There is nothing vulgar in the popular name “sex fleas”: this is how rumor refers to parasites, which often have to be noticed in houses and apartments on the floor, in the cracks in the parquet, in carpets. These insects do not even have any relation to pubic lice or venereology: such a collective household term is commonly referred to as feline, canine, rat and human fleasmost often appearing in a person’s dwelling, and because of the peculiarities of their biology, they are caught on the floor.
Genital fleas are parasites of humans and animals that are well adapted to feed on blood and reproduction in private homes and apartments. How to get rid of genital fleas, which pose a serious danger because of the infections they carry, it will be useful to know almost everyone who keeps pets, especially dogs and cats, regularly on the street.
We will talk more about the potential danger of parasites and how to control them.
What are dangerous fleas for humans and pets?
Fleas (including the so-called genital) bother a person and his pet mainly with their bites - in order to saturate the parasite with blood, it is necessary to bite the skin and get the jaw bristles to the blood vessel. Regardless of whether the insect has time to get drunk with blood, or the victim sweeps it from the body earlier, a slight swelling remains at the bite site with a tiny puncture, itching and inflaming when combing.
It is interesting
The younger a flea is, the less an anesthetic enzyme its salivary glands produce. Therefore, the parasites just emerging from the pupae bite amazingly painfully - some say that flea bite The severity is comparable to the sting of a bee. Old insects bite almost painlessly.
Moreover, with multiple bites, a person may develop an allergic reaction, sometimes with generalized symptoms. The whole complex of such responses of the body to the bites of genital fleas is called pulicosis and is considered by doctors as parasitic.disease.
No less dangerous fleas that carry many pathogens of serious diseases. Among such diseases are plague, encephalitis, anthrax, brucellosis, trypanosomiasis. Fleas that live in the southern regions of our country are still the natural reservoirs of bubonic plague.
On a note
The most terrible plague epidemics in the Middle Ages in Europe, which claimed the lives of a third of the population of European countries, were caused precisely by fleas that got here with rats in the holds of ships.
In addition, almost every flea trapping its prey on the floor in an apartment is the carrier of many helminth eggs, and if a person has been living for several days regularly bit a fleaIt will be useful to complete the course of getting rid of worms.
Domestic pets suffer from fleas just like humans. Dogs and cats suffer from itching, become infected with infectious diseases, and kittens and puppies that are badly infected with fleas may even die from exhaustion.
Little about flea biology
Domestic (sex) fleas themselves are not as closely associated with hosts as some other parasites. They jump on animals and humans only to bite and suck blood. Constantly neither animals nor human fleas live.
If fleas are found in an apartment or house on the floor, their main “settlement” should be found in the bedding where the pet sleeps, in his house or booth, among old things in the closet. Here the saturated parasites come to rest and multiply.
Sexual fleas in the conditions of an apartment live for several months. During this time, the female has time to lay from 300 to 500 eggs, from which the larvae similar to transparent worms are derived. Their sizes are small - at the last stage of development such a larva reaches 4-5 mm in length. Most often they can be found all in the same animal resting places, in the corners and in piles of garbage, for example, on the balconies - here the flea larvae feed on various rotting organic matter.
An adult flea eats every few days. A female needs fresh blood for laying eggs, and in her search the insect leaves the shelter and is looking for a warm-blooded creature.
Pupae of fleas can survive severe conditions: heat, dryness, severe hypothermia for several months, and even exposure to highly effective insecticidal agents (this is another reason why it is sometimes problematic to quickly get rid of genital fleas in an apartment).Under normal conditions, the development of the pupa lasts about two weeks. In general, the cycle of reproduction of parasites from egg to egg can take from 10 days to one and a half years, usually about three weeks.
On a note
Fleas are well known as excellent jumpers - their hind legs allow them to jump up to a distance of 30 cm - this is 100 times the length of their body. Due to such jumps, fleas escape the victim who caught them, or, conversely, catch up with them, being hungry.
Fleas do not live permanently on humans or on animals. They jump on their prey to drink blood, and leave it after saturation. They usually bite a person by the legs, and only the sleeper can bite on other parts of the body.
