About earthen fleas and methods of dealing with them

Although it is generally accepted that fleas usually jump on humans only when there are flea animals nearby, in reality these parasites can often attack directly from the ground - for example, when visiting a basement at home, while walking in the yard and even hunting in the woods. In summer and early autumn, residents of some apartment and private houses are literally invaded by so-called earthen fleas, getting rid of which without an understanding of the reproduction characteristics of parasites is not so simple.

Let's see where, in general, these parasites come from in the earth and, most importantly, how to deal with them effectively, if they have already appeared in a house (or apartment) ...

 

Constant human neighbors

For some, it may be unexpected, but the so-called earthen fleas are the most common fleas that parasitize cats, dogs, rats, mice, and if successful, bite people.

As for the epithet “earthen” - it can be said to be purely folk-like, it is used colloquially when they want to clarify that the parasites are on the ground (or on the floor, if we are talking about an apartment or a private house), from which they attack person In fact, this is typical of almost all species of fleas, since it is in this way that they attack their prey.

For example, most often in the houses, apartments and basements of a person bites are fleas belonging to the following species:

1. Cat flea;
2. Southern rat flea;
3. Canine flea;
4. The human flea.

It is almost impossible to distinguish them from each other with the naked eye, and even specialists require a microscope and professional experience.

The photo below shows a rat flea under a microscope:

Given the real size of these insects (about 2-3 mm in length), the difference between individuals of different species without a microscope is extremely difficult to notice.

In addition, it should be borne in mind that species names do not mean that, for example, cat fleas parasitize only on cats, and rat - only on rats. These parasites are universal and can feed on the blood of various animals: for example, a cat flea with the same success can bite both cats, dogs, and humans.And, for example, on the same rat, representatives of different types of fleas can simultaneously parasitize.

Parasites bite both wild and domestic animals, including rodents, pests, with them they also penetrate into human housing. Here, in the basements of houses and apartments, they can leave the body of the owner, moving to the floor, and when hungry, they can attack people if possible.

All these parasites in everyday life are called earthen fleas and all of them can be fought with the same methods.

On a note

Perhaps one of the most frequent questions that tenants ask employees of the disinsection services, who come to treat the basements of houses from fleas, - than earthy fleas differ from cat fleas. As you now understand, there are no differences, strictly speaking, since we are talking about the same insects.

Outside the host's body, adult fleas move by jumping, and run only in the animal's fur. Consequently, they can only jump onto the human body from the floor or from the ground.

The photos below show what an earthen flea looks like at the time of the bite:

A characteristic feature of the appearance of these parasites is a flat, lateral body, shiny covers (by the way, they are very strong and protect the flea from being crushed).But it is easiest to identify the parasite by its jumps: it may seem that the insect just sitting on the skin seemed to disappear - the flea jumps so quickly that the human eye does not have time to track its movement.

On the street, earthen fleas bite, first of all, open areas of the body. Usually the legs suffer, less often - the arms and neck. At home, the parasites have enough time to climb under the clothes.

On a note

In some countries (for example, Thailand, Vietnam, India) you can find true earth fleas - they are also called sand fleas. The female of such a parasite literally penetrates under the human skin and remains there, feeding on blood and gradually swelling in width, since a large number of eggs develop in her body. In time not extracted, it causes suppuration, which sometimes develops into gangrene and requires amputation of the limb.

Pictures of a sandy flea extracted from a leg:

Fortunately, in our country sandy fleas are not found.

Meanwhile, in Russia, earthen fleas are sometimes called insects, which have nothing to do with blood-sucking fleas. For example:

1. The pods are arthropods that live in the earth, and not on its surface. In a private house or apartment, they are found in flower pots, and, multiplying in large quantities, can lead to the death of plants. Getting rid of these earthen fleas is also not so easy;
2. A genus of small leaf beetles with jumping hind limbs. They are known as pests of agriculture and vegetable gardens. The photo below shows a beetle from the family of ground fleas:

Bastards and leaf beetles do not bite either humans or animals. Parasitic fleas feed exclusively on blood, and therefore for life and reproduction are forced to bite people, dogs, cats or rodents.

 

Where do earthen fleas come from in a house or apartment?

