Fleas and lice: photos, lifestyle and methods of struggle

Blood-sucking insects can appear in any apartment. Pets are the peddlers, others are interested in people. And in order for the fight against them to be successful, you need to know who you are dealing with. A close examination of the appearance, method of reproduction and nutrition will help to recognize the parasite. So, fleas and lice - the photos published below, and a detailed description of the lifestyle of these pests will certainly help in their destruction.

Taste preferences

Fleas and lice are similar in that they feed exclusively on blood. They are not interested in the debris accumulated in the bucket, the plants on the windowsills, or the crumbs on the table. However, there are also differences. For example, if fleas can parasitize both domestic animals and humans, then lice bite exclusively humans.

On a note! Simply put, cat fleas in the absence of the opportunity to get enough of the blood of a permanent host will attack other animals and humans, while lice will never settle on a dog or rabbit.

This fact suggests that choosing a remedy for fighting fleas and lice must be done correctly - this will help to quickly forget about painful bites. However, the treatment should be thorough and repeated, since only one female who managed to survive, regardless of the species, is able to resume the colony population in a short time.

Malware

Since both fleas and lice are blood-sucking parasites, they do most harm when bitten. Penetrating into the skin, the pest begins to suck blood from the capillary, simultaneously injecting its saliva into the wound. And since it contains a certain amount of toxic substances, the affected area immediately becomes inflamed and begins to itch. When combing this area, the skin is even more injured and there is a risk of infection. In addition, cases of the development of an allergic reaction are not uncommon.

But that's not all. Together with painful bites, fleas and lice can “give” you pathogens of very dangerous diseases. In most cases, fleas become the carriers of the infection, which is associated with their "omnivorous". For example, individuals that previously parasitized on rats and mice are quite capable of introducing plague and typhoid pathogens into the blood of their next victim. Often they become carriers of helminths. As for lice directly, in their list of transmitted diseases, typhoid is in the first place, and in several different types.

Body structure

How to recognize fleas and lice? Paying attention to their appearance.

• A flea has a flattened body on the sides, and it is flat in a louse.
• The size of the first will be slightly larger than the second.
• Lice have short walking limbs with small “hooks” - hooks at the ends. With their help, individuals are attached to the hair. Fleas have long legs, especially a race pair.
• Covers of fleas are brown: from light to dark shade. While lice are gray, their chitin is translucent.

Lifestyle

The main differences between lice and fleas are the lifestyle of each parasite.If the former dwell exclusively in the hairline, holding onto the hairs, the latter do not become attached to their master. Fleas can migrate easily, both around the room and along the street, in search of new sources of saturation.
In addition, lice can only move on foot - running through the body of their breadwinner, while fleas can also jump.

On a note! The distance that a flea travels by jumping can be a hundred times the size of her body and be about 1 m in height!

Breeding

Lice

Lice lay eggs solely on their host's body. And only in rare cases can they run across to the head of another person. This happens only with close contact of people, for example, when children play with each other or in public transport.

Over its short life (1.5-2 months), a louse is able to lay about 150 eggs. They have a light shell, which makes them clearly visible on dark hair. After about a week, offspring comes out of the eggs.

Fleas

Moreover, fleas, on the contrary, never make tubs on the body of the “breadwinner”. They prefer to leave eggs in secluded places: on the floor, under baseboards, in folds of upholstery of upholstered furniture, etc. This circumstance often greatly complicates the fight against these parasites.

The development of fleas in an egg takes a slightly longer period of time than in lice, and ranges from 2 weeks to several months.

Methods of struggle

Fleas and lice behave differently, and therefore the methods of combating representatives of each type of pest will differ.

If we talk about fleas, then they can be destroyed quite poorly. The fight against them involves several stages, and at the same time. Processing should be subject to:

• pets;
• their rugs and houses;
• rooms of your apartment.

In order to get rid of lice, the rooms are not processed - the struggle in this case is based on the destruction of adult individuals and nits that live in the hair, as well as in the boiling of clothes and bedding.

Key similarities and differences

Having examined how fleas differ from lice, you can identify the main parameters by which it will be easy to determine with whom exactly you are dealing and which method of struggle to choose to destroy parasites. Let's start with the differences:

• a flea is larger than lice - the body size of an adult can reach 4 mm;
• lice do not have jumping legs, and therefore cannot jump, however they move very quickly, overcoming about 20 cm in 1 minute;
• fleas can multiply and develop in any secluded places, while lice are “attached” to the body of their master;
• lice parasitize exclusively on humans, fleas, in the absence of a permanent breadwinner, can feed on the blood of other warm-blooded animals;
• the color of chitin also differs - in the former it changes from gray to almost black as it saturates, in the latter it always remains brown.

As for the similarities, first of all, this is nutrition - for these parasites, the main and only source of saturation is blood. After bites, the affected areas begin to itch, there remain painful wounds in which you can easily infect the infection. At the same time, fleas and lice do not live without food for a long time, and under unfavorable conditions they can fall into suspended animation, preserving vital energy in this way.

On a note! Hibernating, bloodsuckers can exist for about a year or more!

By their appearance, fleas and lice give their “breadwinner” considerable discomfort, and therefore the fight against them must be started immediately. If, in time, steps to eliminate pests are not taken, then they will very quickly increase the number of their colony, which will complicate the process of their destruction in the future.