WEBVTT - How Fleas Work 0:00:01.120 --> 0:00:04.560 Welcome to Stuff you Should know from house stuff Works 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:13.640 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:18.040 There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and Jerry and this is 0:00:18.079 --> 0:00:20.720 stuff you should not Hey, dude, how's it going good? 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:26.239 How are you man? Good? Chuck? Yes, Chuck? Yes, you 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:29.200 love New York right? Sure do? I love New York too. 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:31.400 It's good city. It's a great city. In fact, I 0:00:31.440 --> 0:00:34.960 think we suggested first let someone do that on a 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:39.479 T shirt. I love New York. Yeah. I don't recall 0:00:39.520 --> 0:00:43.440 that he hadn't been getting your checks. No, well, I'll 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:45.240 make sure you get those. I don't think the person 0:00:45.240 --> 0:00:47.879 who really created that has been getting any checks for 0:00:47.920 --> 0:00:50.479 a long time. Yeah, that'd be an interesting little thing 0:00:50.560 --> 0:00:54.320 to look up a bit. It's unknown to history who 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:56.480 who did it? Yeah? Who did? I heart New York 0:00:56.480 --> 0:00:59.440 and that iconic font. I think it is known it is, Yeah, 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:01.280 I think it is. And I think it was probably 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:05.000 somebody who's contracted by, like not the Chamber of Commerce, 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:07.520 but some tourism board maybe for New York, like the 0:01:07.560 --> 0:01:10.039 guy who wrote Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. Yes, but 0:01:10.080 --> 0:01:13.640 he got his copyright back from Montgomery Ward. Remember, it's 0:01:13.680 --> 0:01:15.960 like the most benevolent thing any corporation has ever done. 0:01:16.040 --> 0:01:18.759 My mind's still blown. And that was two Christmases ago 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:22.640 that we first learned about it. Anyway, I wonder, though, 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:26.280 if I Heart New York is actually in the public domain, 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:29.119 or if it's just been pirated so much that they 0:01:29.160 --> 0:01:31.720 just don't even try to police it any longer. Maybe 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:35.160 because we for our Canadian tour um you may design 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:39.680 the Canadian leaf Canada shirts in place of the Heart. Yeah, 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:41.839 those are great. You can actually buy those in our store. 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:45.600 It's true. We never plug our store. No, we don't. 0:01:45.600 --> 0:01:48.320 It's crazy. It's like we just pretend it doesn't exist. 0:01:48.320 --> 0:01:49.960 It does exist. I felt like a jerk for a 0:01:49.960 --> 0:01:51.680 second there by plugging the store. I was like, wait 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:53.600 a minute, I think we've ever plugged it. We're allowed 0:01:53.640 --> 0:01:55.800 to do that. You can actually buy shirts. Yeah, it's 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:58.960 on our website. Stuff you should know dot com in 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:01.600 the top nav. I think it's as store. You just 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:05.400 click that. All all the stuff. The classic s y 0:02:05.440 --> 0:02:08.240 s K Bowling shirt is on their classic Uh. There's 0:02:08.280 --> 0:02:12.200 just a lot of stuff, good stuff. So anyway, New York, 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:15.240 New York made the news recently, as it does from 0:02:15.280 --> 0:02:20.080 time and time, Chuck, and that it was discovered that 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:25.760 the flee that was responsible for spreading bubonic plague has 0:02:25.800 --> 0:02:28.960 been found alive and well on the rats of New York. 