Stephenson:Neal:Quicksilver:105:rain of ticks (Alan Sinder)

From the Quicksilver Metaweb.

a page for fleas

Stephensonia

Snow Crash features a flea market. In The Diamond Age, or A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer Doctor X runs an enterprise called The Flea Circus. Cryptonomicon: Something flashes in Goto Dengo's peripheral vision; he turns to watch another destroyer being snapped in half like a dry twig as its magazines detonate. Tiny black things are skip, skip, skipping all over the ocean now, like fleas across the rumpled bedsheets of a Shanghai whorehouse. . Fleas are mentioned in Quicksilver, when Daniel hunts for frogs for John Wilkins, and when Half-cocked Jack and Eliza search for a hot spring.

Authored entries

Rain of Ticks

Its fleas making the ping-ping rain of ticks. More soon

Flea

enhanced Wikipedia article

Fleas
Scientific classification


Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Siphonaptera

| | Families | | Tungidae - Sticktight and Chigoe fleas Pulicidae - Common fleas Coptopsyllidae Vermipsyllidae - Carnivore fleas Rhopalopsyllidae - Marsupial fleas Hypsophthalmidae Stephanocircidae Pygiopsyllidae Hystrichopsyllidae - Rat and mouse fleas Leptopsyllidae - Bird and rabbit fleas Ischnopsyllidae - Bat fleas Ceratophyllidae Amphipsyllidae Malacopsyllidae Dolichopsyllidae - Rodent fleas Ctenopsyllidae |

Flea is the common name for any of the small wingless insects of the (order Siphonaptera). Fleas are external parasites, living off the blood of mammals and birds. Fleas are small, wingless, brown to black, blood sucking insects. Fleas have flattened bodies with spines that are aimed backwards. This enables them to move rapidly and efficiently through the body hair of an animal. They have piercing-sucking mouth parts that are somewhat like a "siphon" which is gives them their latin name. There are about 2,250 species of fleas.

NOTE: There is also a genus of Protozoa named Siphonaptera.**

Some well known flea species are the Cat Flea (Ctenocephalides felis), Dog Flea (Ctenocephalides canis), Northern Rat Flea (Nosopsyllus fasciatus) and Oriental Rat Flea (Xenopsylla cheopis). The human fleas are called Pulex irritans, are distributed throughout the world, but remain uncommon in the United State

In most cases fleas are just a nuisance to their hosts, but in some people and animals suffer allergic reactions to flea saliva resulting in rashes. Flea bites generally result in the formation of a slightly-raised swollen itching spot with a single puncture point at the center.

Disease Factors

Fleas can carry Bubonic Plague and Murine Typhus. Some fleas, especially those from squirrels in the Sierras, still carry "The Plague." About 75% of fleas are associated with rodents.

Dog and cats can get tapeworms from the flea. The egg containing proglottids exit the host's body via the anus, These tiny egg packets dry to form what looks like sesame seeds. Flea larvae chew into them, swallowing tapeworm eggs. These eggs hatch in a flea larva and form a cyst within its muscles. Here the tapeworm waits for the larva to metamorphose, and the adult flea to be eaten by the cat or dog during grooming. When the dead flea is digested the tapeworm is released.

Life Cycle

Fleas pass through a complete life cycle consisting of egg, larva, pupa and adult. Completion of the life cycle from egg to adult varies from two weeks to eight months depending on the temperature, humidity, food, and species. Normally after a blood meal, the female flea lays about 15 to 20 eggs per day up to 600 in a lifetime usually on the host (dogs, cats, rats, rabbits, mice, squirrels, chipmunks, raccoons, opossums, foxes, chickens, humans, etc.). Eggs loosely laid in the hair coat, drop out most anywhere especially where the host rests, sleeps or nests (rugs, carpets, upholstered furniture, cat or dog boxes, kennels, sand boxes, etc.).
Scanning Electron Micrograph of a Flea
Compare to Hooke's Flea below from Micrographia

Eggs hatch in two days to two weeks into larvae found indoors in floor cracks & crevices, along baseboards, under rug edges and in furniture or beds. Outdoor development occurs in sandy gravel soils (moist sand boxes, dirt crawlspace under the house, under shrubs, etc.) where the host may rest or sleep. Sand and gravel are very suitable for larval development which is the reason fleas are erroneously called "sand fleas." Fleas can jump 7"- 8" vertically and 14"- 16" horizontally which is 20 times their own height. The equivalent of a 6 foot man jumping 120 feet.

Flea larvae have been observed to burrow to a maximum depth of 1/2 inch. Flea larvae will crawl several inches to reach cover and escape bright light and feed on dried fecal blood. Larvae are blind, avoid light, pass through three larval instars and take a week to several months to develop. Their food consists of digested blood from adult flea feces, dead skin, hair, feathers, and other organic debris. (Larvae do not suck blood.) Pupae mature to adulthood within a silken cocoon woven by the larva to which pet hair, carpet fiber, dust, grass cuttings, and other debris adheres. In about five to fourteen days, adult fleas emerge or may remain resting in the cocoon until the detection of vibration (pet and/or people movement vacuuming), pressure (host animal lying down on them), heat, noise, or carbon dioxide (meaning a potential blood source is near). Most fleas overwinter in the larval or pupal stage with survival and growth best during warm, moist winters and spring.

Feeding Habits

Flea larvae stay very near the surface to be close to their food supply - adult flea feces and other animal derived material. Flea larvae primary food is feces of the adult flea, but will feed on other materials such as pet dander, flea eggs, injured larvae, and proglottids- the shed body segments of the dog and cat tapeworm. Adult fleas can live for months without food.

Prevention & Control

Fleas require a complete 3 step treatment in order to effectively eliminate the entire population. The entire yard is treated with special attention spent on the areas fleas are likely to occur such as shady vegetation under decks where animals rest. The interior of the home is treated with a combination of residual materials and Insect Growth Regulators. Pet treatments to prevent reinfestation of the animal and home.

Flea circus

Victorian-style flea circuses first appeared in Europe in the early 19th century, and gradually became less common as we entered the modern age. John Hammond The owner of Jurassic Park as played by (Richard Dickie Attenborough) claimed he made his first fortune from a flea circus. People would flock to see flea circuses, in which fleas perform trained stunts such as pulling small wagons, tightrope walk and get shot out of air cannons. Today professional clown Adam Gertsacov keeps the amazing curiosity alive with entomological entertainment that dazzles, disgusts and confuses his audience. His tiny performers are real fleas -- human-blood sucking fleas. MSN's Encarta warns fleas can be quite dangerous, however, because they can carry disease from one host to the next.

Flea-%26-glass.jpg

Drawing done by Robert Hooke with just a field magnifier

Flea Market

An open-air street market for inexpensive or secondhand articles where one sell goods on the street. Named as such for the jumping around.