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Where Do My Pets Fleas Come From?

Nicole Rousell on

Published in Cats & Dogs News

To help answer the question of where do my pets fleas come from, it may be helpful to first explain that fleas are ecologically defined as external parasites and the word parasite in turn has a dictionary definition of an animal or plant that lives on or in another and feeds on it.

So, from that we can deduce that a flea is an animal (or insect in this particular case) that feeds on another animal and that other animal is going to be your pet (or host to give it its correct technical term).

The next bit of information that may help make things even more clear is the fact that the reason fleas feed off of animals is because your dog, cat, rabbit, chicken or maybe even ferret is a warm-blooded mammal and as such fresh blood is the sole food source of an adult flea.

Perhaps you can see a pattern starting to emerge here and in simple terms fleas use your pets a mobile diner. In fact, three-quarters of a fleas life is spent somewhere else other than on the host animal and once you realize that your pet has fleas you are going to have to treat not just your cat, dog etc but their bedding and surrounding environment too.

Obviously these parasites have to come from somewhere to start with and they prefer high humidity to somewhere that is very dry and arid and they thrive at higher temperatures too. So, you will find them in sandy soils, dirt borders and places like crawl spaces under houses.

The one thing that most people know about fleas is that their jumping capabilities are legendary and because of this they have no difficulty in moving from animal to animal or from their surrounding environment onto their chosen host animal. So, if your pet meets other infested animals or passes through a fleas habitat it is easy to see how quickly they can pick them up unintentionally.

 

The main problem is the numbers that are involved as the adult female flea is capable of laying between 45 to 50 eggs per day once she has had a blood feed from your pet and these can drop out anywhere that your pet goes and the cycle will continue.

So, in answer to where do my pets fleas come from? There is no one specific place, in fact it can be a bit of a lottery to try to pinpoint the exact source, the important thing is to treat your pet and home to get them gone as quickly and efficiently as possible.

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Having done some additional research on flea eradication you can now discover some added benefits and information as well as see an entire range of flea eradication devices and treatments by going to=> http://www.squidoo.com/getridfleas


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