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:33.120 Did you know that? What? Yeah? Now, the the people 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:36.440 UM who conducted the study, they just rounded up like 0:02:36.480 --> 0:02:38.520 some rats and tested them, and they're like, Yep, this 0:02:38.560 --> 0:02:40.880 one's got it. Yep, this one's got it. They were 0:02:40.960 --> 0:02:45.280 quick to point out that the bubonic plague itself, which 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:49.080 is called um your Cinea pistalis, it's a bacteria that 0:02:49.160 --> 0:02:53.400 causes the plague, which is nasty. Right, did we do 0:02:53.560 --> 0:02:58.080 We didn't do a bubonic plague? Yeah, or black death 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:01.280 or something that was a good episode. I think this 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:05.760 is different. But the bubonic plague, it's it's caused by 0:03:05.800 --> 0:03:08.359 a back there you're sending a pistles. And they said 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:12.720 that they didn't find you're sending a pistalis in the fleas. 0:03:12.880 --> 0:03:16.440 They just found the fleas, the oriental rat flea on 0:03:16.600 --> 0:03:19.720 the rats of New York. So they're saying, you're probably 0:03:19.720 --> 0:03:22.120 not going to catch the plague. It turns out the 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:25.359 most people who get the plague all seven of them 0:03:25.400 --> 0:03:29.639 every year in the US get them here in the south. Really. Yeah, 0:03:29.680 --> 0:03:32.360 that's nice, so steer clear of the southern rats. But 0:03:32.400 --> 0:03:34.480 the New York rats could just easily spread it to 0:03:34.600 --> 0:03:38.760 because everything's in place for it to spread, right, So 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:42.320 fleece man. That's a good that's an old school intro. 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:46.720 It was okay, it's goods a little rusty. So yeah, fleas. 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:50.320 We've done ticks, and we've done um flies, and we've 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:53.240 done these termites. Was a really good remember them termites. 0:03:54.040 --> 0:03:57.080 We have dabbled in the insect world. Yeah, and this 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:00.240 is a Tracy Wilson article who wrote, like all all 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:02.800 of the insect articles, you could tell this phone came 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:05.560 later and she's like, I'm so tired of talking about 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:08.200 the thorax that I'm not even going to mention it 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:12.320 in this one. Just go read any of the other articles. Yeah, 0:04:12.360 --> 0:04:15.960 And there was one line in here where she was like, yeah, 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:20.120 and like the life cycles like most other insects, don't 0:04:20.160 --> 0:04:22.520 be dumb. Read any of these hundred other ones I've 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:26.960 written about it. So please are the bane of my existence. 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:30.560 And I'll pepper throughout the podcast my experience with my 0:04:30.600 --> 0:04:32.479 animals and fleas because I've had a couple of major 0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:37.160 infestations in my life. But um, they are parasites, and 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:40.840 that means that they feed on the host, in this 0:04:40.880 --> 0:04:46.040 case drinking your blood like a tick does. Yeah, yeah, 0:04:46.080 --> 0:04:48.880 that's true. For some reason, I don't equate fleas with 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:52.920 ticks though, even though they're so similar. But yes, they 0:04:52.960 --> 0:04:55.920 both drink blood. And in fact, what the what the 0:04:55.960 --> 0:05:00.040 flea eats is called the blood meal. It's not it 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:03.360 is called dinner. They call it a blood meal. Yeah. 0:05:03.360 --> 0:05:07.000 They're about two thousand species of flea. Um. We are 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:09.359 mainly going to concentrate on. I think they call it 0:05:09.400 --> 0:05:13.000 the cat flea. That's the most common here in the States. Yeah. Um, 0:05:13.080 --> 0:05:15.800 And the cat flee is not just attracted to the cat, 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:19.560 it also likes dogs, also likes humans a little bit. Um. 