Thursday, August 27, 2009

Pop quiz

In honor of the school year officially starting here in CT I have prepared for you, the reader, a pop quiz. No need to get the jitters this one is quite simple. Can anyone tell me the difference between the following images.









Do you need a third to help you along?

How about a close up?

Here you go.




At this point you should probably have guessed that the answer is FLEA. Unless, of course, you are a hot blooded woman still thinking about Image #1 Flea.

Why am I bothering to torture you with a disgusting blood sucking parasite? Because I wanted to share my pain with you. Have you ever had the displeasure of dealing with fleas? Do you know anyone who has? If your answer is "NO" let me walk you through this by example of my twisted mind.

Picture this: You walk through the park and inadvertently pick up a hitchhiker. And being that my imagination is in control (with assistance from Dean Koontz) the hitchhiker goes undetected and has gained entry to your humble abode. Stealth like he /she retreats to the shadows of entryway awaiting the chance to escape possible doom.

Hitchhiker is a female and she is hungry. She smells food and you are on the menu unless you have a unprotected pet (don't make me go there). She doesn't have to go very far considering that her third leg jolts her through the air gracefully with the force of a spring loaded trap (picture a grain of sand or pepper shooting at you). Once she gains contact she then will spit on you (No joke here. Yes it is saliva.)to soften your skin and then use her pincers/saws to gain access to your blood. At this point she is sating her need for food. Oh but it doesn't end there. Nope. The female takes the nutrients to feed her eggs and then dumps them off where ever she feels like it. Nice Mom huh?

How many babies does she drop? Oh about 50-100 in a single day. Do all of them hatch? That depends on the conditions they get dropped in. In "good" conditions how often do they hatch? Oh 2-5 days I believe(check your climate or ask your vet). If my pet is protected is it possible to get fleas in my house? Yes. If my pet is an indoor pet that never sees the outside except through a window can we still get fleas? YES!

I am not a professional flea fighter (although I wouldn't mind wrestling with Flea).

This concludes my short tour of the minuscule freak. I mean flea.

Sweet dreams and try not to itch.

Ha. Gotcha.

Lyn

2 comments:

  1. the lady i lived with when i first moved to chicagoland had 2 dogs. and those 2 dogs she didn't give regular flea treatments to and they were outside constantly. altho i gave my kitties regular flea treatments it is believed that because of her negligence a mean ole flea with a disease from another animal got on my babygirl Mysterious and caused her to get this horrible disease and she died in my arms.

    death to all fleas.

    except Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers, of course :) but I can't for the LIFE of me understand WHY he would call himself flea... *cringe*

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  2. Blaez...We have been miserable. Zona is an indoor cat. Over the course of a week we now have an infestation. I have been fighting like hell to get rid of them. It's pricey and daunting. I hate fleas! We think they came in from the garage, or possible on someones clothes when they were visiting.

    Now due to the perfect weather for fleas we are screwed. Wish me luck in my battle.

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