Fleas Are Not Like Us

The ultimate question about fleas, I think, has always been, “Why is it taking so long to get rid of these aggravating little fellows?” It takes about 90 days to rid yourself of a flea infestation (best case scenario, really), so the inquiry often evolves to contain more profanity towards the end of month two. We started the killing six weeks ago. HOW CAN THEY NOT BE DEAD? Well, you are engaged in battle with an organism that has nothing in common with you. If you want to win this, you will have to learn their ways.

Fleas have no responsibilities outside eating and breeding. A female flea, upon emerging from her tiny cocoon, starts sucking blood the minute she locates a piece of warm skin. She starts mating with the first male she sees and can accomplish this roughly eight times an hour. There is no pregnancy or latency period for these folks, and they do not need to sleep. They are literally breeding machines.

Fleas don’t do parenting. Their babies need no care whatsoever in order to thrive. The death of a parent by your hand has zero impact on the thousands of tiny time bombs each Mother Flea has already concealed in your home. Mature fleas are only 5% of the total flea population. If you do succeed in rapidly executing all of the adults, you’re still not making much of a dent in the problem; there are still 19 fully functional replacements for each deceased flea in varying stages of readiness, just waiting for their time to shine.

Fleas don’t go through “the change”. Each female flea lays about 50 eggs a day, every single day, from the time of her hatching until the day she dies. No pause. If you’re a flea, you’re never to old to party.

Fleas have no respect for clocks or calendars. They do not care what month it is or what the weather is outside, because they are more than happy to never set foot out there. The indoor temperature and humidity at your place is perfect for them. They don’t even have a set lifespan. If the conditions aren’t right (for example, if there are no animals in the home because you took your pets on a vacation), they’ll enter an indefinite hibernation state where their tiny cocoons remain sealed until they detect the footsteps of their prey drawing near. A flea cocoon can wait 4 months or more—even up to a year—for you to return from your trip, no sweat. If adult fleas are present when their food source skips town, they just settle in and look at the wall. Two weeks with no blood to eat? No sweat. They are professional survivors.

So why does it take so long to kill them? Actually, each individual dies pretty quickly. What takes a long time—three to four months, usually—is waiting for all those immature fleas to hatch and then die, hatch and then die. This species has perfected the art of multiplication. You’ll need to be patient if you are going to take them down by subtraction.

Dr. M.S. Regan