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:22.560 And then there's the dog flee, which is also attracted 0:05:22.560 --> 0:05:25.799 to cats and dogs and humans, but it will also 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:31.360 attach itself to raccoons, pigs, livestock, wild animals. It's not 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:34.880 very picky. Yeah, like the flea you get and you're 0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:38.080 on the squirrel in your yard, that squirrel that haunts 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:41.640 you in your yard, um is going to be different 0:05:41.680 --> 0:05:45.240 than the one on your pet. Inside largely because that 0:05:45.400 --> 0:05:50.120 squirrel is never laying down for hours on end during 0:05:50.160 --> 0:05:53.560 the day. Where the flea will, you know, find a 0:05:53.640 --> 0:05:55.520 nice lazy dog and be like this looks like a 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:58.520 great place to fornicate and lay eggs and have a 0:05:58.560 --> 0:06:02.160 blood meal or two. Do with my whole thing with 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:05.080 my mouthparts. For that reason, if you ever do find 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:09.599 a squirrel that's stunned or possibly dead, just lying there, 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:12.440 don't roll on it because the fleas will jump out 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:15.919 onto you. Have you seen those photos, they're old, but 0:06:16.040 --> 0:06:21.320 of the dead squirrels with the action figures, showed these 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:23.360 Discotti the other day. He had never seen the I 0:06:23.560 --> 0:06:26.880 should tell everybody has made an inquisitive Yeah, it's super old. 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:30.719 But someone at one point found a dead squirrel and 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:33.640 got like g I. Joe action figures and as if 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:35.559 he had hunted it, like you know, doing a hunting 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:38.039 pose with his leg propped up on the squirrel's head. 0:06:38.440 --> 0:06:40.080 And there's another one with the guy like holding up 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:42.760 the squirrel's head like it was a big game. It's 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:46.520 really funny. And it's funny because they didn't kill these 0:06:46.560 --> 0:06:48.360 squirrels to do it, because that would be a different deal. 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:51.920 Squirrel died naturally, I'm assuming the squirrels just like, yeah, 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:54.000 run over in the road and someone was like, hey, 0:06:54.040 --> 0:06:56.479 let me get my gho's out, like they were hunting 0:06:56.520 --> 0:07:00.400 big game, because that's what you do. But should not 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:04.240 ever stage one of these killing an animal? No, And 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:07.080 you really probably shouldn't stage them anyway, because the people 0:07:07.080 --> 0:07:09.960 who did stage them probably did get fleas, and they 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:12.600 got cat fleas or dog fleas, I'm sorry, and maybe 0:07:12.640 --> 0:07:17.520 the plague. So chuck. Um we said that they feed 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:21.800 on blood, they have blood meals. They are kind of picky, 0:07:21.880 --> 0:07:25.160 but not altogether picky when it comes to the kind 0:07:25.200 --> 0:07:28.320 of hosts that they have, right, and that you said 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:32.880 that they're parasites, and they're specifically ectoparasites, which means they 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:36.720 live outside of the body, yeah, rather than endoparasites, which 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:40.440 live inside the body. But the thing that they have 0:07:40.560 --> 0:07:43.720 in common is that all they do is take, take, take, 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:48.040 and they give nothing back in return but grief, which 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:51.600 you don't really want. So it's not a symbiotic relationship. 0:07:51.640 --> 0:07:54.119 It's a parasitic relationship that you have with your fleas. 