The lifestyle of the flea & tick

posted: Tue May 14 18:42:30 EDT 2019 by: Dr. Plodzik Tags: "Clinic Specials" "News" 

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Flea Life Cycle

The flea life cycle is amazing in that these nasty buggers have such a short life span and can reproduce so quickly!  Adult fleas only live for about 5-25 days in total and in order to reproduce, they need a blood meal from our pets! This adult phase is the ONLY phase where you would see them on your pet. The rest of the life cycle is still happening just not visible to
the naked eye. 

Flea eggs are then produced after their blood meal and they can produce 1 EGG PER HOUR. These eggs are so tiny, we cannot see them with our naked eyes, and they are so smooth that they fall right out of our pets coat onto our floors, carpets, bedding and lawns as they walk around with the adult fleas feeding on them. 

In 2 days, from those eggs, larvae hatch and for 5-15 days these larvae feed on organic debris or “flea dirt” that is undigested blood from our pets that acts as the main source of food for these flea larvae.

The larvae then turn to pupae which are coated in silk cocoons in which the adult fleas will eventually erupt from.

In total the flea life cycle can last 30-75 days, so almost 3 months!

This is why it is recommended when a flea infestation happens, be sure to treat your pets with a good preventive for at least 3
months to eliminate a current flea infestation.

Tick Life Cycle
To understand the tick life cycle also means we can better keep these nasty little parasites in check!

First a well fed female tick (full of blood from our pets or even us!) will lay several THOUSANDS of eggs in a secluded environment (off of a host). What hatches from those eggs are six legged larvae born weeks to months
after the initial egg was laid.

These larvae live on the ground or in low vegetation just awaiting for the opportunity to latch onto a host like a bird or small mammal.

After these larvae live on and feed on this initial host for several days, they become full of blood (engorged) and drop to the ground and molt not into a beautiful butterfly, but a creepy and sneaky eight legged NYMPH.

These nymphs then find another avian or mammalian host to feed on for days or even weeks before then becoming full enough (engorged) to drop to the ground once again to molt into an adult tick (still having eight legs)
and this adult host must find another host (you, me, your pet…) in order to be able to lay more eggs!

So just from knowing this life cycle we know that ticks spend a lot of time in the environment searching “questing”for a host to live on and feed off of. Some ticks are able to survive in temperatures 30 degrees Fahrenheit and
above and we know that the soil or ground cover remains warmer than the air so the potential for the ticks at any life stage to survive outside in Michigan despite winter months is a very real threat! This is why we recommend year-round prevention for flea and tick coverage to prevent diseases like LYME disease from being transmitted to
our furry companions.