The fleas that used to be everywhere in the urban and rural areas of the country have disappeared unconsciously in many places in recent years.
(Here we first talk about the disappearance of fleas, and then share with you the main reasons for the disappearance of lice later in the article.) ）
There is also a lot of discussion on the Internet about the disappearance of fleas, and most of the views are that due to the improvement of living conditions, people are more hygienic than before, which is indeed one of the reasons.
But not the main reason. Because the developed countries of Europe are examples. Their living conditions have improved decades earlier than ours, they have maintained good hygiene habits for decades, and why fleas are still more abundant in many parts of Europe, it can be seen that sanitary conditions are not the main reason. To know these, first start by understanding the characteristics and habits of fleas. There are many types of fleas, and here are only a few of them that have a strong affinity with humans: human fleas, pet fleas. Fleas prefer dark and humid environments and are not tolerant of high temperature and dry environments.
Human fleas, as well as dog fleas and cat fleas on pet cats and dogs, are mostly found in beds, bedding, enclosures, floors, corners of houses, etc. The lifespan of fleas is generally 1-2 years. Fleas generally lay their eggs in a dark, damp place near their blood-sucking host. Adult fleas actually lay not many eggs, and an adult flea only lays 100-200 eggs in a lifetime. Fleas eggs from the birth to become larvae to 17-21 days, the larva segment does not suck blood and does not bite, as long as there is a hiding environment, a little grass and wood fragments, eat a little can grow, and then become a flea pupae. Fleas pupae to adults are generally dozens of days to months, so long do not eat or drink after can grow into flea adults, which makes the life force of fleas become extremely tenacious, it is difficult to be killed completely, not completely killed, it will come back at any time, which is one of the reasons why fleas are difficult to be eliminated.
Fleas on the sheets
Another important, key reason is that there is a continuous relatively humid environment, many countries in Europe have been in good health for a long time, but there are still fleas, and carpets are traditionally used in many places in Europe as one of the important reasons, carpets are excellent places for fleas to lay eggs, larvae, pupae hide and grow. British pest prevention experts in June 2018, when reminding citizens to prevent billions of fleas that could come in the summer, placed a strong emphasis on regularly washing pet bedding and carpets with 60 degrees of hot water.
Because in normal times, you can't clean and disinfect the carpet once a month (the carpet is too big to clean thoroughly), and it takes dozens of days for the worm to pupate to the adult, and now it often evades your cleaning. Your normal daily cleaning has basically no effect on the eggs and pupae hidden on the other side of the carpet, so fleas are difficult to eradicate completely because its old nest, the carpet, is always there.
Fleas inside the puppy's hair
Look at our country, especially the vast rural areas of the country, have always used straw to put the bottom of the bed to keep warm. These straws are basically used in bed for a month, and after dozens of days of human sweat absorption, they become moist and are an excellent place for fleas to hide, lay eggs and develop. Suppose you decide to kill the fleas in your home, everything is disinfected, the adults and larvae are killed, the larvae hidden in the mattress straw are gone, but the pupa is still there, and after a few decades, it is another army of fleas. You might say that the straw on the mattress has also been replaced, and the bed gap has been sprayed with insecticides, where are the pupae. In fact, fleas will not be completely eliminated at once. There must still be eggs or pupae in the corner, or brought in by outsiders. These later fleas will eventually reach people. And when a person sleeps on a bed, the new straw under the bed becomes an excellent breeding base for fleas. The point is that this base camp is generally changed every six months or once a year. Leave the fleas without worries for half a year or a year, and it is enough to breed a few waves. If these mattress straws are replaced with a wrapped whole silk cotton pad or cotton pad, the situation is very different. Silk cotton is much stronger than straw water dispersion ability, it is easy to keep dry, and, even if it is slept for a long time, some moisture, the whole mat is taken outside to dry for a day is very dry, the dry environment is almost the survival and breeding forbidden place of fleas, and the fleas eggs are not as sticky as lice eggs, it is easy to shake off. As for the fleas on the human body, it is easy to get rid of, and you can take a bath and change clothes frequently. On the body, there are no fleas on the bed (quilts, sheets, mattresses can be washed or dried many times), and there are a small number of fleas in other wall corners that will slowly disappear. Why do fleas in the corners slowly disappear. The first is that regular cleaning will remove a large number of larvae and pupae there. After the small amount of pupae left behind grows into fleas, they will definitely find someone or pet, and these fleas will not stay far away from the person, and will only sleep at night to climb on the mattress, because the mattress is dry and often cleaned, their eggs have no chance to grow into adults. In this way, the fleas are reduced step by step until they disappear completely.
Rice is put together after harvesting
A good example: a remote small mountain village in Hunan, only more than twenty families, in order to eliminate fleas and rats, the village has engaged in several times to kill fleas, kill rats, continue to clean the environment, use drugs, the result is that fleas are less for a period of time, and then come back again in a few days. Later, the village cadres thought that it might be the reason why the villagers used straw to pad the bed. It was also found that some villagers had not changed their mattress straw for even three years. So, let the villagers replace all the straw mattresses, and repeat the previous insecticidal and love cleaning words a few times, and within half a year, the fleas disappeared. There have been no fleas in more than two years now. Of course, straw is only the main reason, and it is also necessary to clean the home frequently, especially if there are pets at home, it is necessary to clean the pet fur and pet nest often.
Not using straw mattresses is also very helpful in eliminating lice, but not the main reason for the disappearance of lice. The viability of lice is far weaker than that of fleas, it is generally inseparable from the human body, and lice will die after leaving the human body for a period of time. In the past, many lice were due to the problem of overall hygiene habits: a person did not pay attention to hygiene, was prone to lice, liked two or three to sleep together, shared clothes, shared cabinets and so on. Nowadays, people are very hygienic, and no one wants to sleep with others, share a bed, and share a closet. Unless it's a wife and children. Everyone's living space is very independent, and everyone loves hygiene, so the lice slowly disappear.