Flea Control
The Flea Life Cycle
1. Flea Eggs
The adult flea can lay up to 50 eggs per day. These eggs are laid on the coat of the animal and will drop off at various times and places in the pets (i.e. our) environment. Contrary to popular opinion the fleas don’t leave the pet to lay their eggs.
2. Flea Larvae
After as few as 1-2 days (in optimum conditions) the smooth eggs hatch into larvae which then undergo 2 moults before forming a pupa. These larvae crawl away from light so the pupa is more protected. Larva feed on flea faeces and other organic debris, but not on your pet.
3. Pupa
The flea pupa stays dormant until it receives a trigger stimulus to hatch. These “triggers” include vibration, temperature, pressure, noise and carbon dioxide (i.e. anything that indicates an animal is nearby). The time from receiving this stimulus until hatching can be as short as one minute. Pupa can stay dormant for several months before hatching if there is no environmental stimuli.
4. The Adult Flea
The adult flea quickly looks for an animal host to enable it to feed (on blood), grow and mature to enable it to lay eggs again. This cycle can take as little as 12 days (typically between three and eight weeks) and up to 6-7 months. The difference in the length of the life cycle depends on environmental conditions. Newly hatched adults only live for about 1 week if they don’t feed.