Funds from genital fleas
All funds from domestic genital fleas can be divided into two types according to their functional purpose:
- Facilities for breeding fleas in cats and dogs.
- As well as the means to destroy fleas in the room at all.
Many modern means of fleas in the apartment contain powerful insecticides of neuroparalytic effect on insects, and at the same time relatively harmless to humans and animals.However, these tools can not be used for other purposes: for example, a dog should not be treated with an aerosol from fleas for an apartment.
Of the means for removing fleas in animals, the following are best known:
- drops on withers - Advantage, Hearts, Front Line
- Flea Collars - Kiltix, Leopard, Bayer
- flea sprays - Hearts, Blochnet
- flea shampoos - Mr Bruno, Dr. Zoo and others.
Insecticide products from cockroaches and bed bugs can also be used as a means of getting rid of fleas in the room - they will poison the fleas no less effectively. Most often, Goethe, Zifox, Tetrix, Cucaracha, Combat, Karbofos, Raptor are used for these purposes. But, taking into account the biology of jumping parasites, in order to effectively and safely get rid of genital fleas in the room, insecticidal agents must be used, taking into account a number of nuances ...
How to remove parasites in animals and from the room in general
Due to the diversity of life stages and the ability to live in various places of the apartment, it is necessary to fight sex fleas according to a strictly defined plan:
- First of all, fleas are excreted in domestic animals.
- Then measures are taken to protect pets from secondary infection.
- Immediately after this, fleas are poisoned throughout the apartment.
- At the final stage, a thorough cleaning is carried out in the room in order to eliminate garbage, in which larvae and flea pupae can remain.
As a result, in order to remove genital fleas in an apartment, it is necessary to apply several types of insecticidal agents and spend some time.
Pets are treated with a selected flea medicine for animals until the parasites are completely destroyed. Effective preparations allow to stain fleas at a time. After that, in order to avoid re-infection with fleas, an anti-flea collar is put on the animal.
In the event that a flea baiting took place on the withers, there is no need for a collar - such droplets retain the effect of protecting against fleas for several weeks, during which the parasites will probably already be exterminated indoors.
When the premises are treated with insecticidal preparations, all people and animals are removed from it, the aquariums are covered with cover glasses and aeration is turned off, and the windows are closed.Drugs requiring dilution are diluted in the required proportions, bottled in household sprinklers and sprayed with the maximum number of surfaces, pet bed, bedding, clothes in the closet, floor and carpets.
After that, the room is closed and "insists" within a few hours. Then all the rooms are ventilated, clothes and linen are washed, and a thorough wet cleaning is carried out in the room.
With a strong contamination of the premises, it may be necessary to re-infect fleas. It is carried out 10-14 days after the first procedure. His goal is to destroy the insects that will emerge during this time from the eggs and pupae that survived the first persecution.
On a note
Sometimes after processing the premises from the fleas, the owners of the apartments scatter insecticidal dusts in the storage rooms, corners, and also along the baseboards to destroy the flea larvae. It should be borne in mind that the use of such powdered funds is associated with the risk of accidental poisoning of domestic animals.
When domestic sex fleas in the room have already been destroyed, care should be taken to ensure that they do not enter the house again.To do this, during the warm period of the year, you should wear animals walking on the street, flea-flea collars, regularly and often carry out wet cleaning in the house, wash bedding and sun beds in dogs and cats.
If desired, in the corners and places of long-term storage of things, you should lay out brooms from strongly smelling herbs - tansy, mint, and wormwood, which scare away fleas. With such preventive measures, it is very likely that re-entry of parasites into the home can be avoided.
An example of the invasion of fleas in the apartment high-rise apartment
Another example is when fleas from a basement bite residents of high-rise buildings en masse.
Useful video: how to choose the right flea medicine for animals
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Good site
What means can be bought from genital fleas and where?
It's good that I found this site, but I wanted to get a dog, but with sex fleas is not an option. But now I know how to get them out of the apartment. Thank!