Pest Management Professional, January 2014

dos donts Do the applied fleaology and dont let fleas exsanguinate human or pet hosts As a medically significant pest cat fleas Ctenocephalides felis must be eliminated though an environmentally benign process of integrated pest management IPM Do define the IPM process as inspection and investigation identification establishing threshold levels implementing two or more control measures cultural physical mechanical biorational and chemical and evaluating effectiveness Dont forget a juvenile hormone is an easy molecule to mimic in all or part of its physiological functions To some degree about 5000 compounds have juvenile hormone activity These compounds are called insect growth regulators IGRs Do know an appropriately labeled IGR can be effective against larval fleas when focally applied to host sleeping and resting areas Dont forget IGR formulations can include ready to use sprays soluble concentrates and suspension concentrates 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 FLEAS most wanted CAT FLEAS Dr Stuart Mitchell t Technical Editor Photo courtesy of and copyrighted by Gene White pmimages@ earthlink net Dr Stuart Mitchell t Technical Editor O ne must be well studied in fleaology to develop a pest profile a behavioral and investigative tool to assist pest management professionals PMPs with predicting and profiling pest characteristics Fleaology provides the essential information to control these host intimate hematophagous insects The cat flea Ctenocephalides felis victimizing humans and companion animals Primarily assaulting cats the flea will feed on 50 species of mammals Adults are 15 to 25mm long and compress laterally like a tooth in a comb to burrow into pelage Responding to thermal and visual stimuli female fleas have one bloodmeal about every 12 hours for survival and oviposition The flea places its eggs which can fall into intimate areas of the host or carpet on the host The larvae feed on dried blood exuviae cast skin or tapeworm eggs Pupae hide within cemented cocoons covered in debris Cat fleas flee with extraordinary ability After squatting for as little as 01 second the flea propels by relaxing its levator muscle holding the femur in a vertical position and relaxing the ventral lower front longitudinal muscles holding catches in a cocked position Stored energy in compressed resilin an elastic protein is released in 07 second driving the trochanter part of the leg against the substrate for leverage off the substrate Strong muscles lengthen the joint between the trochanter and femur which extends the leg while the tarsal segment and claws press against the substrate providing more thrust Fleas rob their host of blood and escape quickly but as fleaologists PMPs control them for a healthier environment PMP 44 January 2014 Pest Management Professional www mypmp net