0:07:54.440 --> 0:07:57.760 That's a one way street, right, Um. Fleas are the 0:07:58.080 --> 0:08:01.280 little guys, of course, um We we'll I think you 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:03.200 know what we're talking about. What we will describe it. 0:08:03.560 --> 0:08:08.440 It's wingless um. They have these hard plates called sclare 0:08:08.520 --> 0:08:12.000 rites um that their body is covered with, which is 0:08:12.080 --> 0:08:15.320 why if you've ever had a flee and just mash 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:18.360 them between your thumb and finger and been like take that, 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:22.200 and then he goes and jumps off, like how did 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:24.760 that happen? It's because he's that they're covered with these 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:28.400 small plates to help that sclare rites. Yeah, you gotta 0:08:28.440 --> 0:08:30.560 really work to kill a flea, like with your fingernails, 0:08:30.880 --> 0:08:33.800 and it not only protects fleece from fingernails, it also 0:08:33.880 --> 0:08:37.719 protects them from falls because they will jump. They're known 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:40.439 to jump. Yes, we go ahead and talk about that. 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:43.560 I think we should. It's pretty amazing stuff, pretty neat. 0:08:44.120 --> 0:08:48.080 What are the stats there? So a flea can jump 0:08:48.120 --> 0:08:51.400 about seven inches vertically, that's up and down. Yeah, seven 0:08:51.440 --> 0:08:56.840 to eight and thirteen inches horizontally, right, So big deal. 0:08:57.080 --> 0:09:01.240 Seven inches. So remember in the cockroach episode where they 0:09:01.320 --> 0:09:04.320 can move fifty body links in a second to humans 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:06.880 is like two fifty miles an hour. This is very 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:11.439 similar um in human terms, a flea's jump would be 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:14.559 a two hundred and fifty ft vertical jump from a 0:09:14.679 --> 0:09:18.640 human that's a lot. That is crazy, and four hundred 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:23.720 and fifty ft horizontal jump. Yeah, so when this fleet 0:09:23.760 --> 0:09:26.079 jump six inches, you should be very impressed. It is 0:09:26.120 --> 0:09:29.880 impressive because the current record for a standing long jump 0:09:30.000 --> 0:09:33.040 is twelve ft and a fleet could jump the equivalent 0:09:33.080 --> 0:09:37.880 of four fifty ft. That's right, setting world records from 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:40.000 your dog's but on a daily basis just one of 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:45.280 the amazing things about a flea um and creepy. Uh. 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:48.920 The exoskeleton is smooth looking when you're looking at the 0:09:48.960 --> 0:09:51.960 little fleet on your knee, but what it really has 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:54.520 is a bunch of little tiny hairs um sort of 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:57.760 comb back like like a cool guy would do, like 0:09:57.880 --> 0:09:59.880 the fons, like the fonds would do. They're pointing a 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:03.000 away from the head and that those little backwards pointing 0:10:03.040 --> 0:10:05.520 hairs mean that they can sail through your dog or 0:10:05.559 --> 0:10:09.240 cat's fur without getting hooked. But if you go and 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:11.319 try and get the fleet out, that will serve as 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:14.600 a hook like velcro. Yeah, anchor it in that fur. 0:10:15.880 --> 0:10:18.319 Which is why I fine tooth combs work, but other 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:21.199 like a brush won't because the fine tooth comb is 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:24.640 so close together. The times are so close together that 0:10:24.800 --> 0:10:27.679 the fleet still just can't hang on but a brush 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:30.520 it's like that was nothing. Yeah, and if you have 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:34.640 a flea infestation or a bit of a fleet problem, uh, 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:37.040 your fleet comb is gonna be a good way to tell. 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:40.320 But it's not gonna get rid of that many fleas. 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:44.680 You know, you can flee comb and still have fleas. 