Flea and Tick : Have you got fleas?

Another mild, damp summer - just the weather for fleas. Last year the UK saw record numbers of "siphonaptera" according to environmental health officers and this year looks likely to see a similar story.

So, Map of the Week this week is actually four maps looking at the UK from the flea viewpoint.

Map showing recordings of fleas in Britain and Ireland

There are about 60 species of flea in Britain and thanks to the extraordinary life work of Bob George, a former RAF pilot and school teacher who began recording fleas in about 1950, naturalists now have a much more profound understanding of this wingless and largely friendless insect.

Bob initiated the national flea recording scheme in 1964 and so these maps reflect almost half a century of new data but also many historic records including those of the natural historian Miriam Rothschild.

According to Bob's "Atlas of the Fleas of Britain and Ireland", the human flea (Pulex irritans) is considered to be of New World origin. "It is possible that this species may have originated in South America, associated with guinea pigs", he writes. "Pulex irritans appears to have spread with humans around the world during the post-glacial period.

There is evidence of its presence at Viking settlements in Dublin and York."

The human flea is in decline apparently, a victim of the vacuum cleaner and insecticides.

The cat flea, however, seems in good health and is Britain's most common flea. Dog fleas are rarer and are almost unknown in Scotland. If a pooch has fleas north of the border, they are almost certainly cat fleas.

Our final map shows recordings of Brtain's rarest flea: the Manx shearwater flea. You will need to look closely for the only dot - in the Inner Hebrides off the West coast of Scotland. The Manx shearwater flea is only found at high altitudes (650 m and above) and has only been collected from shearwater nest burrows on the mountain of Hallival on Rum.

Fleas can jump up to 150 times the length of their bodies, equivalent to a person jumping about 300 metres. Their acceleration is equivalent to 50 times that of the space shuttle during lift off.

According to the Health Protection Agency, fleas are carriers of the cat and dog tapeworm, which may infect humans. Apart from this there is no disease transmitted by fleas in the UK (although they are still an important carrier of plague in many parts of the world).

If you are interested in the distribution of animals, birds and insects in the UK, go to the National Biodiversity Network Gateway where you can take advantage of a wealth of wildlife data to make your own maps. You could also get involved with adding dots to maps through involvement with a recording scheme - visit the NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology Biological Records Centre to find out more.

BBC news reported by Mark Easton

Ticks and Fleas : How to Remove a Tick from your Pet Using the Twist Method or Removal Products

Frontline Tick and Flea : What is Tick?

Description

Ticks are in the phylum of animals called Arthropoda (jointed appendage). This phylum of animals is the largest in the animal kingdom. There are over 850 different species of ticks, and they parasitize every class of terrestrial vertebrate animal, including amphibians.

Ticks are small rounded arachnids that cling to one spot and do not move. They have inserted their head under the skin and are engorging themselves on the blood. Diseases carried by ticks means that you should have yourself or your pets checked after you find ticks. On the one hand, ticks are a little easier to deal with since they remain outdoors, and do not infest houses the way fleas do on the other hand, they carry more dangerous diseases and are harder to find.

Role in diseases

Ticks are the most important arthropod in transmitting diseases to domestic animals and run a close second to mosquitoes in arthropod borne human diseases. They transmit a greater variety of infectious agents than any other type of arthropod. Ticks can cause disease and illness directly. They are responsible for anemia due to blood loss, dermatosis due to salivary secretions, and ascending tick paralysis due to neurotoxins in the salivary secretions. They also can be the vector of other diseases. Some of the more noted tick borne diseases are babesiosis, anaplasmosis, ehrlichia, East Coast fever, relapsing fever, rocky mountain spotted fever and, of course, Lyme disease.

Kinds of ticks

There are two basic types of ticks. Soft ticks, the argasids, are distinguished by their soft, leathery cuticle and lack of scutum. They can be recognized easily by their subterminal mouthparts that are on the underside of the tick. Soft ticks when engorged with blood blow up like a balloon. Soft ticks are fast feeders, being able to tank up in a matter of hours.

Hard ticks, the Ixodids, have a hard plate on the dorsal surface and have terminal mouthparts. When attaching, a tick will slice open the skin with the mouthparts and then attach itself. They also secrete a cement that hardens and holds the tick onto the host. Hard ticks are slow feeders, taking several days to finish their bloodmeal.

During feeding a tick may extract up to 8 ml of blood, they can take 100X their body weight in blood. Interestingly, they concentrate the blood during feeding and will return much of the water to the host while losing some by transpiration through the cuticle.

Frontline Tick and Flea : How to remove a tick?

