Pest Management Professional, April 2014

dos donts TROPICAL RAT FLEAS Dr Stuart Mitchell t Technical Editor Do the applied siphonapterology Dont let the tropical rat flea sometimes known as the Oriental rat flea become a danger as disease vectors Its scientific name Xenopsylla cheopis roughly translates to pharaohs flea guest But like all pests it must be eliminated though an environmentally benign process of integrated pest management IPM Do realize the IPM process can be defined as inspecting and investigating identifying establishing threshold levels implementing two or more control measures cultural physical mechanical biorational and chemical and evaluating effectiveness Dont treat companion animals A veterinarian should treat pets Where there are rat fleas there usually are rats Do identify the fleas species Dont proceed to any intervention until interviewing the client to discover comparative and corroborative information Find out where the pets spend most of their time Do facilitate a thorough interior environmental resource cleaning You or your client can reduce the amount of flea pressure simply by using a high efficiency particulate air HEPA vacuum and then steam cleaning the carpet Dont exclude outdoor areas from organizational cleanup Facilitate efforts through the client for structural and landscaping maintenance Do conduct a detailed inspection and investigation to distinguish rodent pressures Dont restrict interventions to just rodent proofing and manipulation of the available water food shelter and space Do integrate professional products such as rodenticides glue boards and other rodent control applications As its common name indicates where there are rat fleas there are usually rats PMP Dr Mitchell D O Ph D M P H B C E a board certified physician and entomologist is principal technical specialist for PestWest Environmental as well as PMPs Technical Editor He can be reached at docmitchell@ northcoastmedia net or 515 333 8923 most wanted SIPHONAPTEROLOGY Dr Stuart Mitchell t Technical Editor S iphonapterology the study of wingless tubes is the branch of entomology that studies fleas To control the tropical rat flea Xenopsylla cheopis sometimes referred to as the Oriental rat flea a profile must be completed to predict and profile its characteristics By feeding on infected rodents and subsequently on humans this flea is a primary vector for bubonic plague Yersinia pestis and murine typhus Rickettsia typhi The favored hosts of these parasites are in the genus Rattus As belligerent blood feeders fleas inoculate with saliva Blood is drawn through an axle shaped pharynx and a thin esophagus into a bulbous proventriculus which is the musculated and complex portion of the foregut Its positioned behind the crop and in front of the circular muscles that provide an anterior constriction of the mid gut The proventriculus is a crucial mechanism in plague transmission When pressed together 250 to 400 reversed protrusive internal spine like setae prevent regurgitation of the bloodmeal which then enters the mid gut for digestion The distal away from point of attachment end of the midgut is connected to the hindgut which features a small dilated rectum with prominent papillae small projections that extract water from feces allowing dry passage through the anus Diseases can be transmitted from one generation to the next through eggs A female flea mates once but places eggs daily as many as 50 a day PMP www mypmp net Pest Management Professional April 2014 47