It is widely believed that fleas are infested only in dirty rooms, in which the proper level of sanitation is not maintained. This is only partly true - the worm-like larvae of fleas, the existence of which not every person suspects will indeed be more comfortable developing on the floor of a poorly cleaned room. However, adult parasites often appear in very clean tenants, and everywhere else they can physically penetrate and regularly feed on blood.

As a rule, earthen fleas get into a house or apartment with pets that periodically walk outside and do not wear special anti-flea collars. Even two or three fleas that have jumped onto a dog, over time, scatter eggs all over the house - then the larvae will emerge from them, which quickly turn into full-fledged bloodsuckers.

However, often earthen fleas enter the room in other ways:

1. They penetrate from contaminated neighboring premises - from basements and entrances, from attics, as well as from neighbors that contain dogs or cats and do not monitor cleanliness. Often in warm seasons from the basement, earthen fleas can en masse into apartments on the ground floors (the same applies to private houses);
2. Brought into the house or apartment with rats and mice. These rodents are almost always infected with parasites, and if they visit the dwelling all the time, they will surely leave a few fleas here. If such a rodent dies (from a poison, in a mousetrap or for some other reason), all the fleas quickly leave his body and look for a new victim;
3. Through the windows and doors from the street (from the yard). Just imagine that in your yard under the window in the ground the flea larvae are teeming andIn addition, flea cats and dogs walk: parasites need very little time to get into the room (provided that the windows are not high);
4. They are brought into the house by the person himself on clothing or directly on the body. For example, fleas in large quantities can jump on the clothes of a person who visits the basement (plumbers often suffer from this), and jump off when a person returns to a residential area. The same applies to hunters who, for example, passing near fox holes, also often catch a lot of hungry fleas.

On a note

Earthen fleas with food on average live for 1-2 months, although in ideal laboratory conditions some individuals lived for up to a year or even more. If these parasites bite en masse in an apartment or private house, it means that they have already successfully settled here and actively reproduce. In this case, you need not so much to look for ways of their penetration into the room, how many to eliminate the conditions, because of which they multiply safely, and also to get rid of the already existing population of parasites.

Sometimes it is generally problematic to find out where earthen fleas come from in a particular apartment: it would seemthere are no domestic animals, neighbors do not suffer from the invasion of parasites, and according to the owners, rats and mice have not been seen for years. In such situations, the most likely option is to accidentally bring fleas into the house on clothes (both the residents and guests may carry).

 

Where in the house to look for these parasites and their larvae?

To effectively fight earth fleas, it is important to have a good idea of ​​their life cycle. As practice shows, most people do not even realize that in their basement (or on the floor of the apartment) there can be a huge number of flea eggs, and in the corners of a room, flea larvae similar to small worms can crawl. And unknowingly, the whole struggle comes down to trying to get rid of only adults - those who jump and bite.

So, fleas breed with a full development cycle:

• After maturing, each female pushes them out of the body with force, and they literally fly away from the animal's fur around the room;
• From eggs, small worm-like larvae hatch, which feed on virtually any organic matter - from debris under bedside tables to sawdust moistened with urine in a cage with a hamster.It is clear that such larvae can be found almost everywhere, even where there are no adult fleas. And in order to destroy them, it is necessary to treat literally every square centimeter of the floor with special means;
• After some time the larvae turn into pupae. Pupae do not move and eat nothing, while they are resistant to most insecticidal drugs. Pupae are located in the same place where the larvae of parasites live.

As for adult fleas, due to their small size and flattened body, they can hide in housing literally anywhere, including between parquet boards, in upholstered furniture, behind plinths. However, they usually choose as shelters those places near which their victims most often end up.

It can be:

• Bedding on which the dog sleeps;
• Crevices in a wooden cage with a rat or hamster;
• Cat's house;
• Toilet for cats;
• Corners, baseboards and furniture near the place where the animal spends most of the time;
• Beds, sofas, armchairs.

In the basements of private houses, fleas are concentrated near the passages of rats and mice, and in the basements of high-rise buildings - where dogs and cats constantly spend the night.

 

How to deal with earthen fleas?