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:47.480 It's the canary in the coal mine. Yeah, but it's 0:10:47.480 --> 0:10:49.200 a good place. Like if you do that, or if 0:10:49.240 --> 0:10:51.400 you separate the hair and you see that dirt flee 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:54.240 dirt they call it. That's like either dried blood or 0:10:54.280 --> 0:10:57.160 poop and a good sign that your dog or cat 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:01.600 has fleas. Yeah, it's not flee a No flea. Eggs 0:11:01.640 --> 0:11:06.000 are clear, that's right, and smooth. So um. Fleas, like 0:11:06.120 --> 0:11:08.839 you said, suck blood. They eat what are called blood meals, 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:11.880 which I just can't give past um. And they do 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:15.720 so because they have specialized mouth parts, which is basically 0:11:16.600 --> 0:11:20.520 a combination of two saws on the side that puncture 0:11:20.559 --> 0:11:25.480 your skin. Those are called L A C I N 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:30.880 I A. I was gonna say, listen you great um, 0:11:31.200 --> 0:11:34.760 and they form a saliva channel which will come into 0:11:34.840 --> 0:11:38.640 play later on. Yeah. Um. And then They also surround 0:11:38.720 --> 0:11:41.800 what's called the epipharynx, which is the needle that sucks 0:11:41.880 --> 0:11:47.199 the blood. That's right, and that is a stylet altogether. Um, 0:11:47.760 --> 0:11:50.319 it forms a stylet, which is the puncturing organ, and 0:11:50.400 --> 0:11:53.360 it basically it all just jabs into your skin and 0:11:53.840 --> 0:12:00.320 that epipharynx is working with um basically stomach pumps, yeah, 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:03.200 to suck that stuff out. Yeah, which is pretty impressive 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:07.760 because it requires a lot of suction to get that 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:12.439 blood out. So again, pretty impressive with fleas jump far 0:12:13.080 --> 0:12:16.760 suck really hard that they do suck. Yeah. Alright, Right 0:12:16.760 --> 0:12:18.600 after this break, we're gonna talk a little bit about 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:37.800 that life cycle that we mentioned earlier. All right, Josh 0:12:38.400 --> 0:12:41.560 fleet life cycle. Yeah. Again, you can just look at 0:12:41.600 --> 0:12:44.000 Tracy Wilson be like, there's like other bugs. It's like 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:47.199 a butterfly. It's still worth mentioning. So an adult has 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:51.240 some eggs, and those eggs are totally smooth. They don't 0:12:51.280 --> 0:12:53.720 disappear smooth like the fleet itself. They are totally smooth. 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:55.600 And one of the reasons why they're smooth is because 0:12:55.640 --> 0:12:57.679 the eggs are meant to fall off of the host, 0:12:57.800 --> 0:13:00.880 like the flea itself is having a blood meal. On 0:13:01.000 --> 0:13:04.720 your leg, laying some eggs, pooping, just doing all sorts 0:13:04.760 --> 0:13:08.440 of crazy stuff, right. Um, And when it lays its eggs, 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:11.720 the eggs fall off and they fall into if you're 0:13:11.720 --> 0:13:15.360 in the house, carpet fibers deep in the carpet, cracks 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:18.360 in your hardwood floor, man, that's the worst. Outside. They'll 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:20.679 fall into the soil and they are just meant to 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:24.080 be sequestered away. Yeah. They need in order to hatch 0:13:24.240 --> 0:13:28.200 and develop, they need warm, moist environment about seventy degrees 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:32.839 fahrenheit sevent humidity, although they'll go as low as like 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:36.520 forty five anything below that, and they're just not gonna hatch. Yeah, exactly. 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:39.200 That's why a good winter freeze is gonna help your 0:13:39.200 --> 0:13:43.439 fleet problem. Dry winter freeze, dry winter freeze. Um, your 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:45.520 eggs are gonna hatch in about twelve days. And that 0:13:45.760 --> 0:13:48.880 twelve day span is one of the things that makes 0:13:48.920 --> 0:13:52.480 flee so maddening, because you can think you've killed all 0:13:52.480 --> 0:13:55.640 your fleas, and then there are tens of thousands of 0:13:55.720 --> 0:13:58.400 them that are gonna hatch twelve days later, right, and 0:13:58.960 --> 0:14:02.200 you go kill those and by the time you kill those, 0:14:02.280 --> 0:14:05.040 they've already laid eggs. And this cycle continues, which is why, 0:14:05.120 --> 0:14:07.120 and we'll get into it. You have to kill the 0:14:07.160 --> 0:14:10.720 fleas and their eggs to to take out a flea infestation. 