Cat flea

Description:

The adult cat flea is a small insect about 3 mm long, wingless and with a laterally flattened body. Dark brown to black in colour, it turns reddish brown when it has taken its blood meal.

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Food:

The cat flea feeds exclusively on the blood of its host which can be the cat, the dog, the mouse, the rat and sometimes the human.

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Habits:

The cat flea lives on its host or in places that the animal frequents or sleeps like the litter, its cushion and even the sofa if the animal sleeps on it. The cat flea can live for several months without feeding on blood, but as soon as a mammal, like those mentioned in the "Food" section, presents itself, it will immediately jump on it to bite it and take its blood meal.

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Reproduction:

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The female lays between 4 and 8 eggs after each meal. During her lifetime, she can lay between 400 and 500 eggs. The laying takes place especially at night, it does not produce a secretion on which it deposits the egg to fix it at the base of a hair, therefore the eggs fall to the ground when the animal is scratching and even the larvae and the adult flea suffers the same fate.