When you find a tick, use tweezers to pick up the body and pull s-l-o-w-l-y and gently, and the mouthparts will release. You should see a small crator in your dog's skin, if you see what looks like black lines, you've left the head of the tick in. At this point, if your dog is mellow enough, you should try and pick it out. Otherwise, you may need to take your pet into the vet, as the head parts will lead to an infection. Ticks carry a lot of rickettsial diseases, including Lyme disease and Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, so you should wash your hands thoroughly with soap after handling a tick.

Some veterinarians will put on gloves, smear one finger with a bit of mineral oil and massage the protruding part of the tick for a minute or so. The tick will back out.

Tips:

• Don't use any of the folklore remedies (matches, cigarettes, pins, gasoline) that will irritate the tick. They increase the likelihood that the tick will "spit up" in you, which increases the risk of disease.
• Oil is not effective because the breathing requirements of the tick are so small it could last hours covered with oil.
• The mouthpiece is barbed rather than spiralled, so trying to rotate the tick out doesn't provide any advantage.
• The preferred method is to use special tweezers designed for that purpose, and pull straight out.

Lyme disease is usually carried by tiny deer ticks (two other kinds of ticks have also been identified as carriers) , which are the size of the head of a pin. You must look yourself or your pet over very carefully to find these kind of ticks. Other ticks can be as large as peppercorns. This can vary depending on whether or not the tick has yet engorged itself -- the deer tick can be as large as the more familiar Dog Tick if it has had time to feed. So if you are in doubt, preserve the tick in rubbing alcohol and have your vet take a look at it.

Frontline Tick and Flea : Combing your pet

Flea Dirt

Electronic Flea Comb

Flea combs with fine teeth that snag fleas are commercially available. It is helpful to have a small dish of ammonia-laced water on hand to kill the fleas on the comb rather than trying to nail each one by hand. Alternatively, mix a few drops of detergent into the dish of water so that there is no surface tension and fleas dropped into the treated water will drown. Use a metal comb; the plastic ones are too flexible and allow the fleas to escape.

You will typically find the most fleas along your pet's back, groin area, and at the base of the tail.

This by itself will never rid your pet from fleas since flea larvae may also be in bedding, furniture and carpet. It is, however, a useful way to keep an eye on the flea population, and if used as a preventive measure can keep them in check. If you have a major infestation, though, you will have to get rid of most of the fleas before you can use just a comb on your pet.

Frontline Tick and Flea: How can I tell if my pet has fleas?

To check if your pet has fleas, part its hair and look for:

• Small bits of brown "dust," attached to the fur itself. The fleas excrete digested blood. See if the dust dissolves into a red liquid upon contact with a wet paper towel.
• Skin Irritation: flea bites or scratching and biting may leave red, irritated skin, and even bald patches in bad cases.
• Small, fast moving brown shapes are fleas.
• Or, use a flea comb and see what you get.

You may also see "flea dust," fleas, or even larvae on your pet's bedding.

Dried blood in its ears may indicate ear mites and you should consult your vet to find out what the problem is.

Frontline Tick and Flea : Basic flea and tick treatment

The most basic flea and tick treatment that you will want to try to get rid of fleas and ticks is a thorough bath with soap. Soap will act like an insecticide to the insects on your dog. Some might think that this is an ineffective way of getting rid of fleas and ticks - maybe because it is so simple. But soap in water really does work effectively. The fatty acid found in soap can kill fleas, but one must not rely on soap in water alone, especially with puppies.

If this is not enough to get rid of fleas and ticks, use flea dips for a more effective insecticide. The ingredient found in flea dips are called pyrethrins. This is an active ingredients in many insecticides but is the least toxic of all flea treatments - so it is safe for your dogs. They are effective and can quickly cover your dog. Do not use flea dips for your pet cat however, because cats are allergic to pyrethrins and the dip could cause more harm than good.

Linalool/d-limonene spray is also effective for ridding your dogs of fleas and ticks. The extracts from a lemon peel happens to be an effective insecticidal treatment. It is mostly sold in sprays for your convenience and easy application. Try to spray evenly all over the dog, but avoid the eyes, mouth and nose. The linalool/d-limonene spray is effective on all stages of flea and tick development. They can kill pupa, larva, eggs or developed insects, making it very effective for the bedding treatments where your pets sleep. No matter how much of the frontline flea and tick treatments you use, if the bedding and the environment your pet lives is infested by these parasites, your efforts will be wasted.

If you have found the treatment of your choice and have been successful in getting rid of all fleas and ticks, make sure that you give your dog a bath regularly to ensure that no parasites return. Give them a proper brushing and trim their hair once in a while. Also wash the linens that they are sleeping in regularly. This can prevent your dogs from getting fleas and ticks ever again.

Katie Appleby is an accomplished niche website developer and author.

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