0:14:10.800 --> 0:14:13.599 At the same time, it's challenging and so UM. The 0:14:13.720 --> 0:14:16.400 egg is sitting there in your hardvard floor, your carpet, 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:18.680 or out in the soil, and after about twelve days, 0:14:18.960 --> 0:14:21.400 if the conditions are right, it'll hatch and it'll turn 0:14:21.440 --> 0:14:24.640 into a lot larva. And the larva goes through three 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:28.760 in stars or cycles of development, stages of development, and 0:14:29.000 --> 0:14:31.560 they mold after each one, and after the third in 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:35.120 star it says, I'm going back to my home in 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:37.920 the cracks in the floor and spin me a nice 0:14:38.040 --> 0:14:40.680 cocoon and turn into a PUPA. That's right, And like 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:43.160 we said, it's sort of like a butterfly. Um, an 0:14:43.200 --> 0:14:45.600 adult flea is eventually going to emerge from that cocoon. 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:48.760 It's not nearly as pretty as an beautiful iridescent butterfly. 0:14:50.400 --> 0:14:53.520 Doesn't have blood meals as far as I know. Um, 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:58.240 there's your next sci fi movie, blood meal butterfly. Look 0:14:58.320 --> 0:15:03.640 forward after Sharkonado three from this march UM about half 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:05.720 in a in a population if fleas, about half of 0:15:05.760 --> 0:15:07.880 them or eggs, which is why we said they're so 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:11.040 problematic to get rid of, and only about five percent 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:16.320 reach adulthood. Um. And one reason is because females can 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:18.240 only lay the eggs if they've had that blood meal. 0:15:18.360 --> 0:15:21.760 If they're starving, they will die before they reproduce. Yeah. 0:15:21.760 --> 0:15:24.200 And what's neat about them too, is when they're in 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:27.560 the pupil stage and they're up in their cocoon and 0:15:27.920 --> 0:15:30.280 hanging out developing and everything, because they emerge from the 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:33.600 cocoon is an adult. But while they're a pupa, they 0:15:34.080 --> 0:15:38.400 can tell through either vibrations and and or sensing body 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:41.920 heat whether there's food nearby, like should I hatch? Because 0:15:41.960 --> 0:15:44.720 they right, because they feed on warm blooded animals, so 0:15:44.760 --> 0:15:46.560 they can tell them. They find these signals in the 0:15:46.680 --> 0:15:49.920 environment and if they if the signals are right, they'll 0:15:49.960 --> 0:15:52.920 come out of their cocoon. Uh and I think a 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:55.360 week or something like that. If the signals aren't right, 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:57.960 they can stay in their cocoon for up to a year, 0:15:59.000 --> 0:16:02.000 and they actually can will flash themselves. They roll around 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:05.280 their cocoon and like debris and hair and stuff like that, 0:16:05.920 --> 0:16:07.960 which is pretty cool. Yeah, that's why if you have 0:16:08.040 --> 0:16:11.560 like a vacation house and you've eradicated your fleas and 0:16:11.640 --> 0:16:14.400 then left for the winter. I guess you'd be there 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:18.280 in the winter you've left for the spring, depending on 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:22.080 how you I don't know how you do your vacation house. Um, 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:25.120 but when you come back, you can like that could 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:28.440 be the signal, hey, there are a hosts here now. Like. 0:16:28.560 --> 0:16:31.240 It doesn't mean you've been overrun by fleas that whole time. 0:16:31.560 --> 0:16:34.240 They've just been laying in wait for you to come back. 0:16:34.680 --> 0:16:39.960 And then you're back and there say we're here. The 0:16:40.040 --> 0:16:42.160 females can lay about twenty eggs at a time, or 0:16:42.160 --> 0:16:46.720 about five during a long life. I saw up to 0:16:46.840 --> 0:16:53.440 two thousand and another article than the say between Yeah, 0:16:53.480 --> 0:16:55.840 but again they won't they won't lay eggs if they 0:16:56.120 --> 0:17:00.640 haven't eaten no. Um. One of the they're cool things 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:03.360 about the flea larva is that they actually don't eat 0:17:03.400 --> 0:17:07.560 blood meals. They eat just about everything else hair, dead, 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:14.320 skin cells, um, flea droppings, nasty nasty things, um, just 0:17:14.440 --> 0:17:17.200 about anything that they'll find in the cracks and your floorboards, 0:17:17.320 --> 0:17:20.360 or in your carpet or out in the soil. Right. Um. 