Fleas, like many other types of insects, undergo a complete transformation in their development. Actually, they are called that: insects with a full cycle of transformation. This means that from the eggs that the female flea lays, larvae are hatched that are very different from adult fleas both in their appearance and lifestyle.
This type of development provides certain advantages for insects: flea larvae and adults do not compete with each other for food sources and habitats, and, accordingly, at each stage of development, parasites have a better chance of survival.
However, for those who are trying to fight fleas, for example, in an apartment or house, this type of development of parasites creates certain difficulties: in some cases, it is necessary to destroy the larvae using additional means and measures. But first of all, they still need to be able to detect in order to know which places to treat with insecticides.
What do flea larvae look like?
Flea larvae look like tiny white worms with a translucent body. Even if you look carefully, you can’t see their paws - they simply don’t exist. But the body of the larva is covered with sparse hairs, clearly visible under a magnifying glass or microscope.
On a photo enlarged several times - a flea larva:
In her body, the esophagus is clearly visible, filled with digestible food - various organic residues.
The maximum length of flea larvae that can be found in residential premises is 4-5 mm, the usual one is 2-3 mm. It is easy to confuse them with fly larvae that live in similar places, but at the same time, maggot is more mobile and does not have such transparent body covers.
The flea larva has a rather large head and 13 segments. Evolutionarily, the first three segments served to attach the legs, but gradually the limbs atrophied as unnecessary. Flea larvae have well-developed jaws of a scraping-gnawing type, allowing them to feed on rather roughage.
The photo below shows eggs and flea larvae:
It is interesting
The smallest flea larvae, which have just emerged from the egg, have a small egg tooth on the crown of the head - a hard outgrowth that helps them break through the egg shell and emerge into the world. At the first molt, the tooth falls off along with the chitinous shell of the body.
Whether the flea infests cats, dogs, or rats (cat, dog, and rat fleas), insect larvae look almost the same. Therefore, when finding flea larvae in cats on a bedding or in a resting place, one can never be sure which species they belong to. Yes, and there is no particular need for this - the lifestyle of all these species is similar, and they should be dealt with using the same methods.
In the photo - flea larvae in large numbers in a cage in rodents:
Lifestyle and nutrition of future parasites
Generally speaking, flea larvae are not parasites. Their food consists of various decaying organic matter, from the remains of plants to the excrement of adult fleas, in which the undigested blood of the victim has been preserved. The larvae themselves do not bite either animals or humans.
On a note
Flea larvae in cats and dogs do not live on wool. If any worm-like parasites have been found in the pet, these are not flea larvae.
The development of the larva continues, depending on the availability of food and temperature conditions, from 9 days to several months.
Under optimal conditions - a temperature of about 23 ° C and an air humidity of 60%, the larvae develop for about three weeks. During this time, they molt three times, constantly grow and feed. At the last stage, the larva envelops itself in a thin silk cocoon and turns into a chrysalis.
At too high temperatures, flea larvae dry out - at low humidity this happens already at 34-36 ° C. At high air humidity (up to 90%), growing juveniles survive this temperature quite normally.
Flea larvae can starve for a long time - up to 3-4 weeks. At the same time, they do not develop, do not grow, but do not fall into anabiosis. The larvae have developed the so-called negative phototaxis - wherever they are, they try to climb into the least illuminated place. Although the eyes of flea larvae are practically not developed, they feel the presence of light well and try to hide from the illuminated place.
Where to look for flea larvae in an apartment or house?
Flea larvae usually stay where they have direct access to food and can be in comfortable climatic conditions - in the trash, secluded warm places, in animal cages - in the toilet and under the beds. In nature - in the nests and burrows of mammals and birds.
In apartments and houses, flea larvae should be looked for primarily in places of rest and keeping cats, dogs and other pets, in heaps of garbage in pantries and closets, among stocks of old groceries.
In household plots in chicken coops and places where animals are kept, flea larvae live directly in the litter and dried droppings. It is under a layer of garbage and droppings in the same chicken coop that flea larvae sometimes swarm literally by the thousands.
However, you can meet flea larvae in completely unexpected places - in vases with flowers, under a trash can, in a box in which vegetables are stored. It is important to understand that by themselves they do not start here, and they should be looked for only when adult fleas were found in the apartment.
The photo below shows a flea larva under a microscope - you can easily correlate its size with the thickness of a cat's hair:
Means and methods for the destruction of flea larvae
Flea larvae should be destroyed indoors using the same means that are used against adult fleas:
- it can be like concentrates for dilution such as the Executioner, Cucarachi or Tetrix, Raptor or Combat aerosols;
- as well as microencapsulated products such as Dana or Get (the latter has almost no smell);
- and even folk remedies - turpentine, kerosene, vinegar.
Effective against flea larvae and traditional substances such as Dichlorvos or Karbofos, however, in terms of their safety and ease of use, they are much inferior to modern drugs.
Dusts are also effective against larvae of fleas, which are practically useless against adults. However, it is somewhat more difficult to use powdered insecticides, since they need to be scattered in places where the larvae are permanently deployed, which is sometimes problematic, and sometimes - when the larvae are behind baseboards or under the floor - it is completely impossible.
At the same time, it is very important that the dust itself will certainly be near the larvae, since it only acts when the pests eat it along with other food. Therefore, it turns out to be generally more difficult to deal with larvae than with adult fleas - even with aerosols, when fighting them, you need to treat places where it is very difficult to get close and where adult fleas themselves are not found.
It makes no sense to remove the growing juvenile parasites with natural preparations that can only scare them away. For example, if the same wormwood or tansy can scare away adult parasites from the premises, the larvae will have nowhere to go even in the atmosphere of such herbs, and they will simply get used to such repellents.
It is interesting
With the constant removal of fleas with folk repellents, they quickly develop resistance to them. So, for example, cases of the development of resistance in fleas to wormwood, eucalyptus, thyme, herbs traditionally used as a means to remove parasites from the premises, have been documented. Such resistance almost always develops during the larval stage.
Flea larvae do not enter the premises on their own, on cats or dogs. They can appear here only from eggs laid by adult insects. Therefore, the only way to protect the apartment from flea larvae is to prevent adult biting parasites from entering the premises.
An example of a carpet literally infested with flea larvae
Flea breeding video: from egg to larva and adult
