Fleas are blood sucking insects. They are small, wingless and bilaterally compressed. The different types of fleas are:
1. Rat fleas : Xenopsylla Cheops’s
Pollex irritants Ctenocephalus canes Ctenocephalus fells Tonga penetrants.
Rat fleas
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Rat flea has a conical head, thorax composed of 3 segments and an abdomen made of 10 segments. The life cycle involves four stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult. Rat fleas live in rats and also in their nests and burrows. Diseases transmitted by fleas are plague, murine typhus, chiggerosis and hymanolepis disunite. They transmit the diseases by biting, mechanically and also through the feces.
Control
1. Using DDT as a dust and spray.
2. Using insect repellents like diethyltoluamide.
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3. Rodent control like trapping and use of rodenticides.