Dog Flea Life Cycle - Bristol
As Heard on BBC Radio Bristol
How Does The Dog Fleas Life-Cycle Begin?
The life cycle of the dog flea begins when the adults (both male and female bite) find a suitable warm blooded host to feed from. Fleas are described as ectoparasites, meaning they feed from the host externally. With dog fleas they will often feed on humans where a genetically appropriate host is not present, but this is believed to have a significant impact on the fleas fertility, meaning that if the dog flea feeds on anything but a dog, it will find it difficult to develop viable eggs. Once a flea latches onto a host it quickly moves vertically to acquire a suitable feeding site from which to extract it's blood meal.
What Do The Dog Flea Eggs Look Like?
Once the female dog flea has been successfully mated and appropriately fed, she will begin laying eggs at a rate of about twenty or so per day. dog fleas usually lay the eggs on the host animal, but because they have no viscosity they quickly fall off the dog and onto floor coverings or the animals bedding/resting place. The dog flea will lay many hundreds of eggs during her life time, which could be as long as a year! The average figures suggest that most fleas will be fortunate to last a few weeks, but as will all things in the natural world - there is always an exception to the rule. The dog fleas eggs are very small and difficult to see without the aid of a magnifier. Typically the dog fleas eggs are about 0.2mm in length, oval in shape, light cream in colour and will very often have hatched within a few days, depending of course on how conducive prevailing environmental conditions are at the time of laying.
What Do Dog Flea Larvae Look Like?
The distinctive features of dog flea larvae are the brown head with a couple of small antennae, followed by thirteen body segments and two projections from the rear end called anal struts. The body is light brown in colour and the segments have hairs projecting from them. The larvae are big enough to be seen relatively easily by the naked eye as they grow to about 5mm long. The important thing to remember about the larvae is that they tend to develop in dark, undisturbed places where they are safe from trampling feet, bright light and the vacuum - so make these places the first to be intensively vacuumed before considering the applidogion of any flea treatment. It is also widely reported that the flea larvae must consume a quantity of what is termed flea dirt (dried blood, that has been digested by the adult dog flea and deposited on surfaces as faeces. As the larvae mature they pass through two or three moults or instars. This portion of the dog fleas life cycle will commonly last for a few weeks, however this can be prolonged and take up to eight months where environmental conditions are not conducive. The larval stage of the life cycle is where the fleas are at their most vulnerable and only small fluctuation in humidity and temperature will negatively impact the survival of the larvae. Unfortunately the adults have few such concerns.
What Happens to the Flea Larvae
Once fully mature, the flea larvae will quickly begin constructing a silken cocoon in which it will pupate and develop into an adult dog flea. The time that it takes to develop into an adult flea is dependent on the quality of the environmental conditions. In most cases it will take from a week to 14 days. This is not the end of the story though - read on.
What Happens Once the Adult Dog Fleas Are Ready to Emerge?
The dog fleas are now adults and ready to feed, but they will not often hatch unless they have the right stimulus. dog fleas can sense all that is going on around them, in part due to a highly specialised sensory organ in the fleas posterior called the sensilium. The adult fleas will emerge in response to vibration, carbon dioxide or fluctuations in humidity. Very often fleas can remain ready to emerge from their cocoons for as long as a year. The very worst scenario is where you walk into a property that has not been set foot in for weeks or even months after infested dogs have been present or a window/dog flap has been left open allowing feral and/or untreated dogs to enter. when this happens hundreds or in very rare cases, thousands of fleas emerge within moments of each other. The fleas will be very hungry, often crawling vertically up the inside of trousers etc, where they feed covertly before dropping off.
How Fast Can You Get To Us?
Because of our insect expertise ensures that our pest control services are faster and more flexible than many other providers. We are usually on site within hours or faster if it is an emergency, getting rid of flea problems quickly.
How Do We Book Pest Control?
Call Our Local Bristol Number - 0117 303 5181
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WaspKill UK - The Very Best Pest Control Extermination Advice and Solutions:
Bristol Dog Flea Control Advice: Getting rid of Dog Fleas and other insects like ants, wasps and bed bugs is not as simple as many pesticide manufacturers will lead you to believe. The chemicals or poisons on offer in supermarkets and shops often have a fraction of the effect that is achieved through professional products and this means you are likely to get through many cans of treatment without actually achieving full control. As the only Bristol Dog Flea Control exterminator offering a dedicated insect control service, we are able to deliver solutions that are guaranteed to work.
Environmental health services, are all about understanding the pests you are trying to eliminate or prevent so you can make the environment less conducive to them. The Wasp for example creates a wasp nest early in the year so if you wanted to control wasps in Bristol you would probably guess that checking for a new wasp nest in your loft in April and May would allow you to remove a wasp nest safely before it became too large. By understanding your pest, you are able to plan control in advance, before infestation occurs and the cost of elimination becomes high.
WaspKill UK are always here to help - so why not give us a call and put your trust in the experts.
Areas our Bristol pest control & Rodent removal services cover in Bristol and Somerset include: