8 



FARMERS BULLETIN 897. 



Older fowls are more resistant, but have been known to succumb to 

 very heavy infestations; and certainly the fleas materially reduce 

 the egg production, retard the growth of fowls, and diminish their 

 size. 



The eggs are deposited by the adult flea while it is attached to 

 the host. They fall to the gi'ound under the roost in chicken houses 

 or under sheds frequented by the poultry and there continue to 

 develop. When dogs and cats are infested, the immature stages 

 develop largely in the material used by them for beds. They require 

 comparatively dry material in which to breed, but a large amount 

 of air moisture is favorable to them. Adults of this species continue 

 to emerge from infested trash for four or five months after all hosts 

 have been removed; hence it is easy to understand why chicken 



Fig. 4. — Head of rooster infested with 

 the sticktight flea. Reduced. 



Fig. 5. — The sticktight flea : Adult 

 femah'. Much enlarged. 



houses may still have many fleas in them after being unused for 

 considerable periods. 



A few other species of fleas are occasionall}^ found in poultry 

 houses. Some of these may be normally bird-infesting species, while 

 others are at home in the houses of domestic poultry. Infestations 

 by these fleas have been reported from several places in the North- 

 ern States, particularly in the Northwest. The presence of the fleas 

 is usually first detected by persons entering chicken houses and 

 being attacked by them. These fleas do not remain attached to the 

 host continuously as does the sticktight flea. They are seldom of 

 any great importance and may be controlled by the methods out- 

 lined on pages 10-14. 



DOG AND CAT FLEAS. 



Dogs and cats are infested by tAvo very closely related species of 

 fleas,^ and these appear to feed more or less interchangeably on the two 



1 The cat flea is known scientifically as Ctenocephalus felia Bouch^ and the dog flea as 

 Ctenocephalus cania Curtis. The human flea also is not uncommonly found on dogs and 



