Dog flea, Ctenocephalides canis, and cat flea, Ctenocephalides felis. They can cause more problems than the entire spider combined. Last week we had a discussion regarding how brown recluse and spiders are made scapegoats for misdiagnosed human ailments. This is a timely topic because of the recent misinformation published in newspapers and an extreme email circulating that purports to show the thumb of a man that was allegedly bitten by a brown recluse.
What the medical community and pet-owners have apparently overlooked as the culprit, and should be looking at, is the tiny flea – that enigmatic little beast that has been living with and on Man ever since we walked out of our caves into the sunlight.
Fleas, Oh Best Beloved, pose the greater threat to your welfare than spiders. All you have to do is review the world history classes you took (or are taking) as to the role of fleas in the occurrence of the Black Death that wiped out an estimated 75 million people worldwide.
The story in the Bulletin that I referred to last week mentioned that a Terrebonne woman and her son had allegedly been “bitten by hobo spiders.” The woman was said to have several pets and she allegedly suffered lesions on her waist. What do you know about that… Sound familiar to you pet-owners? Could fleas have caused all those damages to her body? And not the much-aligned spiders she was so alarmed about? I wonder…
If you have dogs or cats, you’ll want to know more about the fleas that might latch onto them, becuase such an association is virtually unavoidable.
Fleas are tiny (2-8 mm) highly specialized bloodsucking parasites in the Order of insects called Siphonaptera, which means “wingless siphon.” They are formidable bloodsuckers and the diseases they transmit have claimed more victims than all the wars ever fought. Thankfully, today most fleas are better known for their irritation and pest status worldwide. Nevertheless, the plague flea still persists and is found on our beloved golden mantle ground squirrels and other rodents in Oregon.
Dog and cat fleas are light brown to mahogany in color and roughly oval shaped. Their bodies are flattened which enables them to quickly move through the host’s hair. The small head is equipped with sawing and sucking mouthparts, and two tiny simple eyes. To aid in finding a host, they possess two short antennae on the head that are sensitive to heat, vibration, traces of carbon dioxide, change in air currents and shadows. If you have ever seen a “flea circus”, you know they can leap great distances. The better to hop on you, my dear…
Both female and male fleas rely on blood for their nutrition, AND they can survive for several months without feeding. (Over 200 days – ever wonder why they’re so tough to kill?) When a flea feeds, it penetrates the host’s tissue and injects a small amount of anti-coagulant to permit easy siphoning of the blood. And, right at that moment, all your suffering begins.
Fleas in general can (and will!) attack a range of hosts, and their ability to transfer from one host to another – as in cat to dog to human and visa-versa – allows for transfer of a wide range of pathogens including viral, bacterial and parasitic diseases.
The main flea species that attack humans are cat fleas, dog fleas, and human flea Pulex irritans. The latter two fleas are relatively rare in today’s society, but common cat fleas are found on both cats and dogs, and are usually the tiny beast responsible for attacks on humans and flea plagues.
Cat fleas play host to the dog tapeworm, Dipylidium caninum. Thankfully, the parasitic worm can only infect a pet or person if they swallow the flea.
And then there are the much-maligned scorpions that I do not have room to discuss. Suffice to say there is not one living in Central Oregon that can kill you.
So, if you wake in the night with a mysterious welt on your waist, backside, or an itch behind your ear, and your cat is sleeping at the foot of the bed – don’t jump to conclusions if you find a spider in the bathroom. And if someone cryptically waves their hand and says, “Oh, horrors, that’s a spider bite,” you’d best be sure the diagnosis is correct.
This article appears in Apr 24-30, 2008.
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Since fleas cannot live at this altitude, what is the relevance of all this drivel? It might be relevant if this publication distributed to the Valley, but…..????
Bob, your kidding right or lack formal education. I have bagged many a mule deer on Pine Mountain and always found a village of these little vermon around their “junk”. Pine Mountain is considerably higher than Bend.
Let me guess, you weren’t born here were you Bob.
Fleas die when the temperature dips below 20 F for more than 48 hours.
no fleas in central oregon- lived here and had cats and dogs and been outdoors a lot my whole life.
One of those rare instances I am wrong. I was thinking ticks, not fleas. It has been so long since I lived there, 1978, that I can’t remember fleas or not. But ya-all do have ticks. Guess they are just tougher. I think it less of a argument of temperature and more of elevation. I live at a sea-level pass, just as cold as Bend, and we have boocoo fleas.
So, I found fleas on both my dogs. Am I just seeing things? This was just the other day. It’s June 14th, and I live in La Pine. Everyone keeps telling me fleas don’t live here, and they think I’m crazy. Then what did I find on my dogs?
Fleas can (and do) live at any altitude, though they are less common in places with low humidity like Denver, or Bend. There are around 2,500 species of flea, and only around 500 of these prey on dogs or cats, meaning the other 2,000 early interact with humans. While Bend has several species that target rabbits, and Denver more than a few affecting their bird population, the species we are likely to notice are rare, usually imported from other states. An old friend wrote her dissertation on the flea population of Pheonix, a city that was too dry for most fleas till the populace added so many swimming pools they outnumber the population, causing an artificial humidity problem, and leading many non native flea species migrating into Arizona. I’ll see if there’s a copy online I can link that has all her references.
Not what I was looking for, but here is a credible answer. “It’s not as much about the altitude as it is about the dry air,” says veterinary parasitologist Dr. Michael Dryden of Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine, Manhattan. “As far as I know, there’s no magical altitude cut-off where fleas don’t live. Of course, the higher you go, the more sparse they become. While fleas that live on dogs aren’t found where you live, there may be fleas on rodents that carry plague.”
http://www.latimes.com/tn-hbi-et-0903-my-pet-world-20150903-story.html
Sorry Bob, but you obviously have no idea what you’re talking about. Living in an area all your life and spending lots of time outdoors doesn’t mean you’ve seen half the species that are there, especially ones that are nocturnal like many fleas. Oh, sorry for the big word Bob, nocturnal means a critter stays up at night and rests during the day. Though fleas, like sharks, never seem to sleep, only stoping during the day to rest.