A flea is a small insect that doesn't have wings. Fleas are external parasites that get their food from the blood of mammals and birds. There are many kinds of fleas, but the most well-known ones are:
- Flea Cat
- Dog Flea
- The Northern Rat Flea
- Oriental Rat Flea
Fleas rarely cause harm to the animal they live on. Most of the time, they are just annoying. There can be a problem, though, if the flea saliva causes an allergic reaction in the host. When fleas bite, they usually leave a slightly raised, swollen, and itchy spot with a single hole in the middle.
In spite of what I said above, it's important to know that fleas can spread diseases. This is a rare situation, but it does happen. The bubonic plague is a good example of this because the disease spread from rodents to humans. If that wasn't bad enough, fleas can also spread Murine typhus fever and sometimes even tapeworms.
Fleas are busy little bugs that can go from egg to adult in as little as two weeks or as long as eight months, depending on the conditions of their environment. Usually, a female flea will lay about 15 eggs each day after eating blood, and she can lay up to 600 eggs in her lifetime. Most of the time, the eggs are laid on the host, but they often fall off. It takes between 2 days and 2 weeks for these flea eggs to hatch.
