Fleas are blood-sucking parasites that often penetrate even those homes where there are no pets. The fight against them will be successful if you destroy not only the insects themselves, but also the flea eggs.
Who are fleas?
These are small parasites with a flat body, they cannot fly, but due to their long hind legs they are able to jump up to one and a half meters high. They feed exclusively on blood, parasitize animals, but can also bite humans. Their strong shell is very resistant to mechanical stress, so it is very difficult to crush them just between the fingers. In addition, it is not so easy to catch a parasite. But you can find traces of their stay in your house - by laid eggs. But for this you need to know where the fleas lay their eggs.
What are dangerous
Fleas can poison the life of not only a pet, but the whole family, because sometimes they don't care who they bite - an animal or a person. Their bites are not nearly as harmless as they might seem. The fact is that these parasites are carriers of the following diseases:
- pseudotuberculosis is an acute infectious disease, despite the name, there is no relation to pulmonary tuberculosishas;
- tularemia is a bacterial infection that affects the lymph nodes;
- brucellosis is an infection that affects multiple organs and systems of the human body;
- dipilidiosis - tapeworm infection.
In addition, a flea bite can cause allergic dermatitis, the itching at the bite sites is quite strong and lasts for several days, during which a person is able to comb the bite sites until they bleed, which, in turn, is fraught with infection directly into the wound.
How insects get into the apartment
There are plenty of ways for parasites to enter a home, but they usually "arrive" on the fur of pets. But if there are no animals, how then do the parasites get into the room? This can happen if a flea jumps on a person's clothes on the street and thus enters the house. Residents of the first floors, as well as owners of their own houses, are overcome by pests from the basements.
Fleas are unpretentious in everyday life, they love humidity, dampness, dark dusty places in the house. They feed on the blood of humans and animals.
How to understand that there are fleas in the house
The presence of pests in the house is easy enough to detect, they will definitely leave their marks on the human body and on pets. If you notice that the pet often itches, tries to bite the parasite out of its fur, you should know that unexpected tenants have appeared in your house.
On the human body, fleas leave numerous bite marks, which outwardly can be mistakentake for mosquito bites. The difference from mosquito bites is that the bites of these insects itch unbearably long and hard, almost no means save from itching. In addition, medium-sized blisters, similar to burn blisters, often swell at the site of bites. If all these signs are present, then there are fleas in the house. It is necessary to get rid of them immediately, as soon as you notice the first signs of the vital activity of parasites, before they have time to settle down and lay eggs.
In the fur of animals you can easily detect bloodsuckers, but their eggs and larvae are so small that it is quite difficult to see them with the naked eye. However, in advanced cases of infection, when the number of larvae and eggs becomes colossal, they can be seen like this: tiny white balls are flea eggs. The photo shows flea eggs in cats in wool.
In the case of an advanced form of infection, the animal suffers greatly, it may develop bald patches, the skin becomes covered with blisters, small red bite marks, a seal is felt at the site of the bite. This skin reaction is called allergic dermatitis, and is caused by insect saliva.
Effective remedies
Collars
Pets must have a flea collar. This will not only help to destroy existing parasites, but will also serve as a prophylactic. Collars come from different companies, but their principle of operation is the same - the collar is impregnated with poisonous for fleas, but safefor pets, substances.
But you need to remember that the collar is limited in time and needs to be changed approximately every 3-4 months.
Flea shampoos
An effective flea remedy can be purchased at a veterinary pharmacy. Before use, you need to carefully read the instructions, since the concentration of toxic substances in shampoos may vary from each other, so it is important to follow the recommendations on the volume that must be used to treat the animal's hair.
Flea Drops
Drops are applied to the withers of the animal, so it cannot lick off the poison. Previously, the toxic substances that make up the product penetrated through the skin into the blood of the animal, after which the fleas, having drunk such blood, died. Modern products are not absorbed, but remain on the surface of the skin, parasites die from simple contact with the treated animal skin.
Insecticides
Poisonous flea remedies for treating a personal plot, basement and premises are best purchased at the sanitary and epidemiological service. There you can also order the processing of a room or yard, if for some reason you cannot do it yourself.
Means must be dissolved in water according to the instructions and carefully spray the yard, garden or basement. Since poisons are often very toxic, take care to comply with safety measures: wear a respirator and gloves.
Folk remedies
Fleas are afraid of the smell of citrus, so after treating the floors and baseboards inIf you use a product with a strong lemon scent, you can repel parasites. You can make your own water. Slice the lemon and boil the slices in half a liter of water. Leave overnight for better concentration. Then pour into a spray bottle and spray on various surfaces in the house. The tool is ideal for processing soft surfaces - carpets and sofas. In addition to the effect of repelling fleas, the product will bring a pleasant citrus scent into the house and refresh the upholstery of furniture.
In addition, they are repelled by the aroma of mint and cedar. According to veterinary consultant Karin A. Smith, this is why the animal house is often made from cedar boards. Mint tincture can be purchased at a veterinary pharmacy, or you can make your own following the example of a lemon solution.
Parasite reappears - what to do?
Sometimes pet owners are perplexed - they seem to have processed the pet's hair, but after a while the animal starts to itch again and bite fleas. How so? The fact is that adult fleas live on animals, but they lay their eggs not only in the animal's fur, but throughout the house:
- in the crevices;
- behind the plinth;
- in pet's bed;
- in carpets;
- where dust accumulates, etc.
Therefore, in order for flea eggs and insects themselves to be destroyed, it is necessary to process the entire room. It is advisable to do this at one time, so as not to give the parasites a chance to survive. Scientists have calculated how many eggs a flea lays. During a lifetime, one female is able to bringoffspring from five hundred to two thousand eggs.
The pests are very small, the length of an adult is barely three millimeters. Flea eggs are even smaller. They are round and white in color. Finding flea eggs, photos of which can be seen in the article, is extremely difficult. But you need to know where the flea can lay them. Then the problem of how to destroy flea eggs is much easier to solve.
Get rid of fleas
So, knowing what flea eggs look like and where the female lays them, you can destroy the entire population of insects. To do this, it is necessary to treat not only the pet with an insecticide, but also its bedding, all the carpets in the house, wash the floors with water with the addition of a parasite agent in hard-to-reach places. Often, regular flea shampoo, which can be purchased at a pet store or veterinary pharmacy, will solve the problem.
Dissolve a small amount of shampoo in water and wash the floors throughout the house with this water, spray on the carpets and clean them. Wash your pet's bedding with this product and give your pet a bath.
But often the means that get rid of pests do not affect their eggs. How to get rid of flea eggs in this case? It is necessary to carry out the processing of the premises at least twice. The fact is that the larvae from eggs hatch on average within 14 days and become susceptible to poisonous substances contained in insecticides. That is, the secondary treatment of the premises must be carried out approximately two weeks after the first. In this way you will destroy those parasites,that did not die during the first treatment.
Prevention
So that fleas do not disturb, you must follow simple rules:
- regularly treat pet hair with flea products;
- wash animal bedding;
- clean indoor carpets with flea product;
- treat the premises with insecticides several times a season;
- at the beginning of the sowing season, treat the personal plot with pesticides;
- periodically process the basement of the house.
If the house contains a pet, then regardless of whether the collar is on or not, the animal's hair is treated with flea drops - you should always inspect the pet after a walk.
If you follow these simple steps, you will never remember such a problem as fleas.
