believe it or not: Fleas & Ticks

PMP Staff September 10, 2013

Fleas have been on this planet for about 100 million years.
There are more than 2,000 species and subspecies of fleas (that we know of).
If it doesn’t have to move around much, a flea can live anywhere between 2 months and 100 days between meals.
If they were human sized athletes participating in the Olympics long jump, certain fleas could break the current world record by about 970 feet.
A female flea lays eggs within 35 to 48 hours of its first blood meal.
There are more than 800 species of ticks on this planet.
There are anti-inflammatory and anesthetic compounds in the saliva of hard ticks that make it less likely for their hosts to notice they’ve been bitten.
The saliva of hard ticks contain proteins with changing compositions, making it difficult for a host’s immune system to detect a threat, which decreases the likelihood the host’s immune system will recognize it’s being compromised.
Male ticks die right after mating.
The majority of ticks use three hosts, feeding on a different host for the larvae, nymph and adult life stages, respectively.
Like mites, scorpions and spiders, ticks belong to the Arachnida class.
Hard ticks have a long feeding session, whereas soft ticks have several feeding sessions separated by a few hours.