Fleas

Fleas are wingless insects with mouth-parts adapted for piercing skin and sucking blood. Fleas are external parasites, and survive predominately off the blood of mammals (including bats and humans) and birds. They are often discovered indoors in floor cracks & crevices, along baseboards, under rug edges and in furniture or beds.

Fleas are small, approximately 1/16 to 1/8-inch long, agile, and very often dark in color. The flea body is hard, polished, and covered with many hairs and short spines, directed backward. The tough body is able to withstand great pressure. Their legs are long, and the hind pair are well adapted for jumping. In fact, this common pest control problem can jump vertically up to 7 inches, and horizontally up to 13 inches. This is around 200 times their own body length, making the flea one of the best jumpers of all known animals (relative to body size), second only to the froghopper.

Fleas not only cause an insect control problem for people and pets, they also act as a vector for disease. Fleas can cause severe medical problems, which include flea allergy dermatitis (FAD), secondary skin irritations and, in extreme cases, anemia, tapeworms, and stomach flu. As well, fleas can transmit the bubonic plague and many other diseases, from humans to rodents, rodents to humans; and from animals to humans.

Read more about the flea.