To remove earthen fleas from home, you must:

1. Block the paths of possible penetration of parasites into the room;
2. Smash fleas in pets;
3. Destroy the parasites and their larvae in the house. Often, it is not possible to get rid of fleas in the contaminated room during one treatment - then a repeated disinsection procedure is necessary.

All these actions need to be performed in the specified sequence, since otherwise it is possible to restore the population of the parasites in the room.

In animals, fleas are poisoned with special insecticidal drops (for example, Hartz, Frontline, Stronghold), sprays (Frontline, Hartz), shampoos (Beaphar, Leonardo, Doctor Zoo), as well as with the help of specific agents (tablets, shots, emulsion concentrates for dilutions and spraying - for example, Butox 50). Most modern tools allow you to get rid of fleas from a pet quickly and at the same time relatively safe for the health of the animal (provided that the instructions for use of the respective drugs are strictly followed).

A good effect is also provided by flea collars, but it is better to use them for prophylactic purposes to further protect the pet re-infection with earthen fleas.

On a note

It should be borne in mind that the means intended for the destruction of fleas in the premises are not suitable for treating the animal, although they can use the same insecticides as, for example, in drops on withers or insecticoacaricidal sprays for dogs and cats. The fact is that in preparations intended for the disinsection of premises, the concentration of the active substance can be ten times higher than the allowable amount for the treatment of animals. In addition, technical insecticides may contain undesirable impurities.

Choose a drug for breeding fleas on a pet should be in consultation with the veterinarian.

To get rid of earthen fleas in an apartment (or in the basement of the house), the following types of insecticidal preparations can be used, for example:

1. Concentrates of insecticides, adapted for domestic use - they are diluted, and then sprayed from a conventional spray. Pyrethroids (cypermethrin, tetramethrin, deltamethrin, lambda-cyhalothrin) and organophosphate compounds (chlorpyrifos, fenthion, malathion, and others) help the fleas quite well. Today, ready-made concentrates of these insecticides are commercially available and are simply diluted at home with water.Here are examples of some tools that allow you to effectively get rid of earthen fleas in the room, even in the most neglected cases: Xsulat Micro, Get, Lambda-Zona, Delta-Zona, Agran, Zifox and some others;
2. Aerosol preparations in cans, ready for use (for example, Dichlorvos of different brands, Raid, Combat, Raptor, etc.). They are easy to use, but not very economical - a sufficient number of cylinders for processing a large basement room will be much more expensive than a concentrated preparation;
3. Powdered insecticidal agents, also called dusts (Pure House, Fenaksin, Ecokiller, Pyrethrum powder, etc.). Such powders are particularly effective in killing the larvae of ground fleas, so it is advisable to combine them with other types of drugs.

With these means it is necessary to process as fully as possible all the places of possible shelter of fleas and their larvae. If the drugs are used correctly, then the vast majority of parasites can often be destroyed very quickly - in just a few hours, and taking into account the preparatory measures, the whole struggle will end in one day.

On a note

It is useless to try to eradicate ground fleas with gels and poison baits for cockroaches and domestic ants. The fact is that such funds are designed for the fact that insects will eat and poison them (the active substances in them have an intestinal toxic effect). Fleas, by virtue of their biology, feed only on blood and will be indifferent to baits. As for the flea larvae that feed on everything in a row, most of them simply do not crawl to the poison.

Many try to get rid of earthen fleas in the house, using folk remedies - decoctions of herbs, gasoline, kerosene, combined solvents, vinegar. Sometimes the parasites are even frozen out or trying to destroy with high temperatures using hot steam. In some cases, such methods and means are effective, but more often they give only a partial result, while being significantly inferior in ease of use, reliability and effectiveness to modern insecticidal preparations.

On a note

It is rarely possible to scare away fleas from an apartment with the help of the smell of wormwood, tansy or ammonia. Yes, it can be said that adults fear (more precisely, they avoid) the smells of some herbs and technical liquids, but they are not always able to leave the room on their own - the windows and doors are simply closed.And certainly the flea larvae will not go anywhere, which can be safely removed from the house only by destroying them with a poisonous substance.

