Rat fleas are parasitic insects that transmit very dangerous diseases: plague, fever, helminthic invasions. Occurring not so often as dog and cat fleas, nevertheless they are able to enter the apartment through pets and attack a person.
Description of Rat Flea
Externally, rat fleas (see photos in the review) are very similar to their counterparts. Differences can be seen with a large increase in insects using an optical device. They have a dark brown flattened body (from 0.5 to 1 mm in length) with a clearly visible head, chest and abdomen, no wings, short forelegs and large hind limbs (about 30 mm), allowing for huge jumps. The body-covering bristles and spikes are turned back, which does not create resistance when the parasite advances in the thick coat of the animal.
On the head there is a pair of simple eyes, antennae and a piercing-sucking mouth apparatus, which consists of three parts: the upper and lower jaws with teeth and long palps and the lower lip with two palps playing the tongue and proboscis at the same time. The insect has no upper lip. Females are often larger than males and differ from them with a curved back and a testicle located in the abdomen.
Features of existence
The main hosts on which rat fleas parasitize are various species of rodents.
Moreover, bloodsuckers are not permanent residents on the body of the animal: they are just temporary guests attacking the four-legged with the aim of obtaining food - blood. When saturated, the parasites move to the habitats of their owners (burrows, rat nests, piles of garbage), trying not to move away from them for long distances.
Developmental stages
Over the course of their life, female rat fleas lay about 400-500 white eggs (5-8 pieces at a time), which are about 0.5 mm long, and they must be saturated with blood before laying. Nests equip in various substrates (for example, dust on the floor or dry garbage), but most often, in an apartment, rat fleas lay eggs in the litter of the owner.
In each egg, larvae develop; after 5-10 days, a moving worm-like creature comes out that does not have eyes and paws, but is equipped with a gnawing mouth apparatus.
Growing rat fleas feed on the excrement of adult animals containing undigested blood, putrid residues of grass and wool. In the apartment, the larvae feel at ease in the old dirty carpets and floor coverings. Having passed the mandatory stage of pupation, they turn into full-fledged adult insects. At home, decorative rats and mice are excellent food sources for such parasites.
For lack of such, insects without a twinge of conscience will move to the body of domestic dogs and cats and be sure to cling to a person.
How to get into the apartment
Rat fleas can enter the territory of an apartment in several ways:
- with a pet that came from a walk;
- rising from the basement, especially if there are rats in it (therefore, rat fleas in the apartment on the 1st floor are frequent guests);
- in contact with a strange animal infected with parasites.
Rat fleas: bite symptoms
In rat fleas, there is no enzyme that anesthetizes piercing the skin, so their bites cause great discomfort and are accompanied by severe pain. An insect parasite can suck blood for several hours in a row. Having been fully saturated, it returns to the next meal in a few days. The bite site is fairly easy to detect: it quickly turns red, itching is severe, the skin swells, and the puncture point may fester. This happens because insect saliva enters the human body, which can cause powerful inflammation on the skin. Also, the bites of rat fleas can be accompanied by rapidly spreading allergic rashes, fever, ulcers in the oral cavity, swollen lymph nodes, headaches, and even nervous disorders.
The danger of rat flea bites
To a greater extent, rat fleas suffer from owners of delicate skin that is easier to pierce: these are women and children.
Rat fleas (a photo of bites fully conveys all their danger) are carriers of numerous worm eggs and a number of dangerous diseases, such as brucellosis, encephalitis, anthrax, salmonella, plague, various forms of hepatitis. Along the way, parasites can deliver incredible psychological and physical anxiety to their owners. Indeed, the discomfort that occurs after bites of such insects can unbalance even the calmest people, cause them to feel constant tiredness and sleep disturbance.
The causative agents of certain infectious diseases can remain viable in the body of the pest for a sufficiently long period, which makes these insects extremely dangerous for humans. Infectious material is transmitted in the process of sucking a blood parasite or through the waste products of the latter, which appear in the human body when combing bitten places.
First aid for a bite of a rat flea
For first aid, remove the insect from the site of the bite, wash the wound with soapy water, treat with a disinfectant and apply ice. In order to avoid the development of allergic reactions, it is recommended to take an antihistamine. To prevent infection in the blood, combing the wound should be avoided. If you have a fever, a severe allergic reaction, difficulty breathing with wheezing and shortness of breath, you should immediately contact a medical institution for professional assistance.
Rat fleas in an apartment can do without food for quite a long time (about 100 days) and tolerate any temperature fluctuations perfectly. Most often, they are found in apartments where pets such as hamsters, guinea pigs, decorative mice and rats live. It is worthwhile to understand: the longer no control methods are used against rat fleas, the greater their number will become and, accordingly, the risk of developing serious diseases in humans will increase. If rat fleas appeared in an apartment, how to get rid of such parasites that pose a huge danger to human health?
Rat flea disposal methods
The best solution for getting rid of rat fleas is professional pest control. Only specialists in this matter can guarantee high-quality disposal of dangerous insects in a short time. With independent control of rat fleas, surface treatment with aerosol insecticides will be effective. It is required to approach the treatment of premises against rat fleas with all responsibility:
- provide access to inaccessible places;
- to cover or hide food products in lockers;
- remove animals from the premises.
In the process of disinfestation, with special care should be processed cracks, corners, joints of floors, ceilings and walls. Also, one should not forget about carpets, curtains, upholstered furniture. At the end of the insecticidal treatment, the room should be closed and left for several hours, giving the drug time to act. Then you need to ventilate the room, shake out carpets and curtains on the street, thoroughly wipe the floors using turpentine solution (½ cup of the preparation on a bucket of water).
For primary treatments are effective “Karbofos”, Raid, “Tetrix”, “Combat”, “Medilis Ziper”, “Microfos”. A possible second stage may require the use of stronger sprays: Hartz, Frontline, Advantage. Flea larvae can be easily destroyed by special means: Clean House, Fas, Pyrethrum. Pets are recommended to be treated with insecticidal drops against fleas (for example, Barsik), shampoos or sprays (Celandine, Mr. Kiss). And yet, if rat fleas appeared in the apartment, how to get rid?
Folk remedies against parasites
Of the folk methods, rat fleas can be scared away with the help of dry wormwood, which must be spread out in rooms.
An effective way to prevent rat fleas from entering an apartment is to treat the premises with herbal infusions of wormwood, eucalyptus leaves, tansy. Dried grass needs to be poured with boiling water, insisted in a cool place for about 12 hours, poured into a spray bottle and treated. Such medicinal solutions can be used when bathing pets or in skin rubbing.
Pine sawdust is a natural repellent of rat fleas, and it would be advisable to fill the bedding of your pet with it. It is especially important to carry out this operation in the pre-spring period when the period of activation flea begins.
Preventative measures
Fleas feel comfortable in places of accumulation of dust and dry garbage, therefore, in order to prevent them from entering their territory, you should regularly and thoroughly clean the premises with the processing of bedspreads, furniture, carpets and bedding on which pets sleep.
In a private house, measures for cleaning from dirt should also be transferred to cellars and cellars.