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:24.200 But then once they hatch, they go after the blood meal. 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:27.399 One of the other things that the flea larva eats 0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:32.879 our tapeworm eggs, which makes fleas again super nasty and 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:36.960 dirty little creatures because once they eat those tapeworm eggs, 0:17:37.920 --> 0:17:42.600 they grow up to become fleas that have tapeworms. Yeah, 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:44.840 the tapeworm actually forms in the gut of the flea. 0:17:45.640 --> 0:17:48.960 It can be that tiny and uh, then all of 0:17:49.000 --> 0:17:52.720 a sudden, your animal has tapeworms because they got bitten 0:17:52.720 --> 0:17:56.239 by a flea who injected that junk into your your 0:17:56.359 --> 0:18:02.240 dog or more likely you accidentally a to flee or 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:07.560 a flea got into your food or the the your 0:18:07.640 --> 0:18:13.639 dog eight to flee, the tapeworm lodged itself and your 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:17.240 dog's gut, the tapeworm eggs were excreted through your dog's 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:22.399 rectum its bedding. You pet your dog, and then you 0:18:22.640 --> 0:18:25.880 touch your mouth and the tape worms crawl into your mouth. 0:18:25.920 --> 0:18:28.080 The tape worm makes and then now you're infected. So 0:18:28.280 --> 0:18:32.000 there's like eighty different ways that a tape worm. You 0:18:32.040 --> 0:18:35.200 can become infected with tapeworms just from fleas and specifically 0:18:35.359 --> 0:18:38.080 dog fleas are the ones that carry tapeworms. Most likely 0:18:38.520 --> 0:18:41.800 fleas on dogs or the dog. The dog flee um. 0:18:42.080 --> 0:18:46.040 So that's nasty. Here's some more nastiness for you. The 0:18:46.160 --> 0:18:48.280 reaction that you get when you get a fleet by 0:18:48.440 --> 0:18:51.000 or your dog gets um. You know, when your dog 0:18:51.119 --> 0:18:54.760 is scratching. That is from the junk and the saliva 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:59.160 of the flea, specifically the ct E F one protein. Yeah, 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:02.760 and it affects some people and animals more than others. Uh. 0:19:03.040 --> 0:19:05.879 It was really bad on my dog Charlie, Like she 0:19:06.000 --> 0:19:09.200 had the hair falling out in the bald spots and 0:19:09.760 --> 0:19:13.240 the hot patches. She was like, these fleas are driving 0:19:13.280 --> 0:19:17.200 me crazy. I know. It's terrible. Um. And the same 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:18.520 thing can happen to people. You know, if you get 0:19:18.520 --> 0:19:20.000 a flea bite, you can see sometimes you have a 0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:23.200 few little bumps. Yeah, some people react to it worse 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:27.760 than others, but everybody pretty much gets bumps. Those bumps 0:19:27.880 --> 0:19:30.600 make it even worse because you can scratch it, and 0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:35.120 some of those bumps will have bacteria flea excrement around them. 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:37.440 When you go to scratch them, you can break the 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:42.520 skin and actually move those flea excrement that's dirty is 0:19:42.560 --> 0:19:46.120 all get out into your newly open break in the skin, 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:49.360 and you get all sorts of nasty infections from that. Yeah, 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:52.560 you can also get a murine typhus UH in the 0:19:52.640 --> 0:19:56.280 southern and southwestern parts here where we live. UM that 0:19:56.480 --> 0:20:02.200 is caused by the bacteria Rickettsia type and UH mainly 0:20:02.280 --> 0:20:04.240 on the cat flee in the oriental rat flee. But 