Name: Why Fleas Are So Hard To Kill
Uploaded: 2020-10-25T20:26:33.000Z
Duration: 4 min 42 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Between 1347 and 1351, it wiped out 30% to 50%

making them one of the deadliest insects in history.

Now, of course, fleas no longer kill millions of people.

But as it turns out, they still transmit plague,

and they're still incredibly difficult to kill.

Fleas are one of the oldest pests on the planet.

In fact, primitive fleas were dining on dinosaur blood

And they're also one of the most abundant.

of fleas across the world, like the cat flea.

Those are the ones you're most likely to find

And then there are species like the human flea,

which actually seek out human hosts specifically.

And when they find you, they do what fleas do best:

According to one study, some fleas can jump

nearly 100 times farther than the length of their body,

The secret to their spring is a stretchy protein

and it works like a rubber band in a slingshot.

Elizabeth Warburton: They have kind of a hook-and-latch

And when the flea lets go of the latch, they just jump.

Narrator: Now, that makes fleas difficult to capture

and kill, but it's what they do once they land

called maxillary laciniae to tear into your flesh.

Warburton: If you spilled your drink on a table

and you took a straw and you tried to drink it up.

Adding insult to injury, fleas have proteins

in their saliva that keep your blood flowing

And that's actually why they itch so much.

Your body (or your pet's) is reacting to those proteins.

And, unfortunately, it prefers to prey on humans:

Instead of drinking blood from the surface of your skin,

Warburton: Most of her is buried into the skin,

but kind of the back part, where she's releasing eggs,

Up to 40 each day and as many as 2,000 in their lifetimes.

So if your dog brings back a few fleas from the park,

And the truth is they can do a lot worse than make you itch.

You see, even modern fleas can transfer diseases

like typhus, bartonellosis, and, yes, plague.

by plague-ridden fleas shut down parts of a Denver suburb.

from contact with fleas infected with bubonic plague.

Now, fortunately, fatal fleas are pretty rare,

and most likely it'll be your pets, not you,

But if you do see one or two jumping around,

you definitely should try to get rid of them.

First, identify the source. And if it's your pet,

treat them with an insect growth regulator, like Lufenuron.

Next, clean your home, though you might want to steer clear

of flea bombs or foggers; they're inconvenient

and don't always reach the nooks and crannies

Instead, repeatedly vacuum or mop your floors

and toss any bedding into the washing machine,

Subtitles ListPlay Video

Why Fleas Are So Hard To Kill

incredibly

devastating

structure

specifically