Welcome to AboutBugs.com
Pest Management Priducts Division of CSPA
You are currently viewing an unstyled text-only version of the site.
Skin Irritation - Annoying to some, fleabites can cause serious irritation in sensitive individuals. Bird fleas may become a problem when construction disturbs bird nests in buildings. The human flea (Pulex irritans) can also cause irritation but is now much less frequently encountered in the U.S. than cat and dog fleas.
Tapeworm - Young children may be at risk if they play in areas where pet excrement is present and the cat or dog has the tapeworm Dipylidium caninum. When tapeworm eggs are defecated by a cat or dog, flea larvae may feed on the excrement and ingest the eggs. The tapeworm eggs hatch in the flea's larval gut. When the flea completes its development, a cat or dog may ingest the adult flea during grooming or nipping. A child coming into close contact with a pet may ingest a tapeworm-infected adult flea from the pet.
Animal Health Impact
Cat and Dog Flea - The cat flea, which parasitizes both dogs and cats and can transmit a species of tapeworm to pets, is the main flea of concern to most North Americans. The less common dog flea is similar to the cat flea.
Adult cat and dog fleas remain on the host (rather than jumping on the animal only to feed), causing severe irritation and vigorous scratching. This can lead to severe coat loss and frequent visits to a veterinarian. Both flea species may transmit the tapeworm Dipylidium caninum. The tapeworm's eggs are defecated by the cat or dog and larval fleas consume the feces.
Sticktight Flea - An important poultry pest in subtropical America, the sticktight flea remains attached to a chicken, causing ulcers in which flea eggs are laid, and in heavy infestations, anemia. The sticktight flea also will attack cats, dogs, horses and humans.
Myxomatosis - This flea-vectored disease of rabbits wiped out nearly the entire rabbit population of the United Kingdom in the 1950s, eliminating rabbit trapping as an income source for many and reducing the food source of raptorial birds and predatory animals. The disease has been deliberately introduced in Australia as a means of controlling huge infestations of rabbits.