0:20:04.400 --> 0:20:05.960 that's one of the things you can get when you 0:20:06.600 --> 0:20:10.480 when the flea is defecating while they're eating, you scratch 0:20:10.920 --> 0:20:14.320 and you get that infected waste in the scratch or 0:20:14.520 --> 0:20:16.160 you know, if you've broken your skin, so you get 0:20:16.200 --> 0:20:19.440 typhus from it from that you scratch in your skin. 0:20:19.680 --> 0:20:21.720 And then of course we talked about the plague, which 0:20:21.800 --> 0:20:26.880 is pretty interesting. The plague bacteria actually infects the flea 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:31.560 itself and it develops this film in the flea's mid gut. 0:20:31.840 --> 0:20:33.800 So when the flea goes to eat a blood meal, 0:20:34.200 --> 0:20:36.480 it can't digest all the way, so then it goes 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:39.560 to feast on the next person and when it punctures 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:43.400 your skin, it actually barfs up the undigested blood meal 0:20:43.640 --> 0:20:48.160 that's now infected with the plague into your skin. Now 0:20:48.280 --> 0:20:52.280 you have the plague. Man, when you hear words like 0:20:52.440 --> 0:20:56.159 mid gut and blood meal and mouthparts like barf is 0:20:56.240 --> 0:21:00.320 the least offensive of all those. That sounds cute. So, um, 0:21:00.880 --> 0:21:03.560 we can understand why everyone wants to get rid of fleas, 0:21:03.640 --> 0:21:07.280 but some people learn to love fleas, especially in the 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:09.840 nineteenth century, and we'll talk about those people and their 0:21:09.880 --> 0:21:29.120 flee circuses right after this. All right, Josh, you mentioned 0:21:29.160 --> 0:21:33.960 flee circuses. Um. I always thought that flee circuses were 0:21:34.119 --> 0:21:37.760 just fake, and that they use magnets and other little 0:21:37.800 --> 0:21:40.639 things to like move the bicycle and that can be 0:21:40.760 --> 0:21:47.000 a flee circus. Those are called, I believe, illusory flee circuses. No, 0:21:47.200 --> 0:21:51.640 they have a name humbug flee circuses. But there were, 0:21:52.119 --> 0:21:55.320 and I guess still are in some places, flee circuses 0:21:55.359 --> 0:22:00.159 that actually attached little leashes and chains to fleas and 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:03.200 they do things, they pull things around. Yeah, because here's 0:22:03.240 --> 0:22:06.760 another astounding thing about fleas. They can lift up to 0:22:06.960 --> 0:22:12.240 sixty times their body weight, so they're enormously strong. Yeah, 0:22:12.800 --> 0:22:16.800 sixty times. Like think about it, man, Like imagine lifting 0:22:16.920 --> 0:22:20.639 sixty times your body weight. You'd be crushed. It's like 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:24.240 that's a huge rock to you. You know, it's a boulder. 0:22:24.400 --> 0:22:28.640 It's a boulder. So fleas can lift their equivalent of boulders. 0:22:28.880 --> 0:22:32.159 And these boulders, especially in the nineteenth century, but starting 0:22:32.200 --> 0:22:35.040 about in the sixteen hundreds came in the form of 0:22:35.119 --> 0:22:40.200 things like chariots, coaches, hearses, just things that like say, 0:22:40.320 --> 0:22:44.960 a horse would draw, but in miniature. Yeah, And apparently 0:22:45.400 --> 0:22:48.000 before that, even in the late fifteen hundreds, a guy 0:22:48.080 --> 0:22:51.879 named Mark Scalliot in eight he was a watchmaker, and 0:22:51.920 --> 0:22:55.600 apparently watchmakers were the first dudes who had the idea 0:22:55.760 --> 0:23:00.119 to attach a flea to a chain, and in fIF 0:23:00.920 --> 0:23:02.920 did so. It was a lot consisting of eleven different 0:23:02.920 --> 0:23:06.040 pieces of steel, iron, and brass, which together with the 0:23:06.119 --> 0:23:10.080 key belonging to it, weighed only one grain. Whatever one 0:23:10.160 --> 0:23:12.640 grain was, It's like a pound and a half. Let's 0:23:12.920 --> 0:23:17.520 no no way. So this is the late yeah, and 0:23:17.600 --> 0:23:19.000 he was the first guy who was like, hey, this 0:23:19.080 --> 0:23:22.640 little flee can actually carry something, right, So that call 0:23:22.720 --> 0:23:26.880 it on. But apparently the the paying public didn't catch 0:23:26.960 --> 0:23:30.080 onto what was really going on, which was these guys 0:23:30.160 --> 0:23:33.000 had figured out how to actually train fleas. One of 0:23:33.080 --> 0:23:34.680 the thing first things you have to teach them is 0:23:34.760 --> 0:23:36.680 to not jump, and apparently you train them not to 0:23:36.760 --> 0:23:38.800 jump by keeping him in a sealed container. I was 0:23:38.800 --> 0:23:45.040