dark, dusty places that no one looks at, but from which you can quickly get to a food source. It could be carpet, litter, places behind skirting boards, in slots between floorboards, in corners, toys, etc. Larvae also develop outside the animal.
Interesting!
Contrary to popular belief, fleas do not live on pets. They climb into the fluffy hair of a dog or cat only for food, after which they return to their favorite places.
Life without food
Fleas can live without food for quite some time, especially one the species that most often bites a person - These insects are able to exist without food for several months, while remaining mobile.
But, no matter how long fleas live without food, they are able to reproduce only after a hearty dinner - the female needs blood to complete the laying.
Although the answer to the question of whether fleas can live in an apartment without animals and people is positive, they cannot exist so endlessly, as well as lay eggs.
Getting rid of fleas
Fleas - insects are small, but causing major trouble. They bite quite sensitively, place bite Itches and hurts for a long time. Ectoparasites are carriers of many types of diseases. So, in the Middle Ages it was fleas that contributed to the rapid spread of typhoid and plague. Today they “give” with their jaws not so dangerous, but very unpleasant diseases. That is why it is so important to get rid of parasites without thinking about how long fleas live or not.
Animals
First of all, domestic animals should be treated. The flea in a cat and dog is eliminated very quickly. For this, the following drugs can be used:
- shampoos;
- drops for cats and dogs;
- sprays.
After that, you should wear a special protective collar for cats and dogsso that the insects do not climb on the pet again.
Important!
Experts advise using flea drops as the most effective agent with a long-lasting effect.
Such drops are in demand:
It is necessary to carefully treat the favorite resting places of the animal and its bedding.
Room
When the pet is disinfected or there are no animals at all, it is necessary to carry out apartment processing. You should start with the general cleaning: thoroughly wash and clean furniture, pillows, carpets, soft slippers and toys, window sills. To destroy insects, you can use insecticides or folk remedies.
Pest control
The flea's life span, even under favorable conditions, is about 3 months - during this time it will have time to cause a lot of trouble. Therefore, you need to quickly purchase a special spray from blood-sucking pests. Standard packaging is designed to handle an area of about 10 squares. Carry out pest control You can do it yourself or with the help of an apartment processing service.
- It is necessary to spray the agent especially carefully in those places where fleas live. These are cracks in the floor, inaccessible places behind furniture, areas behind skirting boards, etc. After processing, the room leaves at least 2 hours.
- Do not wash the floor for at least 5 days. The flea nest, wherever it is, will suffer, but the eggs will be intact. In a few days, larvae will emerge from them, which will die only after hitting the treated surface. If 3 weeks after pest control insects still jump, you should repeat the procedure.
Important!
When handling toxic substances, wear a respirator and gloves.
Folk remedies
Most often, a solution of soda, decoctions of eucalyptus, citrus, mint or wormwood are used. With an aqueous solution of soda, they wipe the surfaces on which fleas, furniture, toys are seen. Soda dehydrates fleas, making it impossible to jump. As a result, it is enough to sweep them or vacuum them.
Sagebrush or citrus peel can be spread out near those places where fleas live in the apartment. An unpleasant smell will force insects to leave the territory.
Oh, last summer we passed "under the sign of fleas." It was just some kind of horror. I didn’t think that they could live without animals, so I simply etched my cats and dogs, put on my collars and calmed down. And there was a heat, we went to bed with a shallow one on the floor. Dear mom, when I woke up and saw this, I realized that I couldn’t fall asleep anymore until I got rid of them. These creatures just covered our mattress with a carpet ... I ran to the market, bought a flea spray there. Three bottles for sure. They sprayed everything in the house that they could. And wallpaper, and furniture, and floors (of course), and in cabinets just in case, too. We went for a walk all day. It’s real, when they almost returned home. It was scary to sleep, but they didn’t even bite. In just a few days, not a single flea was left. Now I follow the animals and regularly spray in the apartment.After all, even I am an adult, and it really hurts me, and what can we say about the baby.
We live on the ground floor. Compassionate grannies fed cats near our house, they settled in the basement. So the fleas are now jumping even before the porch. I called once the pest control, they processed everything. Well, about six months was enough. And so, come again. To call twice a year is unprofitable. And the basement (as they advised), I can’t simply process it alone. And I can’t imagine what to do.
Well, if everything is so started for you, why not cooperate with everyone who lives on the ground floor and call the SES in the basement? I do not think that in this situation it will be very expensive. And then hammer all the holes so that the cats do not meddle anymore.
Yes, I also recently met this “happiness” - fleas. It seemed there hadn’t been on the cat before, but then she suddenly dragged it from a walk. We managed to capture the process at an early stage - the cat collar, the house was washed, a little sprayed - that's all, there are none more. Now I don’t let a cat out of the house without a collar.
But it’s interesting, if you just put a collar on a cat and do nothing with the house, they won’t leave? I always thought that they can bite a person, but they don’t like such “food”, so they themselves will leave home.
Elena, there are different types of fleas. Some people feel normal, if they have only been eating us all our lives. Therefore, it is better to process the apartment and not worry.
I remember that my grandmother always laid out and hung wormwood throughout the house. I don’t know, because of this, or so it happened, but she never had any fleas in her house, although cats constantly ran back and forth.
But tell me, fleas can live on a person like lice, for example, otherwise we have it, I know for sure. We are fighting, but I am constantly afraid that she will "ride" on me when I leave the house. Others will see her - she will be terribly ashamed.
They cannot settle, but it’s quite possible to carry it on themselves. So I went to work. I stand at the bus stop, I feel it hurts. She looked, and she sits on her ankle, dug already. Fortunately, there was nobody, but it’s really shame. True, I did not understand where it came from, because I did not seem to notice at home. But after that incident I conducted the treatment.
I worked at the factory, so they even rode freely in the office with the head of the workshop. You will come to the planning meeting, and they will nibble. We all sit and itch ... Until the new secretary came and poisoned them all.