Do not forget that to get rid of fleas in the house can help specialists pest control services. It is more expensive than buying drugs and poison the parasites on their own, but often safer and easier. Experts use powerful tools and, in addition, know what places in the apartment need to be processed to kill both adult fleas and larvae.

If fleas constantly climb into the apartment from the basement or from the attic of the house (often attacking tenants facing the courtyard), then you may not have to do anything to get them out in this case. This is the domain of the SES, and they should solve the problem together with the management company. Your task is to achieve a solution to the issue by the SES itself, and the more the tenants of the house manage to involve in this process, the higher the probability of success.

 

What can be dangerous flea bites and what to do if you are still bitten

Perhaps the first thing to keep in mind is that fleas can actually be a danger to human health, despite the fact that they are often treated without proper attention as a minor annoying misunderstanding.And it is the danger of regular flea bites is the main reason to hurry with the removal of these parasites from the premises.

At a minimum, the bites of earthen fleas are painful and itchy for a long time, the bite often becomes inflamed (especially for children who scratch wounds, causing infection in them, which leads to suppuration).

Below in the photos are a few examples of what earthen flea bites on the legs and body can look like:

Much more serious is the fact that fleas can be potential carriers of the causative agents of the most dangerous diseases - plague, anthrax, typhoid, brucellosis, encephalitis and some others. It should be remembered that it was fleas that were one of the causes of the devastating plague pandemics in Egypt and the Middle East (the number of victims was about 100 million people) and in Medieval Europe (then, according to rough estimates by historians, 25 million people died from the disease).

In addition to bacteria and viruses, fleas also carry some worms.

This does not mean, however, that after a flea bite, you need to immediately go to the doctor. Most flea bites today are not accompanied by infection,therefore, it is enough to anoint the painful wound with a suitable ointment to alleviate pain (for example, Menovazan, hydrocortisone ointment, Phenystyle emulsion or Psilo balm can be used in the absence of contraindications). Such funds, moreover, will reduce inflammation and prevent the development of an allergic reaction.

As a rule, any special treatment for flea bites is not required, although sometimes the victims try to “treat” the bites with folk remedies - alcoholic propolis tincture, vodka (inside), parsley juice, and even a slice of potatoes. In this regard, it would be preferable to treat flea bites with green paint or iodine - for antiseptic.

In general, when receiving multiple bites, you should carefully observe your own condition for some time: if signs of deterioration appear, the body temperature rises, pains in the head or stomach develop, fever develops, which means you need to go to the hospital.

On a note

Argued that the ground fleas bite not all people, but do it selectively, and there are many explanations why this happens.Someone even seriously believes that fleas choose a victim according to blood type or psycho type.

In fact, fleas are completely indiscriminate in choosing a victim - they are equally willing to drink blood from any person who is nearby. And the corresponding opinion is connected with the fact that some people are bitten by flea bites and almost do not feel and do not complain about them, especially when the parasites are not particularly numerous. It is clear that when in the house one person does not suffer from bites at all, and the second person, whose skin is prone to active reaction to insect bites, itches endlessly, it seems that parasites bite only one of them.

 

How to protect the apartment from the reappearance of these insects?

To prevent the reappearance of ground fleas in the room, you must:

1. Regularly use pet protection - flea collars, insectoacaricidal drops on withers;
2. If we are talking about a private house - get rid of all rodents that enter the room and control their absence in the future;
3. For an apartment building - to create conditions that preclude mass reproduction of fleas in the basement and in the attic (for example, sprinkle insecticide powder on the floor,either spray insecticide in the warm season about once a quarter);
4. Thoroughly wash and check things in which a person visits a basement or cellar, goes hunting;
5. Regularly wash bedding on which pets sleep;
6. Regular cleaning is done indoors (a regular vacuum cleaner will simply not leave the flea larvae any chance of survival, for example, somewhere in the dust near the baseboard).

On a note

If fleas attack from the ground right in the garden, then, as a rule, the destruction of rodents helps - it is in their burrows that parasites breed.

If you personally had to face the invasion of earth fleas - share your experience by leaving a review at the bottom of this page (in the comments box).

 

Useful video: how to get rid of fleas in the apartment

 

How is the fight against fleas in the basements of urban high rises